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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?

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  • $\begingroup$ Can words have negative values? $\endgroup$
    – Areeb
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Areeb No - only positive integer values. $\endgroup$
    – martin
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:26
  • $\begingroup$ Is there any significance to the fact that "snooze" and its corresponding 32 are listed twice? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:33
  • $\begingroup$ Uh, snooze is in there twice? $\endgroup$
    – Klyzx
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:33
  • $\begingroup$ no,stone listed thrice.... $\endgroup$
    – Numberknot
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:34

2 Answers 2

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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

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you sure S = 13? I got S = 3. Do you mind showing your work? $\endgroup$
    – Areeb
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:38
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    $\begingroup$ @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) $\endgroup$
    – martin
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:40
  • $\begingroup$ beautiful!!!!!! $\endgroup$
    – Numberknot
    Jul 21, 2016 at 17:50
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It's like calculating a system of linear equations but simpler

enter image description here

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