Will Shortz - Puzzlemaster Deck: Word Riddles

By Will Shortz

TEXT 2006 Will Shortz

All rights reserved. No part of this deck may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

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eISBN: 978-0-8118-7198-3

Chronicle Books LLC
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Puzzles come in many varieties and sizescrosswords, jigsaws, manipulative puzzles, mazes, riddles, etc., 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 a person 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 every one is based on a different idea or discovery.

Happy puzzling!

Will Shortz

Only one common, uncapitalized word in the English language contains the consecutive letters UAU. What is it?

The name of what animal becomes the name of a bird when you change its first letter from M to G?

Name a country that, when uncapitalized, is the name of a food.

The name of what U.S. state capital and its state can be rearranged to spell ALEMONGERS plus the letter O?

Baseball and bowling both have strikes. Golf and badminton both have birdies. What term, starting with the letter S, is common to both horse-racing and billiards?

What common, unhyphenated nine-letter word contains three syllableseach of which starts with the letter B?

Think of a word meaning the object of an April Fools joke that consists of two consecutive boys names. What word is it?

Who is the only U.S. President whose full name contains all six vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and Y) exactly once?

The name of what annual event can be spelled by rearranging the letters of ADORABLY?

Name a country in Europe. Change its first letter and youll get the name of a famous American football star. Who is it?

The last two letters of LLAMA are the first two letters of MARMOT. Its last two letters are the first two of OTTER. And its last two letters are the first two of ERMINE. Together they form the chain:

LLAMA, MARMOT, OTTER, ERMINE

The names of what three familiar animals complete a similar chain starting with HORSE and ending with ELEPHANT?

HORSE, ______, ______, ______, ELEPHANT

The name of what familiar food is an anagram of FALCONERS + K?

Change one letter in each word here to a new letter so the resulting new words, in order, complete a familiar proverb:

MARE HAT WHOLE TIE SUE WHINES

Name the following three homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently).

The first word means to consider carefully. The second means road. And the third means a watery liquid.

Name something that could be part of a human head. Drop the first and last letters and youll name something else thats part of a human head. What words are these?

The letters GBFRBT represent a familiar three-word saying with its vowels removed. What saying is it?

What unusual property do the words FLOUR, TERN, and THIRSTY have in common?

The name of what popular make of automobile becomes a regular uncapitalized word if you insert the letter J somewhere inside it?

One letter has been put in each of the dashes around ILL below to make the word HILLBILLY.

What familiar nine-letter word do you get by putting a letter in each dash around AME?

H ILL B ILL Y

_AME_AME_

If you aspirate (add an h sound to) the word OBOE, you get HOBO. Aspirate the name for part of the face to get a word meaning intellectual.

The eight letters in the phrase CAGY HURL can be rearranged to spell two opposites. What are they?

What 11-letter word can follow FREE, WORD, or HEART to complete familiar phrases?

What seven-letter word starting with the letters QU becomes a new word when you change the QU to AS?

Rearrange the letters of the word CARNALIZE plus U to name an actress. The answer is this actresss first and last names. Who is she?

BARNYARD is an eight-letter word in which the letters AR in the second and third positions are repeated in the sixth and seventh positions.

This is also true of the name of what animal?

Think of a phrase in 12 letters meaning concerning a certain credit card, in which the first four letters are repeated (in the same order) as the next four letters, which are repeated again (in the same order) as the final four letters.

What phrase is it?

Think of a familiar phrase in the form ____ as ____. The words that go in the blanks have four letters each, and theyre spelled the same except for their third letters.

What is the phrase?

The name of what musical instrument starting with the letter S becomes the name of another musical instrument if you change the S to GU?

The word COMMITTEE contains three pairs of doubled lettersM, T, and E. The name of what bird in 12 letters contains three pairs of doubled letters?

Think of an eight-letter word in which the only consonant is N (repeated four times).

The title of what famous film, in eight letters, uses only the letters of the 4 and the 6 on a telephone (G-H-I and M-N-O, respectively)?

If you add two Ys to the word DOSES and scramble, you get ODYSSEY.

What word do you get by anagramming two Ys with ECTOTHERMS?

What six-letter word could be a crossword clue for either star or stare?