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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.


If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a BS Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

BS Words™ Not BS Words™
eagle owl
boy girl
gentleman lady
ticket pass
blow blast
guarantee assure
rectangle square
hilarious humorous
debate argue
Sunday Monday

CSV version:

BS Words™, Not BS Words™
eagle, owl
boy, girl
gentleman, lady
ticket, pass
blow, blast
guarantee, assure
rectangle, square
hilarious, humorous
debate, argue
Sunday, Monday

These are not the only examples of BS Words™. What is the special rule that BS Words™ conform to?


Hint zone: A hint will be posted once a while

Hint 1:

No politics involved.

Hint 2:

Some of the letters are chosen, to form some kind of word.

Hint 3:

The long form of BS that is related to this puzzle is included in a page of Wikipedia.

Hint 4:

Actually one more tag should be added, but it will give out the answer. So I will add it later on.

Hint 5:

The tag should be added.

Hint 6:

It is related to the characters in a video game.

Hint 7: (BIG)

There will be more and more BS Words™ from time to time, so I have to specify that the information to create this puzzle is taken on the day of puzzle creation, i.e. 16/5/2020.

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  • 10
    $\begingroup$ Most of the words from the politicians are utter BS. $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    May 16, 2020 at 8:27
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @rhsquared It is not about politics. $\endgroup$ May 16, 2020 at 9:22
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @rhssquared It's not entirely their fault that their answers are BS words. $\endgroup$ May 17, 2020 at 3:28

1 Answer 1

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(Oh, I should have spotted this connection so much sooner - my son is obsessed with the theme here!)

A "BS Word" is:

A word which contains all of the letters from the name of a 'Brawler' from the mobile video game Brawl Stars made by Supercell (albeit not necessarily in the correct order).

To see this, a list of all Brawlers in the game can be found here, and the names hidden within the BS Words are as follows:

EAGLE = GALE,
BOY = BO,
GENTLEMAN = GENE,
TICKET = TICK,
BLOW = BO (again),
GUARANTEE or GUARANTEE = GENE (again) or TARA,
RECTANGLE or RECTANGLE = GALE (again) or CARL,
HILARIOUS = ROSA (and since his release in November 2020 - after this puzzle was created - LOU can also be found among these letters),
DEBATE = BEA,
SUNDAY = SANDY

In contrast, the words indicated as 'Not BS Words' do not contain the letters which make up the name of a Brawler.

This naturally explains the name given to these words too, since:

The initials of 'Brawl Stars' are BS. Note as per Hint 7 that because new Brawlers are added to the game every few months or so, words which are not presently BS Words may become so one day - and this may include some of those words currently listed as 'Not BS Words'!

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  • $\begingroup$ I play the game, and now I’m upset I looked at the answer right away instead of trying to solve it myself. I probably wouldn’t have thought of it anyways though! $\endgroup$ Jan 22, 2021 at 20:24
  • $\begingroup$ @CottonHeadedNinnymuggins It was TICKET that gave it away to me at long last - that one's perhaps the easiest to spot, but still you've got to recognise it for what it is. My lad was playing it at the same time I was trying to solve this for the umpteenth time, so something subconscious must have been going on! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Jan 22, 2021 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ Haha, I played about an hour ago. Still, BS never got me thinking Brawl Stars, good solve. Even though I’d consider myself one of the “hardcore” gamers on Brawl Stars, there’s almost no way I’d solve this myself. I’ve been playing since 2017 (before the global release!). I even changed my App Store location to Canada to get it years ago! I still play it to this day. $\endgroup$ Jan 22, 2021 at 20:37
  • $\begingroup$ Tell your son the game used to be played vertically and see what he thinks of that! $\endgroup$ Jan 22, 2021 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ @CottonHeadedNinnymuggins That just blew his mind! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Jan 22, 2021 at 20:40

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