Will Shortz - Puzzlemaster Deck: 75 Brain Twisters

By Will Shortz

Puzzles come in many varieties and sizescrosswords, jigsaws, manipulative puzzles, mazes, riddles, and more, large and small.

What they all have in common is that they sharpen the brain, just as physical exercise tones the body. Puzzles also amuse and divert, clearing the mind, leaving you refreshed and more ready afterward to tackle the regular challenges of life.

This card deck contains 75 short word puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty. Some can be solved in a matter of seconds, while others will take minutes or even hours. Theyre designed to be read aloud, as on a family car trip or, say, sitting around a table with friends. They can be done solitaire, too. All the puzzles are original, and nearly every one is based on a different idea.

Happy puzzling!
Will Shortz

BIOGEN is the name of a company in the pharmaceutical industry. Rearrange its letters to name another well-known company.

The name of what U.S. state capital, when uncapitalized, becomes a phrase that could mean a small amount of Elvis Presleys music?

Rearrange the letters of the word DOMINATE to spell a two-word phrase that might appear on a ticket.

The word LINGER can be found in consecutive letters of the name of a well-known city and its country.

What is it?

A five-letter word starting with C rhymes with a six-letter word starting with M. The former names something that is an example of the latter. Both words have two syllables.

What are they?

Take the name of something commonly worn on the upper half of the body. Change the second letter from R to O and youll name something else commonly worn on the upper half of the body.

Name these two things.

There is a common two-word phrase in which both words start with F and both words end in E. The phrase names something that its nice to be in. What is it?

One of the top-grossing movies of 1995 had a two-word titlethree letters in the first word, five letters in the second. If you drop the first and fourth letters of the second word, youll get the first word. Name the movie.

A familiar two-word phrase names something that might be worn to a fancy party. The first two letters are WH. Drop the WH, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the second word of the phrase.

What phrase is it?

The last two letters of a certain state capital form the postal abbreviation of this capitals state.

What capital is it?

A certain six-letter word means outlaw. Break it in half, move the first three letters to the end, and youll get a two-word phrase meaning try to win at auction.

What is it?

Add two letters to INANE and rearrange the result to get a synonym of inane.

What is it?

A word meaning perfect examples sounds roughly like a three-word phrase meaning 20 cents.

Can you name this word?

Take the six-letter last name of a well-known American playwright. Move the first three letters to the endleaving everything else the sameand youll get a two-word phrase describing someone in a hospital.

Who is it?

A financial district, a river, and a fancy billiard shot all have banks. What do a conveyor, a tuxedo, and a big drinker all have?

Take a word meaning What a monopolist wants. Drop the first and last letters, and youll get a phrase meaning emaciated.

What is it?

Name a well-known title character in childrens literature with five letters in the first name and three letters in the last. Both names start with the same letter. Change both of these initial letters to the same new letter and youll name a municipal employee.

Who is it?

A familiar five-word saying starts with the word it, followed by four more words, each beginning with the letter T. The lengths of the four words are five, three, two, and five letters, respectively.

Can you identify this saying?

The made-up phrase
ADS ADDED consists of two words of three and five letters, respectively. The first and fourth letters are the same (namely, A) and the second, fifth, sixth, and eighth letters are the same (D).

What familiar phrase, naming something you might get angry about, has the same pattern?

A seven-letter boys name starting with S, when hyphenated between the fourth and fifth letters, looks like a made-up word meaning chicken-in-law. Whats the name?

Take a word meaning theater. Keeping the first two letters the same and reversing the rest, youll get a phrase meaning secret agents. What is it?

In the phrase DUST STORM, the first word ends in ST and the second word starts ST. Name something scary (five letters in the first word and five letters in the last) that this is also true of.

Take a girls name in two syllables, with six letters. The first syllable is pronounced like one of the five vowels. Change this vowel phonetically to the next letter of the alphabet and the result will sound like another girls name.

What is it?

Think of a familiar two-word phraseseven letters in the first word, five letters in the lastthat names something found on the front of a car. Change the vowel sound in the second word from a long I to a long A and phonetically youll get another familiar two-word phrase meaning behind schedule.

What phrases are these?

Think of an eight-letter word starting with DEM that becomes another word when you change the DEM to REP. The first word means level. The second word is a verb describing what you might do to silverware.

The nine-letter name of a well-known city in Massachusetts contains the letters A, B, C, D, and E (plus a few other letters). What city is it?

The name of a cleaning tool, when repeated and then spelled backward, names something commonly seen at a football or basketball game. What is it?

If the equation W = H stands for war is hell, what does the equation L = B stand for?

A hip-hop artist and a spirit at a seance both rap. What do a restaurant patron and an overloaded rowboat both do?

Think of a seven-letter girls name in which the second letter is A and the fifth letter is L. Drop the A and L, and the remaining letters in order will name a famous place in Greece.

What is it?