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PUZZLE PALACE

5 by 5 grid.png

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The blank square below is the template for a five by five word square puzzle.  It's  basically just a five word crossword. Simply write the answers to the five clues both horizontally and vertically. 1 Across has the same solution as 1 Down, 2 Across is the same word as 2 Down, and so on. Why not give the sample puzzle below it a try? Then read the the clickable introductory essay, and come back to try more puzzles!​

1A/D where the winner finishes

2 A/D angry

3 A/D a radioactive gas, symbol Rn

4 A/D it's under the flesh of the plum

5 A/D principle or belief

Lifeline letter: R

150 Word Square Puzzles

The puzzle numbers (1-150) are randomized, to help prevent spoilers when a player consults the numbered solutions. The clickable titles indicate when each batch of five puzzles was posted, but they may now be played in any order.
 

(B) Addagrams

EXAMPLE

I’ll supply an initial letter and a target word of 8-13 letters: E  MANNERIST. You’ll try to build an acceptable ladder from the former to the latter. For "acceptability" rules, click:

There may well be multiple possible solutions! E.g.: E; ME; MEN; AMEN; MEANT; STAMEN; SMARTEN; REMNANTS; MANNERIST, or E; ER; IRE; REIN; MINER; MARINE; RAIMENT; TRAINMEN; MANNERIST.

 

I’ll offer ONE possible solution per puzzle on the ADDAGRAMS SOLUTIONS page.

BATCH #1

1. A--> STAGGERING

2. B-->  BLUEBIRDS

3. C-->  SACREDNESS

4. D--> EVILDOERS

5. E--> THREESOMES                               BATCH #2

6. F-->FRONTIERS

7. G-->GROUNDLESS

8. H-->PARCHEESI

9. I-->SANDPIPER

                               10 J-->REJECTED               BATCH #3

                                                                                           11. K-->BACKSTAGE

                                                                                             12. L-->SERIALISATION

                                                                                        13. M-->REMASTERING

                                                                                         14. N-->GLISTENING

                                                                                        15. O-->REVOLVERS

BATCH #4

16. P-->MISPLACED

17. Q-->EQUESTRIAN

["Q" is problematic. Let's permit the French "QUI" on round 3.]

18. R-->BLUNDERING

19. S-->SOUTHLANDS

20. T-->REINTRODUCES

BATCH #5

21. U-->PLEASURED                                                                 BATCH #6 I,S bonus games

22. V-->DELIVERIES                                                                  27. I-->MOISTENED

23. W-->WEATHERED                                                               28. I--> REDRESSING

24. X-->SIXTEENS                                                                     29. S-->DISHWATER

25. Y-->PARALYSES                                                                   30. S-->HEADWATERS

26. Z-->SONORIZED                                                                 31. S-->TRACHEITIS

                                                                                                 32. S-->SUPERNALLY

solutions:

(C) Limerick Puzzles

 A LIMERICKS RIDDLE:

  Each stanza is missing a letter: the same letter

  eight times for stanza 1, a different same letter

  seven times in stanza 2, and so on. Together,

  taken in sequence, the six missing letters spell

  out a common word. (The solution is posted

  at the LIGHT VERSE tab.)

Drop nine leers. The same one. But so                                  

the new word’s a word: make though “though”;

call sore-bough “sore bough”;

he fish “rout” or “trou”;

what a he-deer does? “Does on a doe.”

 

(Eight more.) From the boss: “Call me Frida.   

Our wife’s war? MAN UP, BO! Don’t heed her.

Man a bus man’s home late.

It’s a part, not a date!”

“Take a fling leap,” Bo wrote. “I’ve cc’d her.”

 

(Find seven.) You think it’s the heat                   

That dives us to cave what is sweet,

And flee what we dead?

But who’s “fee,” who is bed

And bon as, bon appétit, meat?

 

(Six missing. And more of a test.)

Still round for the fourth one? You’re best!

This one’s bout Fritz—

and why mostly he sits:

Fritz's got Friedreich’s taxi! (Impressed?)

 

(A fifth one. Five missing. Stay hot!)

All it took was one letter you got

from our aunt A—a U!—

and ow you’re one too!

My sister’s a sister?!? Say what?

 

(Just four now, to finish; of these: __’s)
(Not counting firs line ones like these __ , please!)

One each in line 2

And line 4. (Is his rue?

Or a lie, to confuse and to [jeez] ease?)

The entire limerick jigsaw sequence is linked at the button above. Part One is offered at the right, and the

solution (the unscrambled sequence, A-Z) is posted at the LIGHT VERSE tab.

 

A LIMERICK A-Z JIGSAW SUITE, part 1:

(Fix the limericks. Each line 1 must stay a line 1; each line 2 be a line 2; lines 3-4 remain 3-4; the line 5s continue as line 5s. I’ve left the D stanza intact, to get you started.)

 

I: A-F

 

A Decadent poet named Algy

In tones professorially showy,

Soul-kissed the Devil,

Then ditched him, mid-revel!

She got handed a Bible to plead with.

 

An underwear model called Bruce,

Was subject to fits of nostalgie

“Is arcane heuristics!

Azoic phlogistics

He’d a yen for pre-eucharist burgers.

 

“The root of the problem,” said Chloe,

Who once, on the night of Walpurgis,

So fought the good fight—

Took the stand for what’s right—

A gander is good. But don’t goose.”

 

So biliously soul-dead is Don

He buys his own every con.

Downvote the whole ticket,

Tell his whole mob to stick it,

And the mob boss will still whine he won.

 

An admirer of Jesus called Edith,

Being proud of his well-toned caboose,

Beachcombing the shore

Of his Oceans of Yore,

Are condign but moot!” Good to knowy.

 

Oh who is as fickle as Fergus,

Whose vow was to go where He leadeth,

Had a “shoot the moon” rule:

“You can swoon. You can drool.

In search of laced foam, and lost algae.

©2021 by Steven Dorsey/Firebellied Frog Design

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