understanding the cards

1. QUICK REFERENCE TAB - This helps players holding multiple cards to see what cards they have. This is also where players will find additional and less frequent forms of the morpheme.
2. MORPHEMES - Each card contains one or more of the most common forms of the morpheme. When a hyphen is present, this means that another morpheme must be added to create a valid play. In the card pictured, a hyphen appears after STER. In this case , a word like MISTER word not be valid. MISTER also does not carry a related meaning. STERNUM would be a valid word to play.
3. MEANING - Listed below the morphemes are their current meanings and theorized meanings through history.
4. POINT VALUE - Cards are valued based on how often they appear in the English language. The more ubiquitous the morpheme is, the lower the point value. More obscure a morpheme is the higher the point value.
5. PASSPORT CODE - Each letter represents an additional romance language that the card can be played in. This allows players access to other romance languages and gives non english speakers access to English. The codes are as follows; F-French, I-Italian, P-Portuguese, R-Romanian, S-Spanish)
6. WILD CARDS - These cards can be used to stand in for any morpheme in the deck or in the English language. They can not be used to represent connecting letter that do not carry meaning.
7. MULTIPLIERS - Although wild cards do not have a point value, they can be used to multiply the point of cards they are grouped with. In some cases, multiple wild cards can be combined to maximize points. (Note: Early versions of the game contain a 1X card that does not multiply point values. These cards do not impact the KNOCKOUT version of the game.)

Remember, this is not a spelling game. Cards may not always include every spelling variant of a root or morpheme. In the example below, while the card does not match the exact spelling variant, the root is accurate and is part of the English word "DECEASED." Spelling rules change over time and are influenced by history and culture.

When constructing words, it's important to note that words often include additional letters between morphemes for phonetic reasons, rather than carrying additional meaning. The letters E, I, O, and U are commonly used for this purpose.