The contestant in control chose a word, and three celebrity panelists each gave a possible definition with an accompanying humorous anecdote.

Choosing this word and guessing its definition correctly awarded a bonus prize to the contestant, usually if not always a vacation, which was his/hers to keep regardless of the game's outcome.

Each celebrity gave a brief definition with no accompanying story, and the champion had the option to either play the word or pass it to the challenger.

The round was originally titled "Speedword" for the first week, but was quickly changed once the producers realized that fellow NBC game show Scrabble had been using the term for more than two years at the time.

Multiple guesses were allowed with no penalty; the champion could move off a space only by giving a correct response or passing.

That slot had been occupied by the soap opera Search for Tomorrow for over four and a half years on NBC; the serial had aired continuously, first on CBS, since 1951 and was the longest running daytime program in history at the time of its cancellation.

[6] The series faced off against the first half-hour of the highly-rated The Young and the Restless on CBS and Loving on ABC, but did not perform well against both soap operas; the show was also prone to being preempted by some NBC affiliates continuing to air local newscasts or other syndicated programming in the 12:00 pm hour.

NBC announced the cancellation of Wordplay in the summer of 1987 in order to make room for Win, Lose or Draw on the network's schedule; the final episode of the series aired on September 4, 1987.