The three words below can be broken up in such a way that a new word can be placed within each of them to create two words - one beginning with the first part of the original word and the other ending with the remainder of the word.  The three new words are related. What are they, and what are the six new words? One of the new words is related to geography.

TENDER

GLEAN

DETER

 

Answer:

 

The three new words are the conjunctions OR, AND, BUT:

 

TENOR - ORDER

GLAND - ANDEAN 

DEBUT - BUTTER  

 

1. What do the following phrases have in common?

Bread crust

Apple core

Mantle of authority

 

2. The following words share an unusual property. Can you determine what it is? 

 

CINCHES

DREAMS

MANGLES

LIABILITIES

 

3. What do the following words have in common?

 

AGENT

FABLE

SPAWN

 

HINTS:

2. Initial letter(s) of the words

3. Drop a letter

 

Answers:

 

1. The crust, mantle, and core are the layer of the earth.

 

2. Each word begins with one or two Roman numerals and could be parsed as:

100 inches

500 reams

1,000 angles

51 abilities  

 

3. If you drop one letter and anagram the remaining letters, you get the name of an insect:

GNAT

FLEA

WASP  

 

Credit:

2: Yitzi Snow

     NY Times Crossword

     February 26, 2026  

 

TWO-WORD SYNONYM PHRASES

Use the hints to think of common 2-word phrases in which both words are synonyms or closely related. For example, Exhausted look - P & W, would be PALE & WAN

1. Invalid - N & V

2. Unique - O & O

3. Energy - V & V

4. Assist in a crime - A & A 

5. Have a tantrum - R & R

6. Healthy - H & H

7. Woe is me - A & A

8. In control - C C & C

9. In shreds  T & T

10. Total destruction W & R

11. Out of breath sounds - H & P

12. Reliable - T & T

13. Calmness - P & Q

14. Sounds of pain - M & G

15. All inclusive - E & E

16. Main, primary - F & F

17. Distances, progress L & B

18. Little bits - D & D

19. Just, even-handed - F & S

20. Aims, goals - I & P

 

Answers:

 

1. Null & void  

2. One & only

3. Vim & vigor

4. Aid & abet

5. Rant & rave

6. Hale & hearty

7. Alas & alack

8. Calm, cool, & collected

9. Tattered & torn

10. Wrack & ruin  

11. Huff & puff

12. Tried & true

13. Peace & quiet

14. Moan & groan

15. Each & every

16. First & foremost

17. Leaps & bounds

18. Dribs & drabs

19. Fair & square

20. Intents & purposes  

 

Credit: 

Idea and 1-4: John Dunn

                        Wall Street Journal Crossword

                         March 9, 2026  

 

SYNONYM/AN ANAGRAM CCXXV 

The two words in each line can be anagrammed into one - beginning with the given letter.  The meanings of the anagrams are given below the clues.

1. CANAL + EDICT = A

2. TUBE + MOURN = O 

3. ALERT + CHOIR = R

4. TOUR + FLAME = F

5. DENY + GLARE = L 

6. ALTAR + FERN = F 

7. RUDE + APES = P

8. MAY + DREAD = D

9. UPSET + HONEY = H

10. INEPT + ALARM = P

11. READY + THEIR = H

12. SURE + ALMOST = S 

 

Meanings of the anagrams:

1. Unintentional

2. Have more than 

3. Like some questions

4. Come up with, as a plan

5. Renowned

6. Like some twins

7. Coax

8. Fantasy

9. Geometry word

10. British legislative body

11. In the genes

12. Gymnastic move 

 

Answers:

 

1. ACCIDENTAL

2. OUTNUMBER

3. RHETORICAL

4. FORMULATE

5. LEGENDARY

6. FRATERNAL

7. PERSUADE

8. DAYDREAM

9. HYPOTENUSE

10. PARLIAMENT

11. HEREDITARY

12. SOMERSAULT  

RIDDLES

1. What month contains three Roman numerals?

2. What is the only month that is also an adjective?

3. One of the five vowels appears in only one of the months. Which vowel and which month?

4. What do you call Mr. Ed when he is speaking in his native tongue?

5. What word means both not many and too much? First letter: H

6. Two 4-letter animals are anagrams. One is a bird. What are they?

7. Why is Pierre, South Dakota unusual among U.S. states and their capital cities.

8. I am a common 5-letter word. Take away my first letter and I am above you. Take away my first two letters and I am around you. My whole is below you. Who am I?  

Answers: 

1. DECEMBER (D, C, M)

2. August

3. I in April

4. A naysayer (neigh sayer)

5. Handful

6. Rhea - hare

7. The state and capital have no common letters.

8. CHAIR (Hair is above you, AIR is around you, CHAIR is below you.)  

 

Credits: 

1-2: Joel Fagliano

5: Kameron Austin 

How many words can you think of that can follow WHITE to make up a common two-word phrase? The initial letters of 22 words are given below. The number of dashes indicates the number of letters in the words.

C _ _

H _ _

L _ _ 

O _ _

T _ _ 

C _ _ _

F _ _ _

W _ _ _

W _ _ _

S _ _ _

M _ _ _

P _ _ _ _

W _ _ _ _

B _ _ _ _

D _ _ _ _

L _ _ _ _

N _ _ _ _

K _ _ _ _ _

C _ _ _ _ _ 

E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

 

(Possible) Answers:

 

WHITE ........ 

Cap

Hot

Lie

Out

Tie

Cell

Face

Wash

Wine

Sale

Meat

Paper

Water

Bread

Dwarf

Light

Noise 

Knight

Collar

Elephant 

Lightning

Chocolate 

  

 

ASSOCIATIONS

Dell PennyPress Variety Puzzles

December, 2025 

 

Form a chain of associated words by filling in the blanks with the letters on the right. Each word will be associated in some way with the word above it and the word below it. The initial letters of the words are in place. Each letter on the right will be used only once.

 

HERMIT                   A  B 

C _ _ _                       E  E  E

A _ _ _ _                    I

T _ _ _                       L  N

T _ _                          O

S _ _ _                        P  P  P  P

D _ _                          R  R  R

WALL                        Y

 

Answers:

 

HERMIT

CRAB

APPLE

TREE

TOP

SPIN

DRY

WALL