Wordplay

Details: Written by HG; Category: Wordplay; Published: 06 June 2020; Hits: 2555

Here is a list of twenty British birds. Apart from an S plural, what other letters can you find which hook onto the front or back of the bird’s name to make other words e.g. a Y can be added to GULL to make GULLY. Just under half of the 57 new words made by adding a letter are also common English words, but some definitely are not ! FYI the 57 words don't include the plurals.

AUK COOT CROW DOVE EAGLE

EGRET EIDER HEN KITE LARK

OWL RAIL RAVEN ROBIN ROOK

RUFF SWAN TEAL TERN TIT

Answers below

Answers just below

Answers here (please note, the plurals eg AUKS, COOTS are not listed)
All the names take an S a s the plural.

bauk, cauk, jauk, wauk	AUK
scoot	COOT
scrow	CROW	crowd, crown
	DOVE	doved, doven, dover
beagle, teagle	EAGLE	eagled, eaglet
regret	EGRET
deider	EIDER
shen, then, when	HEN	hend, hent
skite	KITE	kited, kiter
	LARK	larky
bowl, cowl, dowl, fowl, gowl, howl, jowl, nowl, sowl, yowl	OWL	owly
brail, drail, frail, grail, trail	RAIL	raile
craven, graven	RAVEN
	ROBIN	robing
brook, crook, drook	ROOK	rooky
gruff	RUFF	ruffe
	SWAN	swang, swank
steal	TEAL
stern	TERN	terne
	TIT	tite, titi

Details: Written by HG; Category: Wordplay; Published: 29 May 2020; Hits: 2571

What five-letter words can you find which have the structure:

?RAC?

ie the three letters in the middle are RAC, you just need to supply the two letters at the beginning and end.
There are sixteen in total and about half are common words. (A big hint is that two of the answers are in the title of the quiz!)

Answers below

Answers just below

Answers here

BRACE	to support [v BRACED, BRACING, BRACES]
BRACH	a female hunting hound, also BRACHET, BRATCHET [n BRACHES or BRACHS]
BRACK	a flaw in cloth [n -S]
BRACT	any reduced leaflike structure associated with a cone or flower [n -S]
CRACK	to break without dividing into parts [v -ED, -ING, -S]
DRACK	(Australian slang) of a woman, unattractive, also DRAC [adj]
DRACO	as in draco lizard, a flying lizard [adj]
FRACK	to engage in fracking for shale oil [v -ED, -ING, -S]
FRACT	to break; to violate [v -ED, -ING, -S]
GRACE	beauty [n -S] / to give beauty to [v GRACED or (obsolete) GRASTE, GRACING, GRACES]
ORACH	a plant of the goosefoot family, also ORACHE [n -ES]
ORACY	skill in oral communication [n ORACIES]
TRACE	to follow the course of [v TRACED, TRACING, TRACES]
TRACK	to follow the marks of an animal or vehicle [v -ED, -ING, -S]
TRACT	(Spenser) to trace, track [v -ED, -ING, -S]
WRACK	to wreck [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Details: Written by HG; Category: Wordplay; Published: 22 May 2020; Hits: 2554

Imagine you turn over your first tile…it’s a blank. You think you will have a bonus word on your first rack. Your heart sinks when the remaining 6 tiles are rubbish! But what if you look closely….

Listed below are 26 racks, each containing a blank.

Each rack makes just one bonus word – can you find them all ?

As an extra clue, the blank represents a different letter of the alphabet for each different rack. (ie. Only use the blank as an A once, a B once etc..). The blanks are not in alphabetical order though!

Hint to solving…

Most of the words are everyday English, none are obscure Scrabble words.

Give each rack a few moments. Don’t worry if you can’t solve it straightaway.

Once you have found a few, then think about where the vowels might go, and then the JQXZ.

Make note of which letters you’ve used…and then try the remaining letters against the remaining racks.

ACE?YAM

AEN?OUU

CD?KLOP

CIA?PIC

COO?VAN

DDE?HNR

EKE?DEW

HAB?BRU

HIB?BRU

ION?ION

MAW?GIS

MEN?SEZ

MOM?CHA

MUM?FLO

MY?POTS

PUS?RUG

RAD?HUT

RIO?DYE

SUE?EQE

SUI?TIC

TUB?QUE

UCA?QAT

UNI?GUE

URI?BOA

YVES?NE

ZOO?RIC

Answers below

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Here are the answers :

acaDemy

nouVeau

pAdlock

paciFic

voLcano

hUndred

weekeNd

Rhubarb

rubbiSh

oPinion

Wigwams

enZymes

hammocK

flummoX

syMptom

upsurgE

drauGht

Joyride

squeeZe

Biscuit

bOuquet

aquatIc

Queuing

Caribou

sevenTy

cHorizo

Details: Written by HG; Category: Wordplay; Published: 16 May 2020; Hits: 2561

Below are 10 racks of letters.

Each rack makes 2 7-letter words. Most are in everyday English, a few just outside.

How many of the 20 words can you find ?

As an added twist... there's no Es !

AABMNST

AAILMRT

AAMNPRT

ACHIORT

AIORSUV

AOPRRST

AFGILNR

BBGINOS

AFFINRU

ACINOTU

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BATSMAN, BANTAMS

MARTIAL, MARITAL

MANTRAP, RAMPANT

CHARIOT, HARICOT

SAVIOUR, VARIOUS

PARROTS, RAPTORS

FLARING, FANGIRL

GIBBONS, SOBBING

FUNFAIR, RUFFIAN

AUCTION, CAUTION

Details: Written by HG; Category: Wordplay; Published: 08 May 2020; Hits: 2609

Two quizzes to commemorate VE Day.

1. What 3 letter words can you make from VE and a blank ?

2. What 4 letter words have VE as the middle 2 letters ? i.e ?VE?

There are 14 words in the first quiz, well done if you get 10-11 - congratulations if you get all 14!

There are 11 words in the second quiz, well done if you got more than 5-6 ! Congratulations if you got all 11 !

Answers to both quizzes below :

Answers to both quizzes below

See below

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3 letter VE words :

A - AVE, VAE

D - DEV

E - EVE, VEE

G - VEG

I - VIE

L - LEV

O - EVO, VOE

R - REV

S - SEV

T - VET

X - VEX

4 letter ?VE?

AVEL

AVER

AVES

EVEN

EVER

EVES

EVET

OVEL

OVEN

OVER

UVEA

Page 23 of 39

British Birds Quiz (part 1)

Track and trace quiz

Bank Holiday Bonuses

Anagram Pairs

VE Day