Q: What is the longest common word in which all the letters rhyme with E?Has anyone discovered a word longer than 8 letters?
Edit: The hint was discovered
A: DETECTED
Thursday, September 09, 2010
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sept. 5, 2010): B C D E G P T V Z
NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sept. 5, 2010): B C D E G P T V Z:
Edit: The hint was discovered
Edit: The hint was discovered
51 comments:
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ReplyDeleteBiggest I get is eight letters long.
ReplyDeleteI've found three nine-letter solutions, none of them excessively contrived, but I can't break the ten-letter barrier. Perhaps more coffee will help.
ReplyDeleteI can't find anything more than 8 letters either.
ReplyDeleteNice one, Blaine. The same 8 came up on my radar. I have a question for you. Would you email me and I can reply. Email is on my profile. Thanks. Tom
ReplyDeleteOn caffeinated reconsideration, all the nine-letter solutions are very contrived -- probably too much so to pass muster at NPR. So we may be stuck on eight.
ReplyDeleteThe longest qualifying word I’ve discovered is also 8 letters long.
ReplyDeleteBut an interesting question arises. Inherent in the answer is the assumption that “e” rhymes with “e.” This puzzle notwithstanding, can a thing be said to rhyme with itself?
Chuck
Ive found nothing longer than eight letters. Same answer as Blaine and Chuck.
ReplyDeleteWould DEEPEDGED qualify?
ReplyDeleteMario, probably not, but your "word" did lead me to a possible 10-letter solution, also unlikely to qualify.
ReplyDeleteTommy Boy (formerly Eleanor Fitz),
ReplyDeleteI've sent you a couple e-mails. Please check your 'SPAM' bucket in case they ended up there.
I added a common prefix to the eight letter word and got an eleven letter word, but I'm not sure if it's totally legit.
ReplyDeleteBlaine, you can e-mail me through my profile and I'll run it by you.
Three double e's and a couple of double consonants could put us into the 10-letter word territory.
ReplyDeleteEight here also.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain this puzzle to me?
ReplyDeleteUnless one can count the act of magically being turned into an English type bloke: "begeezered" !
ReplyDelete- I can't find anything that beats 8 letters.
Natasha, use only the letters B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z as many times as you wish to generate the longest common word. (Only the above letters rhyme with E).
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mario. That is what I thought. I came up with an eight letter word.
ReplyDeleteHow about a 10 letter hyphenated word related to a Native American's mortgage?
ReplyDeleteBarnes, I like it a lot. The hyphenated word is not common enough but the unhyphenated words are.
ReplyDeleteIgnore my previous post. I got so excited because I thought that I found an eleven letter word that fit the criteria. I didn't. Sorry for the false alarm.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else notice that the 8-letter word is palindromic if you drop one letter?
ReplyDeleteDoctechnical, yes, I noticed that,too. At least I think my answer is correct now that I read your post.
ReplyDeleteNatasha, to be a true palindrome, the first and the last letters would need to be the same. In our case, the last letter is the mirror image of the first letter and vice-versa.
ReplyDeleteMario, you may have a different answer. If you removed one letter, you'd see that it is in fact a palindrome. Long live Elvis!
ReplyDeleteMario and T. you have me confused now. On top of that my cat did not like the meal I gave her and scratched me. Do you think she has some symptoms of the word?
ReplyDeleteNevermind. Ithought it was one word but they are two. Back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteMario, I think you have a different answer than I do.
ReplyDeleteNatasha, you may be right. My answer is not grammatically correct, but it does appear in some online publications.
ReplyDeleteFrom the longest word to the shortest word...
ReplyDeleteSince Will’s puzzle has been nailed, here’s a new one in a similar vein. What’s the shortest common English word that contains all standard vowels – a, e, i, o and u – at least once?
If you’d rather not be a spoiler for those who might still be thinking about it, you can just say how long the word is rather than the word itself.
Happy Labor Day, all!
Chuck
Chuck,I may be up a tree here, but I found a word with all vowels that is 7 letters.
ReplyDeleteAre we all pretty much done trying for anything more than 8 letters for the NPR puzzle? I found an 8 letter word, but I haven't submitted it yet, figuring that all of you may discover something else. Is it time to give it up?
ReplyDeleteChuck, I found a six letter word.
ReplyDeleteChuck, for a common word I'd have agree with jutchnbev on the 7 letter word. But if you allow scientific terms, I can do a 5 letter word.
ReplyDeleteChuck--
ReplyDeleteLike Natasha, I found a six-letter word. The catch is that it is French.
-- Other Ben
Concerning the "All Vowels" challenge - the shortest word I can find that has all five vowels is seven letters, so I'm guessing we're on the same page. Just for grins the *longest* I could find is twenty letters :)
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle called for a common, English word, so sight unseen I wouldn’t think either a scientific term or a French word would cut the mustard, eh? Not that it makes any real difference – it’s all just for fun anyway.
ReplyDeleteChuck
Iouea is a genus of cretaceous fossil sponges. I was just using it in conversation yesterday so it must be common. :-)
ReplyDeleteHey, everyone. Since things get quiet here a few days after Sunday, I decided to start a midweek puzzle blog. Please check it out and feel free to comment the same as here in Blainesville.
ReplyDeletehttp://tomspuzzlebreak.blogspot.com
Here's a direct link to Tom's Puzzle Break blog
ReplyDeleteAs I’m certain most of you figured out long ago, my intended answer to the shortest all-vowels word was sequoia – 7 letters. Anyone else come up with some interesting contenders?
ReplyDeleteChuck
The shortest word containing all five vowels exactly once is the six-letter EUNOIA, meaning alertness of mind an will.
ReplyDeleteHaving tried most everything I can think of I have also come to an eight letter word...What a way to waste a week!
ReplyDeleteThe French have OISEAU, their word for "bird."
ReplyDeleteBut the French are expert at stringing vowels together, so big deal. Their word for water is in fact EAU, which doesn't have anything other than a vowel string.
-- Other Ben
Sorry, Doc. I accidentally deleted your comment. It was not the intended answer, though. T
ReplyDeleteMy longest common word with letters that rhyme with "E": detected (drop the "c" and it's a palindrome). I'm pretty sure that's what Will was going for.
ReplyDeleteShortest word with all the vowels: sequoia.
word could be "facetious" using all the vowels in order....
ReplyDeleteDoctech. I am glad I was not alone. All I could come up with was detected and I did not submit cuz I am healing and just back to work and sooo busy but I was feeling so stumped.
ReplyDeleteOr if you include y as a vowel, you can do facetiously for all six vowels in order.
ReplyDeleteYes, the word I think Will had in mind was DETECTED.
So what were the caffeine,contrived, Elvis clues about??
ReplyDeleteElvis Costello - "Watching the Detectives"
ReplyDelete