Questions tagged [english]
Puzzles that crucially depend on some feature of the English language or that only work in an English formulation.
14
votes
2answers
377 views
Vole Wizard Hovels
The following nine ten words (thank you Bass) are the only words in the entire English language* that have a certain extraordinary property:
bevy
by
girt
grit
hovels
lo
vole
wizard
wold
What is that ...
20
votes
4answers
2k views
Rarer for younger, yet also the opposite
I am a common word that refers to a person.
I rarely refer to very young people – in fact, the older a person is, the more likely they are to be called me.
However, if you pick two random ...
3
votes
1answer
93 views
An unexpected storyteller (2)
This puzzle is a little similar to a previous one of mine: An unexpected storyteller
In the story, you are ultimately looking for 26 words. Although finding all the words is part of the puzzle, the ...
6
votes
1answer
109 views
Statements in Java
Each code block translates to a specific statement in English. There is a theme behind the statements. As code puzzles tend to be "easier" (relative to other PSE puzzles) than expected, it will not be ...
4
votes
3answers
361 views
Who is John's favourite painter?
John being his usual self forgot the name of his favourite painter. He went to the Oracle for assistance but inadvertently walked in on her while she was busy eating pie. Angry at the interruption, ...
7
votes
5answers
205 views
Find the phrases
There are 4 words: A, B, C, and D
A and B are synonymous verbs.
C and D are two letter words.
A C D and B C D are English phrases (mostly American) with opposite meaning from each other.
What ...
13
votes
7answers
4k views
Basic manners in the UK [closed]
You are a foreigner with heavy accent living in the UK. If you want to be polite getting off public transport, you can say a number and a letter to the driver.
Which number and which letter?
9
votes
3answers
192 views
The Word Am I (Riley riddle)
This Riley I hope you like!
Out there, out there, my prefix you cannot find
An endless line, a stanza, is what my infix is
Lost one in many, and my suffix I become
The word am I, as you are ...
10
votes
1answer
223 views
A Geography-ish Riddle
Here's another riddle of mine, albeit one that's not as hard:
The name of which national capital city sounds as if it's composed of two Greek letters?
28
votes
7answers
1k views
A Riddle of Mine
I came up with this riddle a few years ago, and so far very few people have been able to solve it:
Think of a four-letter word (“_ _ _ _”) such that adding an A to the beginning (“a _ _ _ _”) changes ...
38
votes
5answers
2k views
Unusual letter combinations
This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.
English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely ...
21
votes
2answers
1k views
Sharp or surprising?
Sharp
BR
C
CH
DH
H
N
PR
V
W
Surprising
BL
CR
FL
GL
KN
L
M
SH
SL
SN
ST
THR
T
Both sharp and surprising
B
R
S
Question
Is GR sharp, surprising or both? Why?
-5
votes
3answers
175 views
Simple and political question [closed]
I'm a man who rule my country,
I'm the only rule my country,
While others are my troops, my commanders, and my commoners,
My system was "one-person".
What am i?
-5
votes
1answer
89 views
“Place a single square on the soil, place a firs…” [duplicate]
Place a single piece of square on the soil,
place a first stick vertically on above of a single piece of square,
place a second stick horizontally on above of the first stick,
What symbol did you get?
-3
votes
2answers
121 views
Place a single ring on the soil, Place a fir [closed]
Place a single piece of ring on the soil,
Place a first stick vertically on above of a single piece of ring,
Place a second stick vertically on below of a single piece of ring.
What symbol did you get?...
5
votes
6answers
1k views
My First Mosquito Bite
Help! I just moved houses into an area with many mosquitoes. However, I haven't been outside all week - ever since the first bump appeared on my skin. What's happening to me? Is this some weird sort ...
20
votes
9answers
6k views
Why will my friend have to grow his beard out?
Knowledge required for this riddle: English-language proverbs.
