Science, ideas & the arts

sudoku

The puzzle was American, published as Number Place in 1979; the Japanese publisher Nikoli renamed it 'the digits must be single' in 1984, shortened that to sūdoku in 1986, and the British press made it a craze in 2004 that took the Japanese name around the world within a year.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Japanese to Mandarin Chinese

From Japanese to Korean

From English to French

From English to German

From English to Spanish

From English to Russian

From English to Modern Hebrew

From English to Arabic

1984Japanese

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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