What holiday, with two words in its name, can you make by scrambling the letters in the word ADORABLY?
Archive for March, 2008
It’s a Holiday!
Monday, March 31st, 2008Five Across
Friday, March 28th, 2008In each puzzle below, you can take a letter (or two letters) from a box in each column, and spell out a word that belongs to the category shown. For instance, you can spell MOTHER by taking the shaded letters from each column. Can you get the rest of the relatives, and then solve the other puzzles as well?
Click to enlarge the image.
Ten Steps
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008The answer to each clue below can be formed by taking the answer that precedes it, adding a letter, and scrambling all the letters. So, the answer to the first clue has one letter, the answer to the second clue has two letters, and so on. When an answer has more than one word, I’ll show you the lengths of all the words in the answer. Getting all the way to ten is going to be tough — can you do it?
1. One of the four main points on a compass
2. Article that precedes words that start with vowels
3. Participated in a race
4. Close
5. Long-legged waterbird
6. What a hypnotist puts you into
7. Sure of the facts
8. Flinching, for instance
9. “It doesn’t matter to me” (1, 4, 4)
10. Preparing a room, as for a birthday party
Baddies
Monday, March 24th, 2008Take a common type of movie bad guy — a seven-letter word starting with M. If you change the third letter of this word, you’ll get a different kind of cinematic bad guy. What are these two words?
Just One of the Guys
Friday, March 21st, 2008Each of the nineteen words can be found in the grid below, but 21 of my friends have dropped by to make this word search a little more challenging: Every time a guy’s name appears in the grid, it’s been replaced by a small icon of a man. (So if PUPPETEER was in the grid, the name PETE would be replaced.) Some of the guys in the grid share the same name, and a couple of words will cross more than one icon. Can you name everyone in the puzzle and find all the words?
ADAMANT
ADMIRAL
ASPARAGUS
CANTALOUPE
CUSTOMER
DANDELION
EARTHWORM
GENERATION
INSTANT
LABRADOR
MACARONI
MICROBE
PARTICIPATE
PHANTOM
PIRANHA
PRONOUN
SCARLET
SNICKERS
STOMACH
For easier solving, you can download this puzzle here.
Fame Changes You
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008You can take a word from the first column and a word from the second column, change a letter in both words, and wind up with the full name of a famous celebrity. Can you piece together all five names?
Two Words At Once
Monday, March 17th, 2008Each string of letters below consists of two words, each reading from left to right — the letters of the words have simply been intertwined. The two words in each puzzle are synonyms. The hints below, in no particular order, provide a clue to one of the word pairs. Can you untangle every puzzle?
1. TOSTUAML
2. SBHEOACRHE
3. SPTUDUPEINLT
4. RSEMTAIANY
5. GARODWUNLUTP
6. JDOIAURNRAYL
7. PIREMATGEINDNE
Dream up
Secret writing place
Parent, for example
Coastline
Teacher’s responsibility
Don’t go
Addition result
Make Me A Sandwich
Friday, March 14th, 2008You can place letters in the blanks below to make series of three-letter words reading down. Some blanks can take more than one letter — should that first word be ALP or AMP or ASP? If you choose the right letter every time, you’ll spell a two-word phrase reading across both puzzles.
Brain Games
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Each of the words and phrases below contains the letters BRAIN, although not consecutively. Can you fill in the blanks and get each answer?
1. Great ___ (England)
BR _ _ AIN
2. Good value
B _ R _ AIN
3. Overseer of a great many books
_ _ BRA _ I _ N
4. Shortening of a longer word
_ B _ R _ _ _ A _ I _ N
5. What new army recruits have to go through
B _ _ _ _ _ RAIN _ _ _
6. Removing
_ _ B _ RA _ _ IN _
7. Area in the Atlantic Ocean where ships supposedly disappear
B _ R _ _ _ A _ _ I _ N _ _ _
Flocking Together
Monday, March 10th, 2008Take a bird with seven letters in its name. If you drop the first letter, and change the last letter, you’ll make the name of a different bird. What are these two birds?