Puzzle of the Week Whenever (POW) Archive
(***) POW #22 – 2019 February 26 (credit: Josh G)
The Queen’s speech
Of all the words in the OWL3 lexicon, approximately what percentage of words are of each part of speech:
Adjective
Adverb
Article
Conjunction
Interjection
Noun
Preposition
Pronoun
Verb
(*****) POW #21 – 2019 January 23 (credit: Josh G)
In loving memory of Zev Kesselman, Z”L
There are only three words that contain all of the letters Z E V K (not in order) — and one of the words is a plural of another one. What are they?
(****) POW #20 – 2018 December 27 (credit: Asher S)
Removed per Asher’s request
(*) POW #19 – 2018 November 21 (credit: Chani K)
5LW vocab
View or download this file for the quiz.
(*) POW #18 – 2018 November 11 (credit: Josh G)
World traveler
Which of these place names are valid words in Scrabble?
BANGKOK BRUSSELS GENEVA HAMBURG HOLLAND JAPAN MANCHESTER PARIS PHOENIX TEXAS
(**) POW #17 – 2018 November 3 (credit: Josh G)
JE pense, donc JE suis
There are seventeen (17) 4-letter words that start with JE. How many can you find?
(**) POW #16 – 2018 October 21 (credit: Josh G)
Are you board?
Which of these are valid single words? Which need to be written as two words?
ABOVEBOARD ANTIBILLBOARD DUCKBOARD LEADERBOARD REKEYBOARD SKATEBOARD SURFBOARD WATERBOARD
(****) POW #15 – 2018 October 11 (credit: Josh G)
Bet You Can’t Avoid Thinking of Bananas…
- How many 6-letter words can you think of that have the form xAxAxA — where “x” is any letter?
- How many of these words have at least one vowel besides the 3 As?
(***) POW #14 – 2018 September 30 (credit: Peta P)
EE!
How many words can you find that end in E and can take another E to make another legal word?
(*****) POW #13 – 2018 September 7 (credit: Josh G)
The Rosh Hashana(h) puzzle
Is it spelled Rosh Hashana? Or Rosh Hashanah? It does not matter for the purposes of this puzzle, for it concerns the set of letters found in the English name of this holiday: AHNORS.
Which words contain ALL of these letters?
(***) POW #12 – 2018 August 28 (credit: Chani Katz, Gordon Rose)
- What are the 3 two-letter words that take the back hook -LONG to form legal 6-letter words?
- What are the 6 three-letter words that take the back hook -LONG to form legal 7-letter words?
(*****) POW #11 – 2018 August 21 (credit: Chani Katz)
Find well-known (and other) words that have all 5 vowels (A E I O U) or 6 vowels (including the Y) in alphabetical order. Any vowel may appear more than once, as long as the sequence is not interrupted by a different vowel.
(*****) POW #10 – 2018 August 15 (credit: Peta P, Josh G)
(Peta) This is more of a fun challenge than a quiz.
1. Begin with any two-letter word.
2. Add one letter at a time to create new legal words. Each new word must involve some scrambling of the letters, not just a hook at the beginning or end. For example, EN cannot become TEN or END, but can become NET.
Question: What is the longest word you can build this way?
(Josh) To better illustrate, this is a partial solution:
AE EAT ETNA TINEA RETAIN ...
I would guess that there is a quasi-infinite number of solutions.
(***) POW #9 – 2018 August 08 (credit: Josh G, Wendy E)
Name the 13 five-letter words in the dictionary that end in –ZA.
(**) POW #8 – 2018 July 31 (credit: Josh Goldberg)
This web page lists the most popular car models in the US. Several of the model names have one or more anagrams. Find them! Do not consider the manufacturer names – just the model names. Model names appearing in bold are valid words.
(Dodge) Durango (KIA) Sportage (KIA) Sorento (Toyota) Camry (Chevrolet) Silverado (Chevrolet) Malibu (Subaru) Outback (Ford) Escape (Subaru) Forester (Toyota) Prius (Nissan) Sentra (Buick) Enclave (Nissan) Rogue (Ford) Edge (Chevrolet) Traverse (Volkswagen) Passat (GMC) Sierra (GMC) Terrain (Volkswagen) Golf (KIA) Forte (Toyota) Sienna (Hyundai) Tucson
(***) POW #7 – 2018 July 24 (credit: Josh Goldberg)
There are 103 2-letter words with this characteristic.
There are 964 such 3-letter words,
3332 such 4-letter words,
6118 such 5-letter words,
7843 such 6-letter words,
8336 such 7-letter words,
6436 such 8-letter words,
3419 such 9-letter words,
1244 such 10-letter words,
370 such 11-letter words,
80 such 12-letter words,
14 such 13-letter words,
3 such 14-letter words,
and 2 such 15-letter words.
What is this characteristic?
(**) POW #6 – 2018 July 17 (credit: Joel Elkins)
For each of the 25 words below, find the one letter that can go in front to make another valid word. (Hint: Each word takes a different letter, so every letter, except Q, is used.)
-
ADIOS
-
ALIGNED
-
ANGUISH
-
ANTHER
-
ASSAIL
-
ENATION
-
EOLITH
-
EPILATE
-
HAJI
-
HAZAN
-
HEIST
-
HOSTING
-
ILIAL
-
NANA
-
NUCLEATE
-
OOLOGY
-
OURSELF
-
OWLET
-
PRAISE
-
SLANDER
-
STEROID
-
UNCHOKE
-
VARIOLE
-
VETCH
-
YLEM
(***) POW #5 – 2018 July 10 (credit: Peta Pellach)
What do the following 7-letter words have in common:
ANTIQUE BANDIED GRANITE MISEDIT PAINTER PANTIES STAGIER WARTIME
(***) POW #4 – 2018 July 4 (credit: Chani Katz)
There are only six (6) 5-letter words that begin with DW. What are they?
POW #3 – 2018 June 26 (credit: Peta Pellach)
(**) What do these words have in common?
AN REES RIPES RASHES WEENIES
(***) POW #2 – 2018 June 20 (credit: Josh Goldberg)
As you know:
- Before the game starts, Player A has the privilege of choosing a tile from the full bag. Player B then does the same.
- The player who draws the tile that is lower in alphabetical order (with a blank preceding “A”) opens the game. If both tiles are identical, the process is repeated.
Questions (assuming one round of drawing, per the above process):
1. Statistically speaking, what percentage of the time will Player A win the chance to start the game?
2. What percentage of the time will Player B win?
3. What percentage of the time will there be a draw in the first round?
(****) POW #1 – 2018 May 29 (credit: Josh Goldberg)
What attribute does the following group of words (all valid in our dictionary) have?
ANTIQUE BALCONY EXURBAN GLAMOUR HAZMATS HUFFING INVITED JERSEYS OARLIKE PICOTEE PIVOTED TORSADE WINDAGE WOOLIER