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This is my first attempt at a Connect Wall. Your task is to find the connections between the following 16 words to form 8 groups of 4. No, I did not Muck up the Fath – there is one connection per row and one connection per column 😊

Fun fact: I’ve recently been car-pooling with a work colleague and thanks to his efforts I have learnt how the British quiz show works. But rot13(obl qb V fhpx ng guvf tnzr)

Good luck!

EDIT: This was harder than expected so I will add a few hints, sorted in order of increasing desperation (great phrase from the Perl manual pages btw! 😊) :

HINT 1

The horizontal connections seem “kinda lame” but the point of the puzzle becomes clear once you think about vertical connections. Solving these vertical connections will reveal the point of the puzzle title (Equivalently one can transpose horizontal/vertical grouping and the result is the same).

HINT 2

The vertical connections are a “puzzle within a puzzle” if you will!

HINT 3

The connections are based on wordplay/numbers rather than general knowledge. I can crush most episodes of Letters And Numbers but would totally embarrass myself on Mastermind or WWTBAM

digit, braver, nonet, twice, foxtail, friendly, alphyl, heavenly, siesta, letter, unit, greatly, finely, hexagon, bottle, inch

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ "there is one connection per row and one connection per column" - does that mean in its current configuration, or do we have to rearrange the words to make this the case? $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Apr 23, 2021 at 7:36
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    $\begingroup$ We have to rearrange the words to make this the case $\endgroup$
    – happystar
    Apr 23, 2021 at 8:41

1 Answer 1

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New answer (with guesses for all 8 categories, revised after feedback):

| FRIENDLY | HEAVENLY | FINELY | GREATLY |
| UNIT | ALPHYL | SIESTA | FOXTAIL |
| TWICE | BRAVER | INCH | BOTTLE |
| LETTER | HEXAGON | NONET | DIGIT |

Row 1: Words ending in "ly", i.e. adverbs
Row 2: First three letters match the NATO alphabet (uniform, alfa/"alpha", sierra, foxtrot)
Row 3: Can replace 2nd letter to form new word (trice, beaver, itch, battle)
Row 4: Multiple units (letter = 26, hexagon = 6, nonet = 9, digit = 10)

Column 1: "Hot" phrases (friendly fire, burn unit, twice baked, letter bomb)
Column 2: First 2 letters + last letter form a word (hey, all, brr, hen)
Column 3: Replace one consonant to form a new word (finery, fiesta, itch, monet)
Column 4: Prefix + suffix makes a new word (grey, foil/fail, bole, dit)

Note that columns 2 and 4 are quite similar so I'm not very confident about those

Previous iteration (see happystar's comments for feedback):

| HEAVENLY | FRIENDLY | FINELY | GREATLY |
| FOXTAIL | BRAVER | SIESTA | UNIT |
| BOTTLE | ALPHYL | INCH | LETTER |
| DIGIT | HEXAGON | NONET | TWICE |

Row 1: Words ending in "ly", i.e. adverbs
Row 2: First three letters match the NATO alphabet (foxtrot, bravo, sierra, uniform)
Row 3: Singular units (one bottle, alphyl = univalent radical, one inch, one letter)
Row 4: Multiple units (digit = 10, hexagon = 6, nonet = 9, twice = 2)

Column 1: Prefix for a plant (heavenly bamboo, foxtail lily, bottlebrush, digitalis)
Column 2: First 2 letters + last letter form a word (fry, brr, all, hen). Note: nonet could swap with hexagon
Columns 3/4: Unknown (can swap words in these columns)

I'm only confident in the four rows and column 1.
I need help figuring out columns 2-4.

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9
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(svefg ebj vf shyyl pbeerpg, nyy bgure ebjf ner nyzbfg pbeerpg, svefg pbyhza vf jebat - havagraqrq erq ureevat!) $\endgroup$
    – happystar
    May 23, 2021 at 10:00
  • $\begingroup$ @happystar rot13(Vs ebj 2 va jebat, gur bayl pnaqvqngr vf nyculy juvpu vfa'g rknpgyl n cersvk sbe "nysn". Vf gung vagraqrq? Nyfb, vf pbyhza 2 jebat?) $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    May 23, 2021 at 22:52
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(v'ir frra nycun vafgrnq bs nysn sbe gur cubargvp nycunorg. Nyfb pbyhza 2 vf vaqrrq jebat) $\endgroup$
    – happystar
    May 24, 2021 at 10:13
  • $\begingroup$ @happystar OK, how about the latest answer, how many rows/columns are correct? $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    May 24, 2021 at 17:45
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(bayl gur svefg ebj vf pbeerpg). Actually I'm kinda regretting posting this puzzle too hastily and wish I had aimed for perfection rather than speed - but it's probably too late to edit this puzzle and risk giving away something too easily. Any thoughts re editing this puzzle? $\endgroup$
    – happystar
    May 26, 2021 at 9:03

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