# Figure out word values

Given ooze, noon, tone, snooze, onset, stone, tones, fees, toffee, noses, sneeze, sense, stetson, festoons, nonsense are all legal words, and are worth 10, 20, 23, 32, 36, 36, 36, 38, 40, 44, 46, 51, 54, 59, 70 respectively, what English word with three letters is worth only 2? What is tenseness worth?

• Can words have negative values? – Areeb Jul 21 '16 at 17:24
• @Areeb No - only positive integer values. – martin Jul 21 '16 at 17:26
• Is there any significance to the fact that "snooze" and its corresponding 32 are listed twice? – Gareth McCaughan Jul 21 '16 at 17:33
• Uh, snooze is in there twice? – Klyzx Jul 21 '16 at 17:33
• no,stone listed thrice.... – Numberknot Jul 21 '16 at 17:34

The word worth 2 is

Zoo

Because

$e = 8$
$f = 9$
$n = 9$
$o = 1$
$s = 13$
$t = 5$
$z = 0$
And all values are added together.

Tenseness is then worth:

$5 + 8 + 9 + 13 + 8 + 9 + 8 + 13 + 13 = 86$

Found by the following:

$tone = 23$, $stone = 36 \rightarrow s = 13$
$ooze = 10$, $snooze = 32$, $snooze - ooze = sn = 22 \rightarrow n = 9$
$noon = 20 \rightarrow oo = 2 \rightarrow o = 1$
$noses = 44 \rightarrow e = 44 - 9 - 1 - 13 - 13 \rightarrow e = 8$
$ooze = 10 \rightarrow z = 10 - 1 - 1 - 8 \rightarrow z = 0$ $fees = 38 \rightarrow f = 38 - 8 -8 -13 \rightarrow f = 9$
$tone = 23 \rightarrow t = 23 - 1 - 9 - 8 \rightarrow t = 5$

As explained by the OP:

zero $\rightarrow$ = 0
two $+$ three $\rightarrow 2 + 3 = 5$
four $+$ five $\rightarrow 4 + 5 = 9$
six $+$ seven $\rightarrow 6 + 7 = 13$
eight $\rightarrow$ = 8
nine $\rightarrow$ = 9

• Are you sure S = 13? I got S = 3. Do you mind showing your work? – Areeb Jul 21 '16 at 17:38
• @AggieKidd Too easy! Yes, values: z: zero (0), o: one (1), t: two + three (5), f: four + five (9), s: six + seven (13), e: eight (8), n: nine (9) – martin Jul 21 '16 at 17:40
• beautiful!!!!!! – Numberknot Jul 21 '16 at 17:50

It's like calculating a system of linear equations but simpler