Will Shortz - Puzzlemaster Deck: 75 Verbal Challenges

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: 978-0-8118-7196-9

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

Think of a common boys name starting with J. Change the J to SH and youll get a common girls name.

What names are these?

What familiar three-word phrase, in 14 letters, contains only two different consonants, N and G, each repeated several times?

In the word pretty, the letter E is pronounced like a short I.

In women, the O is pronounced like a short I.

In what familiar four-letter word is U pronounced like a short I?

The eight-letter name of a certain metallic element contains the name of a three-letter metallic element in consecutive letters inside it.

What metals are these?

The name of what major U.S. city is a transposal of ILL-SHAVEN?

The title of what No.1 Elvis Presley hit is a transposal of REDEVELOPMENT minus the P ?

What common word contains the letters of NINTH running consecutively backward inside it?

What two opposites can be spelled by rearranging the letters of UNGOODLY?

Change one letter in the following sentence to completely reverse its meaning:

The 79-year-old man is in weak physical condition.

What seven-letter word can follow both LAW and JAW to complete familiar 10-letter words?

Two words, both starting with F and both ending in E, go in the blanks below to complete a familiar three-word phrase. What are they?

F_____E and F_____E

Name a person of a certain nationality in four letters, and write this word in capital letters. Rotate the last two letters 90 degrees and youll get a new word that means the sound of effervescence. What is it?

The word DROOLING consists of the letters of GOLD and IRON mixed together. The letters of what three chemical elements can be rearranged to spell NONPERCEPTION?

Think of a two-syllable word that means coming up to the middle of the leg.

Reverse the syllables phonetically and youll get a new word that means rear end.

What words are these?

Name a category in a bookstore that phonetically sounds like two letters of the Greek alphabet.

The 11-letter name of a famous singer, with the initials A.G., contains all five vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) exactly once. Who is it?

Name a four-letter tree. Add an E and transpose the result to name a five-letter tree.

What trees are they?

To place a primitive agricultural conveyance in a position anterior to the animal equus caballus.

What familiar expression does this complicated verbiage represent?

Change one letter in each of these words to get two new words that are opposites:

SOB LAUGHTER

The title of what classic TV sitcom is a transposal of DEMERITS?

Think of a seven-letter word starting with T that means stain. Change the T to V and youll get another word meaning stain. What is it?

The 12 letters of the phrase PRINTER CABLE can be rearranged to name a famous person. Who is it?

Hint: The answer has two words.

The name of what musical instrument can go in the blank here to complete the sentence in a funny way?

For my overnight trip, I packed a toothbrush and a new ______ toothpaste.

You catch a fish, catch a cold, and catch your breath. What do you do to a street, your heart, and swords?

What popular brand of food in the frozen foods section at the supermarket is a transposal of the word GENERATING?

Think of a familiar three-word phrase with of in the middle that means what an untruthful person tells. Interchange the initial letters of the first and last words, keeping everything else the same, and youll get a new, made-up phrase meaning a bakery dessert shortage.

What phrases are these?

Name a part of the body starting with the letter L. Change the L to T and, phonetically, youll name another part of the body. What is it?

What word becomes its own opposite when you put the letters FE in front of it?

The name of a well-known actress contains all five vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) exactly oncealthough not in that order. The consonants in her name are B, J, L, R, S, and T (not in that order). Who is she?

Take a word meaning certain electrical units. Shift each letter in it one letter later in the alphabet (so A becomes B, B becomes C, etc.), and youll get a unit of measure used in the kitchen.

What is it?

Put the same four letters in the same order in each blank here to complete a nine-letter word meaning geniuses.

______T______

What hyphenated word meaning destitute do the following letters represent?

By adding two pairs of doubled letters to