Questions tagged [language]
A puzzle that heavily depends on linguistic features; for instance it may concern foreign languages, or only work in some particular language, or be built around a peculiarity of the English language.
457
questions
21
votes
1
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curious inflection of English words
The agent-noun form of lingerie is frank.
The present-participle form of military actions is lying.
The past-tense form of sheep is permanent.
The past-participle form of six-pack is urn.
...
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17
votes
2
answers
830
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Symmetries – a Quadritaisho puzzle
This is part 43 of the puzzle series Around the World in Many Days. Each part is solvable on its own.
Dear Puzzling,
This is a Quadritaisho puzzle. Divide the grid into rooms by drawing borders along ...
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3
votes
1
answer
195
views
A hive buzzing with words
A turtle that goes into battle on a cart. (16)
That which is overshadowed by the front. (10)
A vital component of gaining speed. (12)
A time measuring device that has gained wisdom through the ages....
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-3
votes
1
answer
215
views
Golden Ape Peculiarity
In the wild he reigns, a colossal beast,
From Skull Island, his power unleashed.
Climbing skyscrapers, a towering sight,
This mighty ape, a legendary might.
What is very similar between the ape from ...
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2
votes
1
answer
347
views
Futuristic navigation
This is a 3-part puzzle. Parts can be solved out of order, but, in the end, parts must be put together in order they appear (1, 2, 3) to solve the whole puzzle.
Parts are independent from each other. ...
- 821
1
vote
1
answer
427
views
Two similar animals
Can you find the 2 similar animals that has it's names scrambled in this text?
laneeatkajswliuotikes
Please take note of the tags.
Hint:
Hint 2:
Hint 3:
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14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
A string of letters (M-I)
Your goal is to place a 4-letter English word somewhere in the string of letters below. There's only one word that fits.
...
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-5
votes
1
answer
192
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This is a message encoded in a rather obscure foreign language. What language is it and what's the riddle's solution?
The following message contains a riddle written in an encrypted form of a rather obscure language lacking a literary standard that is rarely spoken today. What does it mean and what is the solution to ...
- 243
24
votes
1
answer
800
views
A connecting wall for series 1?
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #12: mobile-friendly puzzles.
Resolve the novel connecting wall below into six groups of four connected words and discover the puzzle's hidden theme....
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2
votes
1
answer
186
views
You will meet someone, and he will throw your father in a deep fryer
You are going to meet someone special. You'll love him, I swear. But there are some things you need to know about him first.
If he says you're going to be liberated, bring a jacket.
He always has a ...
- 2,401
5
votes
1
answer
591
views
What is the number of ways to spell French word « chrysanthème »?
As many people know, theoretically a lot of words have more than one way to be spelled. I just want to provide a single example from English language: the word "fish". As Bernard Shaw noted, ...
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5
votes
1
answer
306
views
What word am I describing?
Here's a puzzle answerable using only one word in the English language with five letters based on the following text.
स्तैन् ब्लीवस् सैवी
Hint 1:
Yaan ka'ap'éel capas ti' le talamilo'.
Hint 2:
ᐊᐃᑉᐸᖓ ...
- 243
16
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Longest English homophone/heteronym chain
English has many words that have multiple pronunciations for the same spelling (heteronyms) or multiple spellings for the same pronunciation (homophones). What is the longest chain of unique spelling/...
- 279
6
votes
1
answer
583
views
International youth meeting
The following youths participate at the international youth meeting:
John from the USA, 14 years old
Pierre from France, 13 years old
Stefan from Germany, 15 years old
Marten from the Netherlands, 11 ...
- 1,661
1
vote
1
answer
153
views
Word and number connection
Connect these following words/phrases:
Best regards
Hatsune Miku
Unofficial
Miserable
Heaven
Rubber
Meat
To the following numbers:
63
4649
56
152
39
.59
29
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4
votes
1
answer
349
views
First Prize: Wisdom of 1972
Clues: [contextual images]
Q: Lei parla inglese?
