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My prefix I trail,
My suffix is male,
My infix is home to a wonder.
I make my prefix periodic,
My infix melodic,
My suffix detrimentally blunder.

What am I?

Inspired by the original 'Riley riddle'.

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    $\begingroup$ Another Riley??? :P Ok ok $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Apr 22, 2018 at 20:47

1 Answer 1

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I think you are and the word is

anagram

My prefix I trail,

I'm at the loss for this first one.
But maybe the full answer to "What am I" is meant to be "an anagram", where the prefix an would reappear as the indefinite article, with you (anagram) trailing it.

My suffix is male,

just m, short for male in many forms querying the sex of a person
hagfy suggested ram instead, which is a better fit and makes more sense in the second part of the answer, but it overlaps with the infix, so I'll leave both options in.

My infix is home to a wonder.

Agra is home to the Taj Mahal, one of the so-called modern seven wonders of the world.

Now here is the twist for the remaining three

With the phrasing I make and you being anagram, I suppose the next three hints refer to anagrams of the prefix, infix and suffix respectively.

I make my prefix periodic

The anagram of an is na, which stands for sodium in the periodic table of elements

My infix melodic,

one possible anagram to Agra would be Raga, a musical style. Or, more precisely: "the melodic framework for improvisation akin to a melodic mode in Indian classical music" (quoting Wikipedia)

My suffix detrimentally blunder.

I suppose this refers to the fact that there is no anagram to a single letter.
With hagfy's suggestion instead, this would be mar, which fits nicely.

The title, as Mister B keenly spotted and NL628 already indicated right away

is an anagram of "another riley riddle".

Thanks to Mister B and hagfy for helping with the details.

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    $\begingroup$ I like your answer. I was thinking the suffix could be the last three letters [rot13(znyr furrc)] and the blunder could be rot13(zne)? $\endgroup$
    – hagfy
    Apr 24, 2018 at 17:02
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    $\begingroup$ Also rot13: gvgyr vf nantenz bs "nabgure evyrl evqqyr" $\endgroup$
    – Mister B
    Apr 24, 2018 at 17:11
  • $\begingroup$ @hagfy: Good idea, and linguistically I like that better than my suggestion. However, that would mean that infix and suffix would overlap, while prefix and infix wouldn't, which I don't like from an aesthetic point of view, because I think that for those kind of riddles, the pieces should match rather exactly, than arbitrarily. Let's see what noedne has to say. $\endgroup$ Apr 24, 2018 at 17:14
  • $\begingroup$ @Mister B: Oh, very well spotted. Thanks for the hint. I'll include that in the answer. $\endgroup$ Apr 24, 2018 at 17:16
  • $\begingroup$ Excellent work! Hagfy is correct, but I see your point about the asymmetry of the wordplay (something to keep in mind for the future). The prefix does refer to the phrase you mention; although that is not the answer, it is a common usage of the answer word. $\endgroup$
    – noedne
    Apr 24, 2018 at 17:41

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