Vish (game)


In the game of Vish, players compete to find circularity in dictionary definitions. Irish mathematician and physicist, John Lighton Synge, invented the multi-player, refereed game to emphasize the circular reasoning implicit in the defining process of any standard dictionary.
In his book, Projective Geometry, H.S.M. Coxeter cites Vish in his discussion of definitions in mathematics:

Procedure

  1. Each of the players is given a copy of the same standard dictionary;
  2. The referee gives each a slip of paper with the same word written on each slip—word chosen so that it has synonyms in its definition, but the definition of any synonym does not list a synonym which is the originally assigned word;
  3. At "Go!", each looks up the assigned word, finds a synonym, looks that up, finds a synonym, etc.;
  4. The first player to be led, by this synonymous process, back to the originally assigned word cries "Vish!" and wins the game.