Q: There is a set of five five-letter words that vary by just their middle letter. If the middle is any letter from K through O, it makes a common word. However, no other letter can go in the middle to complete a word. What words are these?The first and last words are somewhat similar.
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ReplyDeleteOh, sorry.
DeleteOne of the five words can be rearranged to a word for something useful in games.
ReplyDeleteOnly one of the five words can be rearranged to a word, it would appear.
DeleteThree of the words are adjectives, one is a noun, and one can be a noun, but often isn’t.
ReplyDeleteMy answers are two adjectives exclusively and three multiple parts of speech.
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DeleteFascinating. I wonder if we have different solutions, or are using different dictionaries…
DeleteThere is a solution candidate that is excluded by the condition "no other letter can go in the middle"
DeleteThis would be a good puzzle on MLK day.
ReplyDeleteMaybe National Train Day, as well.
DeleteIf you replace the middle letter with a "P", you'll have something that's not a real word, but is found in the Urban Dictionary.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a word not associated with urban dwelling.
DeleteReplace the middle letter with another letter, to name both a World War II US Navy destroyer and a merchant ship sunk by a Japanese submarine in WWII.
ReplyDeleteOne of the words reminds me of a college.
ReplyDeleteThe words go together well with one of my first guesses.
ReplyDeleteOne can be a term of endearment.
ReplyDeleteI was thoroughly confused by the second sentence of the clue, but my hubby, who's not a puzzle person, understood it correctly. In my confused state, I was going for clack, cleck, click, clock, cluck. 🙄
ReplyDeleteMusical clue: 1969
Hmm. I would have said 1968.
DeleteI'm pretty sure I know what you're going for Lancek. I just thought I'd shake it up a bit.
DeleteOne of the words is a word that Americans use to mean the same thing as another word means in British English. But that other word has quite a different meaning in American dialect, so be careful!
ReplyDeleteNot quite a dizzy dance, but a challenge.
ReplyDeleteIf you take one of the words and put something that makes it in front, then it will sound like a name.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those puzzles that came to me quickly while enjoying my Sunday brunch.
ReplyDeleteI lived in San Francisco's Noe Valley for a little while in the 1990s. Other than that, I'm a New Yorker.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find love in SF, so I moved back to NYC, where I met my wife. True story - our first apartment in Brooklyn, we had an upstairs neighbor named Ellen Mendlow. She grew up loving the alphabet song, because Ellen Mendlow sounds like LMNO. But this puzzle is about KLMNO and not LMNOP.
DeleteBen, What part of Brooklyn? I'm originally from East Flatbush.
DeleteBut did you ever spoonerise FLATBUSH?
Deletereplace the middle letter by *two* letters and you can play a game. --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteFor those here who put much faith in Wikipedia I would advise caution. On NPR this morning our local station, KUOW, reported that the Blue Angles began performing here in Seattle at our Seafair beginning in 1972. This is as false as can be. I googled to see where they got this nonsense from, and sure enough, there it was in Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteThe Blue Angles were formed in April 24, 1946, more than a year after I was born in Seattle and raised in the Wedgwood Neighborhood where I watched them fly over from at least 1950. And just to follow up a bit. Some years ago I googled my neighborhood to see what Wikipedia had to say, and it says all the houses in this 5 square planned 'hood sold for $5,000 each. I tried to correct both of these incorrect "facts" but the program will not let me. My parents purchased our house there in November 1942 for $6,000, and I am certain the larger two story houses went for even more than that. And, yes, I have the deed to prove it.
When I took Geometry, we were never taught about any Blue Angles.
DeleteWell, Wikipedia isn't Right -- I trust SDB on this. They're obviously being obtuse.
DeleteThanks, Ben. That puts a new angel on the head of that pin.
Delete