A: ♂
[25 puzzle pieces with letters inside]
[I] [S] [N] [U] [P]
[N] [R] [I] [S] [N]
[C] [I] [S] [N] [I]
[I] [E] [O] [C] [L]
[L] [E] [O] [C] [L]
...
- 1,083
4
votes
1
answer
430
views
Five element puzzle
Born from water sun stone be B.
Five elements are ki.
The first give three, the rest he.
In five symbols, eight see.
From them form, evidently
That which is written for thee.
- 738
1
vote
1
answer
198
views
Themed Boggle Grids Continued
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games.
Click here for the rules.
Here are some more themed Boggle grids that I created or discovered. Some of these may be references to ...
- 2,699
8
votes
0
answers
874
views
They are all K-verbs
Find the missing verb.
G: Fold, Break, Pry
D: Reduce, Vibrate, Rob
B: Soak, Subtract, Thrash
J: Sleep, Squeeze, ?
Subtle Hint:
Moderate Hint:
Decisive Hint:
Very Decisive Hint:
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14
votes
1
answer
473
views
PSE Advent Calendar 2022 (Day 21): Color of the Bells
This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2022. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.< Previous Door Next Door >
A Motley ...
- 18.2k
15
votes
1
answer
522
views
PSE Advent Calendar 2022 (Day 9): International Christmas Crossword
This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2022. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.< Previous Door Next Door >
Languages
...
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8
votes
0
answers
438
views
Cookie Unionization
My Christmas cookies are gone! When I came into the kitchen this morning, the box was empty. All that remained were a few crumbs and this note:
We absconded.
You never saw that coming, did you? Well, ...
- 400
1
vote
0
answers
232
views
Clues don't lie?
What are we?
I am a b-ball player in a... (9)
My prefix is a French degree,
My infix is in Britain, misleadingly,
My suffix is above you,
But my whole is behind. (6)
A country that recently changed ...
user79541
7
votes
1
answer
324
views
Gathering for fraternities and sororities
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #4: Cross-*non*-words
I've already got two crosswords for the challenge.
Recently, the fraternities, the sororities and I worked together to make a ...
- 2,699
2
votes
1
answer
318
views
What does the neo-futurist poetry mean?
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #4: Cross-*non*-words
May 4 be in 6.
May the ...
- 2,699
25
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Strange Glyphs From Another Time
The following glyphs were recently uncovered at a dig site, which have stumped cryptographers and linguists alike. These symbols are guessed to be some sort of ancient language, but nothing is yet ...
- 539
0
votes
1
answer
113
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Di Ritorno (I think?)
I am return.
In other news, use Eurovision rankings.
Also, here's the weekly spelling list (etymologies inclusive):
psephology, Greek
caixinha, Portuguese
auftaktigkeit, German
gopak, Russ. from ...
user79541
1
vote
0
answers
2k
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Terminal 00 sacred words / witch id riddle, [closed]
I found this website angusnicneven.com, dug through it and found a page witch requires a witch ID and sacred words. The page I found this text on is https://angusnicneven.com/...
- 11
24
votes
1
answer
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Formal Languages
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx
Emmy prefers when you are formal.
Tua’s fathseir
▢▢▢◯▢ ◯▢◯▢▢
They jotú in cheress
▢▢◯▢▢▢◯
Duge where some were ...
- 18.2k
9
votes
1
answer
766
views
Emotional Depth
Clifford in his 35th book? (4 3)
Shrek's pep? (4 6)
So-called "Sidney"'s sadness about cookie inevitability? (Pardon my French) (7 5)
What do these characters display?
...
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8
votes
11
answers
2k
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Beware of raining cephalopods
The picture depicts a real traffic sign painted in South Africa.
It was intended to be an official traffic sign - but the painter, being unfamiliar with them, painted this according to the brief he ...
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3
votes
3
answers
375
views
Watching out over my domain
What is the word?
