MISSING TRIOS CX

Dell PennyPress Variety Puzzles

December, 2025 (1)

Volume 142 (2-4)

November, 2025 (5-7)  

 

1. _ R _ BLE _

    I _ _ _ RT

     ST _ _ _

      _ _ E _

       _ _ _ 

 

2. V _ _ RAN _

      SU _ M _ _

       _ U _ L _

        _ A _ _

          _ _ _ 

 

3. _ EAR _ A _

     BO _ I _ _

      _ _ NC _

       A _ _ _

         _ _ _  

 

4. T _ ER _ _ L

     _ NT _ E _

      C _ _ S _

       _ _ S _

        _ _ _ 

 

5. H _  _ I _ AT

     _ UR _ _ N

      _ _ _ HE

        _ _ E _

         _ _ _ 

 

6. _ RI _ I _ L

_ _ _ ERN

_ I _ _ L

_ _ S _

_ _ _

 

7. _ EST _ _ Y

   OR _ A _ _

    W _ _ E _

      B _ _ _

        _ _ _   

 

Answers:

 

1. The letters are MOP:

         PROBLEM

          IMPORT

           STORM

            POEM

             MOP  

 

2. The letters are BIT:

         VIBRANT

          SUBMIT

           BUILT

            BAIT

             BIT 

 

3. The letters are SHY:

         HEARSAY

          BOYISH

           SYNCH

            ASHY 

             SHY   

 

4. The letters are HAM:

         THERMAL

          ANTHEM

           CHASM

            MASH

             HAM 

 

5. The letters are BAT: 

         HABITAT

         TURBAN

           BATHE

            ABET

              BAT 

 

6. The letters are VAT:

         TRIVIAL 

          TAVERN

            VITAL

             VAST

              VAT 

 

7. The letters are DIN:

         DESTINY

         ORDAIN

          WIDEN

            BIND

             DIN 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXXVII

1. "Tsunami" is Japanese for "harbor wave." 

2. The Scandinavian name "Helga" means "blessed."

3.You can request a new Social Security number on religious grounds if it ends in 666. 

4. South Dakota is the only U.S. state that has no letters in common with its capital city, Pierre. 

5. Seattle, Washington is known as the Emerald City because of its year-round lush, green coniferous trees.

6. The Mosquito Coast is a remote, 225-mile long, 40-mile wide region along the eastern Caribbean coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua. "Mosquito" is a corruption of the name of the indigenous Miskito people, for whom the area is named.

7. Iceland was historically one of the only places on Earth without mosquitos because the rapid freezing and thawing of ponds in spring and autumn killed the larvae before they could mature. However, in October, 2025, mosquitos were discovered in Iceland for the first time - a result of climate change and globalization, according to scientists. Antarctica is now the only place on Earth without mosquitos.

8. A white dwarf is a star (like our sun) that has exhausted its nuclear fuel and its gravity causes it to collapse in on itself. The mass of the star is now contained in a volume roughly  the size of the earth. It is so dense that a single teaspoon of white dwarf material would weigh 5 to 15 tons on Earth. Our sun, which is now about 4.6 billion years old, will transition into a white dwarf in approximately 7 to 8 billion years. 

9. An acre is 43, 560 square feet. But why this exact amount? Historically, the acre was defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a single day. An acre is approximately the size of 90% of a standard American football field, without the end zones.

10. Lucy Webb Hayes served as the 19th First Lady of the United States, as the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes, from 1877-1881. She was a staunch supporter of the temperance movement - opposed to alcohol - and refused to serve it in the White House - a very controversial decision that garnered her the nickname Lemonade Lucy. 

COMMON COMBOS LXVI

Each group below contains three, four, or five unrelated words. Find a word that can either precede or follow each of the words in each of the groups.

1. STOCK, PLACE, SHARE

2. LIST, WINDOW, CENTER 

3. LOST, DOG, BLACK, SKIN

4. GAME, SEA, BAND, SHOCK

5. PLAN, WAITING, DAY, END

6. RED, WHITE,  DAY, STONE 

7. LAUGH, DOWN, FAST, OFF, ON

8. FOLLOW, LAW, CASE, BUSINESS

9. SPREAD, METAL, MUSIC, SHORT 

10. RATE, PLACE, DAY, RIGHT, STONE 

 

Answers:

 

1. HOLDER

2. SHOPPING

3. SHEEP

4. SHELL

5. GAME

6. FLAG 

7. TRACK

8. SUIT

9. SHEET

10. BIRTH  

 

PLUG-INS XII

Dell PennyPress Variety Puzzles

Volume 142

 

Form 7-letter words by re-arranging the letters of each 6-letter word and plugging in one of the underlined letters below. Each letter will be plugged into the same position in each 7-letter word, and each underlined letter will be used only once. 

 

V  A  R  Y  I  N  G  

 

1. LOCATE

2. BOILED

3. DIADEM

4. FALLEN

5. ENGULF 

6. AROMAS

7. CATNIP  

 

HINTS:

a. The underlined letters go in the fifth position.

b. First letters of the new words:

    1. A

    2. O

    3. A

    4. F

    5. F

    6. S

    7. C

 

Answers:

 

1. ACOLYTE

2. OBLIGED

3. ADMIRED

4. FLANNEL

5. FUELING

6. SAMOVAR

7. CAPTAIN   

Fill in the blanks with the same three letters in the same order to complete common words.

1. _ _ _ LATE

2. B _ _ _ SE

3. R _ _ _DA

4. D _ _ _ RE

5. F _ _ _ R

Answers:

The missing letters are EMU:

 

1. EMULATE

2. BEMUSE

3. REMUDA* 

4. DEMURE

5. FEMUR  

 

*A remuda is a herd of working horses from which cowboys select their mounts for the day. 

 

What do the following things have in common?

1. Penicillin

2. Silly putty

3. Post-it notes 

4. Microwave oven

 

Answer:

 

They are all inventions discovered while their inventors were looking for something else.

 

Credit: John Guzzetta   

 

DROP A LETTER - GET A NEW WORD CXXXIII

Drop one letter from each word and re-arrange the remaining letters to get a new word. The  new words are not related. 

1. TRIPLE 

2. DENIAL 

3. AWHILE

4. GNOME

5. HONEST

6. RODENT 

7. GAMBLE

8. SINCERE

9. REIGNED

10. MAJESTY 

11. THEOREM 

 

HINTS:

First letters of the new words:

1. P

2. A

3. W

4. O

5. S

6. T 

7. B

8. C

9. G

10. S

11. M 

 

Answers:

 

1. PERIL

2. ALIEN

3. WHALE

4. OMEN

5. STONE

6. TENOR

7. BAGEL

8. CERISE*

9. GENDER

10. STEAMY

11. MOTHER

 

*Cerise is a dark pink color.