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.  

  

PAIRS AND SNARES XL 

The words in each group below can be confused. Can you give a simple definition of each one that show the difference between them? 

1. STEER - STERE 

2. ARECA - AREPA

3. AWAY - AWEIGH 

4. PARLAY -PARLEY

5. MANTEL -MANTLE 

6. VOILA - VIOLA - VOILE 

7. MACARON - MACAROON

Answers:  

1. STEER - Guide, control / young, neutered male cattle  

    STERE - A metric unit of volume = one cubic meter, commonly used to measure stacked timber or firewood

  

2. ARECA -A tropical Asian palm tree

    AREPA -  A corn pancake eaten in Colombia and Venezuela

 

3. AWAY - At a distance

    AWEIGH - (of an anchor) Raised just clear of the sea floor / The start of a voyage 

 

4. PARLAY - Transform something into something of greater value / turn initial winnings from a previous bet into a greater amount by gambling 

   PARLEY - A conference between opposing sides in a dispute

 

5. MANTEL - A shelf over a fireplace / mantelpiece

    MANTLE - The layer of the earth between the crust and core / a cloak or cape - and metaphorically a symbolic role of authority

 

6. VOILA - "Ta da!" "There you go/are!" An expression to mark completion and draw attention to something that can be seen (literally - "See there!")

    VIOLA - A stringed instrument in the violin family, but larger and tuned differently

    VOILE -  A thin, semi-transparent fabric of cotton, wool, or silk

 

7. MACARON - MACAROON - Both are cookies. 

    Macarons are delicate, almond flour, cream-filled sandwich cookies.

    Macaroons are dense, shredded coconut drop coookies.

 

 

  

CRYPTO CLUES CCXIII

Dell PennyPress Variety Puzzles

Volume 139 (1-6)

Volume 142 (7-10)

 

1. Bathroom-fixture pride (homograph)

 

2. Rough duos cooked bread (anagram)

 

3. Exercise: dines around it (container)

 

4. Ordinary walker (homograph)

 

5. Auditor's grave remained (homophone)  

 

6. Somehow there's "The Scarlet Letter" woman (anagram)

 

7. Dishonest, manipulated umpire (anagram)

 

8. Classical composer's record heard (homophone)

 

9. Concord men caught in a hale (container)

 

10. Charge too much for warm, comfy fabric (homograph)   

 

Answers: 

 

1. VANITY

2. SOURDOUGH (rough duos)

3. SITUPS (s it ups)

4. PEDESRIAN

5. STAYED (staid)

6. HESTER (there's)

7. IMPURE (umpire)

8. LISZT (list = record)

9. AGREEMENT ( a gree men t) [a hail = a greet]

10. FLEECE