What is the longest word (or words) possible that can be created in
the course of a game of Boggle?

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Clarification of Question by hailstorm-ga on 02 Jul 2002 01:48 PDT

Of course, not every 16-letter (or 17-letter with QU) word is
possible, because each die only consists of only 6 different letters. 
For example, just because "INCONSEQUENTIALLY" is a 17-letter word
doesn't mean that that combination of letters can possibly appear on a
Boggle board.

I'm not looking for a theoretical answer, I'm looking for the actual
longest words that can be made in a Boggle game in practice, and proof
for why a longer word cannot be made.

I would say 16. Wouldn't it be possible
[not probable] that all the letters could
form a word in a spiral starting upper
left and going right, then down to the bottom,
left, up, etc til it ends in the middle?

I haven't played boggle in many years but
I looked up the rules, and I couldn't see
one that said you couldn't build a word that 
way. Probability of characters being able
to form that word, are probably on the order
of a california lotto winner.

-AI

If you were able to use the qu cube in 
that theoretical word, would it make it
17 letters?

-AI

If the cubes are (I don't have the game):

 0 = "iefyeh"
 1 = "eptslu"
 2 = "henips"
 3 = "lecars"
 4 = "avndze"
 5 = "dkunto"
 6 = "snedwo"
 7 = "tgievn"
 8 = "eylugk"
 9 = "fbirxo"
 a = "bqajmo"   // q is really qu
 b = "aaciot"
 c = "camdep"
 d = "aybilt"
 e = "hmosar"
 f = "wirglu"

http://csc.parkland.cc.il.us/~kurban/csc125/boggle/board.cpp

The cubes can be arranged:

Letter Showing:  INCONSEQUENTIALLY
Cube:            b23946ca 857de1f0

There are many arrangements that of the dice in the 4x4 that will
work.
alienintelligence mentioned a spiral-in path, another would be a
serpentine path.

Since Q(u) counts as two letters, the longest word possible would be
17 letters long.
http://www.centralconnector.com/GAMES/boggle.html

According to the Moby dictionary, there are 49 words that are 17
characters long with QU in them.
http://www.puzzlers.org/secure/wordlists/grepdict.html

Not to be into SESQUIPEDALIANISM, 
               283a 01c4bf7d596e
except when answering puzzles, I think you will find several out of
the 49 that qualify as the longest.

This table might be of use if you want to find other words.  It shows
for each letter, which cubes they are on.  (A computer might come in
handy too!)
a 34abbcde
b 9ad
c 3bc
d 456c
e 001234678c
f 09
g 78f
h 02e
i 0279bdf
j a
k 58
l 138df
m ace
n 24567
o 569abe
p 12c
q a
r 39ef
s 1236e
t 157bd
u 158f
v 47
w 6f
x 9
y 08d
z 4
(Someone can check my work)

You might also enjoy Letter-by-Letter Word Games FAQ
http://www.gtoal.com/athome/scrabble/

Probability of just having the cubes show a particular letters (not
counting them being in the right order):
6^16 = 2,821,109,907,456 : 1  (there might be multiple ways to get
some words)
California SuperLotto Plus jackpot odds:
41,416,353 : 1
http://www.calottery.com/games/superlottoplus/howtoplay.asp