My friend Leonard came to me with a problem the other day. He said, “Tanner, I want to have a clean-shaven face. But every time I use a ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views
This is simple: Just fill in the blank
Newspaper Headline
Insect Researcher Carroll Appleton alongside grandson Adam discover
underground wormhole networks.
Recover ________ earthworms.
Fill in the blank. Following are the choices
...
12
votes
2answers
335 views
Cannibalistic Words
Drawing from the word pool below, find the twelve Cannibalistic Words.
(Note the no-computers and logical-deduction tags.)
WILD
_ _ ☐ _ _ _ _ ☐
PENS
☐ _ _ _ _ ☐ _ _
DEED
_ _ _ ☐ ☐ _ _ _
BLED
...
34
votes
1answer
2k views
Can you follow Directions?
Unemployed? Lk no further!
Are you:
Able to follow directions?
Able to read Flowcharts?
Highly motivated?
Able to count on your hands and feet without utilizing your big toes and thumbs?
Well ...
3
votes
1answer
60 views
A New Simple Riley
I have created another Riley in my down time today and I hope it is neither too easy, nor hard. As always, good luck to all of you, and have fun!
I see the prefix, a letter you seek; look to the ...
5
votes
4answers
286 views
Add Chocolate for Taste
Today I have another puzzle for the community. I will warn that some of the hints are obvious while others are not. You'll need a bit of lateral thinking to complete this one! I hope you all enjoy it; ...
21
votes
9answers
936 views
I Almost am a Chicken
I almost am a chicken,
Not quite a famous horse.
Confined to my domain,
I'll help you see the course.
I almost am contagious,
Not quite a Youtube part.
Use a pencil when you're ready
...
12
votes
1answer
1k views
What is a Homeless Word™?
Based on the What is a Word/Phrase™,
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Homeless Word™.
Use the following examples below to find the rule.
$$
% set Title text. (spaces around the ...
3
votes
4answers
431 views
Maximum number of the same word in an English language sequence (punctuation allowed) [duplicate]
An old school boy riddle is how to to have 5 x "and" in sequence and yet still make grammatical sense. The answer is that a man saw a sign advertising Dogs and Cats for sale. He commented that ...
9
votes
4answers
713 views
Proverbial Soup is good for the Soul
There are twenty-one(21) well-known, historic, correct English proverbs below and one(1) that is slightly incorrect when compared to the historically correct version. Astute observers will notice that ...
17
votes
1answer
814 views
Is this a puzzle? If so, what is the solution?
In the 2032th xkcd comic Cueball utters a sentence that may (and probably does) contain a word puzzle.
[Cueball and Megan standing together, musical notes hanging in the air as if music is ...
6
votes
2answers
211 views
Hey, Hey! Listen!
"So,
I've got a friend. You haven't met him yet, so I'll tell you about him.
Hey, are you listening? I'll quiz you! Sound fair?
This guy, he's a bit of a trouble maker. At work, when something goes ...
5
votes
1answer
153 views
Falcon Circus, Prologue: The Twins
You get home from work, grab the mail, take off your coat, and sit down on the couch with the TV on the news. "Bills, bills, junk..." you sift through your mail, and stop to look at a very colorful ...
12
votes
3answers
334 views
Bird is NOT the word!
I can't get into my computer.
It's password protected, you see, and I got hit by a cement truck this morning in front of the Compound Word Store.
Luckily, I have this nifty cheat sheet. It was ...
1
vote
1answer
105 views
Deliver the mail, though yours is not gold
You pray they don't curl,
part of them likes to be twirled,
and youngsters are thrilled
to give them a whirl.
They be trusty companions,
take you through the Grand Canyons,
or across the entire world. ...
5
votes
2answers
135 views
Such pride, such strength
19th; cobra, melancholy, like, talk.
Reverse of 23; anger, the gathering, create.
Intelligent adjective; gain, gone, under reverse.
Never work; below, before 20, the gooseling.
Go figure... ...
