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.

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4 votes
1 answer
389 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.
  • 652
1 vote
1 answer
189 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 ...
7 votes
1 answer
416 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:
  • 3,591
14 votes
1 answer
416 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 ...
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13 votes
1 answer
437 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 ...
  • 660
8 votes
0 answers
415 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, ...
  • 399
1 vote
0 answers
212 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 ...
  • 1,291
7 votes
1 answer
301 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 votes
1 answer
299 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 ...
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 ...
0 votes
1 answer
105 views

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 ...
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1 vote
0 answers
766 views

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/...
23 votes
1 answer
1k views

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 ...
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9 votes
1 answer
758 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 views

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 ...
  • 625
3 votes
3 answers
371 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
414 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
927 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! ...
  • 3,591
1 vote
0 answers
157 views

A wall of friendly, smiling rileys?

My prefix is another country, known for me, My infix is a response, not dangerously, My suffix is a scream, or a rush, for memes, And my whole is the key. My prefix is in this clue, My infix is at ...
  • 1,291
6 votes
1 answer
249 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 ...
-4 votes
1 answer
149 views

I am the leader of the alphabet [closed]

A simple one-liner: I am the leader of the alphabet. What am I?
5 votes
1 answer
349 views

Reading 2424 in Japanese

Celebrating twenty-four! The answer is numerical. Hint: Ambiguous Hint:
  • 15.3k
4 votes
1 answer
235 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
713 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 ...
  • 6,515
12 votes
2 answers
367 views

This One Goes With Five

This one goes with five What is the following Rebus? Hint
  • 39k
2 votes
2 answers
430 views

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 ...
9 votes
1 answer
246 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, ...
  • 69.5k
6 votes
3 answers
9k 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 &...
28 votes
1 answer
978 views

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 ...
  • 3,329
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 ...
  • 117k
3 votes
2 answers
456 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 ...
0 votes
1 answer
117 views

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 ...
  • 1,125
12 votes
1 answer
731 views

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 ...
  • 69.5k
4 votes
5 answers
342 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 ...
  • 1,848
2 votes
1 answer
503 views

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: ...
-2 votes
2 answers
253 views

Prefixes of French words in the Princeton linguistics challenge

Source I am unable to come up with a complete solution. No outside knowledge is said to be required for the solution to this puzzle. My observations: words which are not without a prefix only have ré ...
10 votes
1 answer
360 views

Fire and Vengeance

"Daring" Ashe surveyed the towering structures and stagnant open spaces of the Temple of the Giraffes, licking her lips. On a previous expedition she'd sneaked away a bejewelled treasure, ...
  • 6,784
1 vote
4 answers
800 views

Bread is bread but

Bread is bread but what bread you can't eat? Bridges are bridges but what bridge doesn't connect two landmasses? Paper is paper but what paper you can't write on? Candies are candies but what candy ...
6 votes
0 answers
422 views

Answer to the question: "Who Wins?"

Crié ala caleverti miku'ilatmo doci pramilerfu Hint: Non-Youtube description of video contents (for accessibility/posterity purposes):
  • 1,848
11 votes
1 answer
671 views

I saw what's yours

Pair up the following ten words: Arabic french fries gray monthly ninety-nine paying rent smooth whatever yellow Hint, added later: Another hint, added even later: Another hint, added even later:
  • 11.3k
3 votes
0 answers
207 views

An Assortment of Letters

Can you figure out how I've split the below letters into their groups? Group 1 Group 2 D H L S F P T Y Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 C D H J N P V W Y L T M S B R Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group ...
  • 3,065
3 votes
2 answers
284 views

Country Outliers

You are given a note from a language nerd, which is: If Japan is 239, Then Germany is 4. Greece is 14, While Italy is 3. Now, Philippines has 412. But Norway has 2357! Now you are given 3 questions: ...
1 vote
2 answers
309 views

Simple language rebuses

What 2-word associates with this rebus? (actually not a rebus) also: What word associates with this rebus? Hints:
-3 votes
1 answer
128 views

What is a Number 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 Number Word™. Use the ...
6 votes
1 answer
247 views

Hangman: Reverse Edition

Put a P, then Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva will turn a goddess into this. Put an R, you speak it more than writing it. Put a T, I become e-learning. Put a G, then I become a floor. If you're new to ...
10 votes
2 answers
366 views

Wordsmiths & Wyverns

You awaken in a foul crypt with only the following items at your disposal... ROPE, BOOTS, AMULET, MAP, FLAIL, CHAIN, CUP, BELL, STAFF, RING, CODEC, RUM, FLUTE You also have the following tools. Awl (...
  • 9,156
0 votes
2 answers
114 views

What do these three towns have in common?

What do these three towns have in common? "Dublin", "Blackpool", "Chernobyl".
4 votes
1 answer
230 views

Decipher the language

An alien planet called EMJ-26 has an alphabet that has letters switched around. Their language is identical to english but they use different letters. Here are the names of some countries on earth ...
4 votes
1 answer
409 views

PRINCESS CONNECT! wall

I wanted to make an anime-themed visual connect wall, but chickened out from including copyrighted images...so here is a much harder version of it, that is also no longer visual. Never tried to make a ...
6 votes
1 answer
433 views

First Riddle Attempt

My prefix is young. Is also a clipping. And will likely never have a crush. My suffix is well known and multiply defined in mathematics. It is defined in Geometry, Arithmetic operations, Group Theory ...
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