PUZZLE PALACE
(A) Puzzles posted 2021-2023: Word Squares *
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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
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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.
Word Square Puzzle Solutions
(B) Addagrams: puzzles posted in 2024
How To Play
1. Play begins with a single letter. Players add a series of additional letters, their order scrambled, to create a series of new words: D, DO, ROD; WORD; SWORD; DROWSY; etc.
2. Some capitalized words are permitted: days; months; countries; adjectives of nationality; internationally known cities (SATURDAY, APRIL, FRANCE, MILAN, etc). No more than ONE such word may be played in the same turn: PARIS, PERSIA would be a proscribed sequence.
3. Hyphenated words are permitted, as are those containing an apostrophe or an accent: BI-LEVEL, ISN'T, JETÉ. Two word phrases (REST HOME, NEW YORK) are not permitted.
4. Abbreviations, foreign words, and slang terms are acceptable if featured in a standard English dictionary. Dictionary words derived from acronyms are okay (SCUBA, OK, ASAP); spelled out acronyms, texting abbreviations, et al (USA, TTYL) are not, except at the two-, letter stage (TB, PS). Allow yourself latitude for the two-letter entry!
5. Plurals and shifts of verb form are acceptable, but neither an S nor a D may be added to the word immediately preceding to create them: JAUNT, JUNTAS and GLIDE, GILDED are legitimate sequences; JAUNT, JAUNTS and GLIDE, GLIDED are not. An -ES or an -ED may, however, be added in proper sequence: LASH, SLASH, LASHES; SEAL, LEASE, SEALED.
EXAMPLE
I’ll supply an initial letter and a target word of nine or more letters: E ïƒ MANNERIST. You’ll try to build an acceptable ladder from the former to the latter.
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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. After each batch of 25 addagrams, I’ll offer ONE possible solution per puzzle on the ADDAGRAMS SOLUTIONS page.
How to score? Make up your own system! I suggest one point for a solution that fails three steps shy of the target; two points if you get within two steps. (One step away isn't possible, since I'm providing the last step!) A point each for every step of a successfully completed addagram (8-13 points, usually). Three bonus points every time you can take the addagram a step or more further than my solution!
Now let's play!
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BATCH #1, SEPTEMBER 10, 2024:
1. A--> STAGGERING
2. B--> BLUEBIRDS
3. C--> SACREDNESS
4. D--> EVILDOERS
5. E--> THREESOMES
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BATCH #2, SEPTEMBER 22, 2024
6. F-->FRONTIERS
7. G-->GROUNDLESS
8. H-->PARCHEESI
9. I-->SANDPIPER
10 J-->REJECTED
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BATCH #3, OCTOBER 10, 2024
11. K-->BACKSTAGE
12. L-->SERIALISATION
13. M--.REMASTERING
14. N--GLISTENING
15. O-->REVOLVERS
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BATCH #4, OCTOBER 23, 2024
12. P-->MISPLACED
13. Q-->EQUESTRIAN
["Q" is problematic. Let's permit the French "QUI" on round 3.]
14. R-->BLUNDERING
15. S-->SOUTHLANDS
16. T-->REINTRODUCES
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(C) Limerick Puzzles
A LIMERICKS RIDDLE:
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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.)
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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.
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A LIMERICK A-Z JIGSAW SUITE, part 1:
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(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.