3
votes
2answers
221 views
Little Pictures
Today I've decided to make puzzles using images because that's easier for me to do than think of a sub-par riddle. A note about these: no, they do not necessarily pertain to a famous saying. Rather, ...
6
votes
2answers
158 views
Little shared property puzzle
What property do the things on this list share?
7
W
Spring
Yellow
Rock
Magenta
Gas
Shoulders
Medium
Examples of things not on the list:
Solid
Blue
...
8
votes
3answers
347 views
How can 15 become 3?
This is not a mathematical puzzle.
How can 14 become 7?
10 becomes 1, but can also become 2.
13 becomes 8, and 8 becomes 10.
6 stays as 6 under this thinking.
Hint 1:
Since answer was found, OP ...
5
votes
3answers
197 views
Moans to Rocky in 4 moves?
In his novel A Case of Need, one of Michael Crichton's characters claims that the classic word‑ladder‡ "MOANS to ROCKY" can be made in 4 moves (5 lines total).
But the book does not ...
11
votes
1answer
258 views
The Vowel Sudoku Challenge
This is an entry into the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #36
Here is a partially filled in Sudoku-like board involving the five vowels:
As with real Sudoku, no vowels in any 9-square box or along any 9-...
17
votes
1answer
911 views
Wild Flash Graphics, Bro!
I've had many tricks played on me, but to my credit, I'm rarely so green anymore.
I used to pack quite a punch, things even got spicy with a mom.
I'll post a video greeting if and only if I'm in ...
38
votes
1answer
2k views
Confessions of a Riddle Junkie
I'm $\bbox[#fff9c3]{\color{#fff9c3}{\textbf{NO PEEKING!}}}$ and I am alcoholic.
I sometimes also take pot; it makes me kind of casual.
And crack too, because it makes me highly skilled.
As you can ...
12
votes
6answers
1k views
An Old English Rap
I'm an old-fashioned word that is rarely used
an example of Latin and English fused
Charles Lever used me, so did Dickens
and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - wow, the plot thickens!
You may be forgiven for ...
3
votes
3answers
782 views
WmK: Oh, Life Relax Please!
"Oh, Life Relax Please!" is the title of a book about yoga that my Grandfather gifted me. This Wordmorph K is inspired by his love of wisdom and knowledge.
If you are not familiar with this kind of ...
7
votes
4answers
688 views
Wordmorph K: An Introduction
Let me introduce you to a game I invented called Wordmorph K (WmK). You may have played a variation of this game in the past.
WmK Rules:
1) The objective is to transform the "Start Word" to the "...
32
votes
1answer
5k views
Why Alexa Shouldn't Teach Non-Native English Speakers About Idioms
They cost ≈ $0.00833333333333333333333333333333 each.
(9) -_----_-_-----
Go! Intentionally fracture your fibula!
...
51
votes
3answers
3k views
22
votes
1answer
2k views
A brief int counter
The following infinite sequence is used by those taking first steps in maths.
3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 5, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ?
Find the next number.
35
votes
17answers
5k views
What is the name of this puzzle?
The English dictionary, as you may know, is a highly mutable entity.
While removing words such as irregardless might be considered a good thing, others, such as
...
18
votes
1answer
2k views
What is a Scanning Word™?
Based on the What is a Word/Phrase™,
If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Scanning Word™.
Use the following examples below to find the rule.
$$
% set Title text. (spaces around the ...
8
votes
2answers
355 views
Elementary vowel equations
Challenge
Solve the following equations by converting to standard form (see below):
** eeeeee = aeeeeiiiouu
...
13
votes
2answers
513 views
Wherever I May Roam 2000
(01) I never give a single hair to the carder
(02) shrunken by boob, I try even harder
...
5
votes
2answers
434 views
A middle length riddle
You wouldn't be here without me
I am feared by many
and obsessed over by some
I can purify you by shocking you with an ordeal
People might call me amicable but you should stay away from me
I ...