Watching out over my domain
Angry, behold my train
Zooming forth with refrain
Oh, I see you
What am I? How many hints can you find?
Hint:
Hint:
Hint:
- 145
-2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
FIND 4 sets of 5-letter words using these non-repeating letters: [closed]
Find 4 sets of 5-letter words using these non-repeating letters:
N, C, A, V, M, S, E, Y, U, R, O, F, G, T, I, L, H, K, P, D
10
votes
5
answers
944
views
An animal, posed in a poem
I might sound fe_ _ _ _
Yet I'm in the opposite.
Do not count my _ _ _ _s
It was one originally.
But you can spell out
A bright star in me!
And please be sure that you're
Going to the right direction!
...
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6
votes
1
answer
259
views
An image filled with circles
Here is an image. My question is simple: what is this? (As a side note, I did not invent this, and it was not intended by its creator to be a puzzle.)
PS: If you believe you have solved it, see if ...
- 511
-4
votes
1
answer
157
views
I am the leader of the alphabet [closed]
A simple one-liner:
I am the leader of the alphabet.
What am I?
- 602
5
votes
1
answer
363
views
Reading 2424 in Japanese
Celebrating twenty-four!
The answer is numerical.
Hint:
Ambiguous Hint:
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4
votes
1
answer
245
views
One in a million: a musical charm
Here's a simple riddle I came up with myself. If this puzzle already exists elsewhere on the Web, please forgive me, I didn't know about it.
As a whole, I'm charmed. Remove two letters from the start ...
7
votes
1
answer
723
views
Language Barrier - A study on languages
(Author Note) A while ago I made some puzzles for a now defunct puzzle hunt project, here's one of them. The answer to this (and some other puzzles of said hunt) is two words. The puzzle itself is ...
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12
votes
2
answers
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1
vote
2
answers
475
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What is a gksrnrdj Word?
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 gksrnrdj Word™.
Use the ...
- 2,699
9
votes
1
answer
265
views
Massively multilingual Euro crossword
The clues in this crossword are in 18 different European languages: English, Belarusian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, ...
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8
votes
3
answers
11k
views
What dictionary is Wordle based on?
The US Scrabble dictionary only has 9,000ish 5 letter words, of which a good portion are plurals, and then there's the list of "dead" words in the code and then most of these words are not &...
- 81
28
votes
1
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PSE Advent Calendar 2021 (Day 11): What Child – Er, Game Is This?
This puzzle is part of the Puzzling StackExchange Advent Calendar 2021. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.< Previous Door Next Door >
I. The story
...
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17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
A week around Europe
I've recently returned from a week of travelling around Europe, visiting a different town or city in a different country on each day, choosing my destinations according to an underlying pattern. I've ...
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3
votes
2
answers
470
views
I thought morse code was dead?
My computer went on the fritz earlier today and all of my messages were being sent in what looked like morse code. I recorded a few test messages to confirm my suspicions once the anomaly ended and to ...
- 10.6k
0
votes
1
answer
119
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Exploring the Myrmidon's Hive
While getting stuff from the basement, you find a panel concealing a tunnel leading into a myrmidon hive. This discovery, along with the overall freshness of the tunnel, prompts you to go find out if ...
- 1,185
12
votes
1
answer
750
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Left wanting more
This is part 14 of the puzzle series that started at Living the traveller's dream. This is the final puzzle in the series and solving it requires knowing the answers to the previous puzzles.
Previous ...
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4
votes
5
answers
360
views
Three riddles of a common (and repetitive) format
What do you call it when a historically discredited means of contraceptive is vindicated by new research?
I was just looking over my son's book report on speed reading strategies; what are you doing ...
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2
votes
1
answer
511
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You should mind your P's first
This should be short and sweet.
Given his strength, he must be the almighty. Given his health, he must use ointments. Given his status, should we board his ark?
Hint 1:
Hint 2:
Hint 3:
Hint 4:
...
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