What does "sudoku" mean?

The word Sudoku is a word often heard when someone is writing numbers into a nine by nine grid. It comes from a Japanese words called suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru which means numbers that must remain single. The word actually describes what it does and what it looks like. Since it began being played and published in newspapers in Japan, it was given a Japanese name.

However, there is a word that is similar to Sudoku, but it doesn’t have any similar meaning to the number puzzle. Sodoku is a disease that is from a bacteria. It also has another name called rat bite fever. Therefore, if you go to Japan, make sure you know to ask for Sudoku and not Sodoku because you might walk away with a bacterial disease instead of a number puzzle.