Some Brain Puzzlers?
Fun with words... maybe
As you’ve probably guessed by now, dear readers, I enjoy word games and puzzles. So, here are a few test questions to keep you up at night. I will reveal the answers in a few days. Beware — if you use Google and/or AI to answer these rather than your own fine brain, an angry android may show up at your door, demanding satisfaction (I mean a duel, not that other kind of satisfaction). There’s no prize for the best answer, other than my singing your praises. Put your guesses in a comment!
1. There are at least two words in English that include all the vowels in alphabetical order (with consonants between some of them them, I mean). Can you name one or two of them?
2. Can you name an seven-letter word whose only vowel is “y”?
3. You see a sign reading something like “Ye Olde Antique Shoppe”; how was “Ye” originally pronounced?
4. What word includes the first five letters of the alphabet (in jumbled order) in its first five letters?
What words start with the last letter of the alphabet and end with the first?
Which philosopher’s wife has an adjective meaning “shrewish” named after her?
What’s the longest palindrome (a series of words that read backwards the same as forwards) that you’ve memorized? I hope it’s not Eve’s first greeting “Madam, I’m Adam”.
How many heteronyms (words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and have distinct meanings) can you think of? One example is “wound” meaning both an injury, and the past tense of the verb “wind”— which is itself a heteronym!
What’s an adjective meaning “obscure, little-known” that is itself obscure and little known?
Can you name a word that has four or more “i” vowels in it?
Haven’t you had enough, already?
Image from Freepik.