Dingbats, a word game that was invented by Paul Sellers, is a visual word game where the answer is a well known saying or phrase. Dingbats are very popular in the United States and the United Kingdom. Dingbats are closely related to another puzzle game called a rebus, though rebuses tend to rely more heavily on pictures than text to represent the answer.Dingbat's are considered to be more textual
. and harder than the closely related Rebus. Dingbats involve translating a group of words into a well known phrase or saying. Dingbats often involve a group of smaller puzzles that merge into a larger saying. A common example of a dingbat is the word try written very large next to the word harder printed in small print. These together will make the phrase try a little harder. There are many variations on the puzzle.Dingbats are closely related to a picture puzzle called Rebuses. Rebuses have been a common form of entertainment since the middle ages. They started as a form of expression for middle age nobles to denote surnames. In the Rebus puzzles they substitute pictures for words to make a well known phrase or saying. A common rebus for the word hear is to have a picture of the letter H next to a picture of an ear. When those two pictures are put together they form the word hear.Many dingbat and rebuses have been used in television game shows. Some of the most popular game shows that use dingbats and rebuses are Catchphrase and Concentration. Rebuses were also extensively used on the game show Pictionary.Dingbats have become very popular with the invention of internet games. Dingbats are available to be played on many websites on the internet. The board game Dingbats can still be bought in online stores. The game is manufactured by a board game company called Ravensburger.More reference links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingbats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus
