Questions tagged [letters]
A puzzle which involves the manipulation of individual letters within words, or letters by themselves.
321
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answer
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An 18-Letter Challenge-B: three 6-letter words, with limitations
Using the YAWL wordlist https://github.com/elasticdog/yawl/archive/master.zip:
Locate three 6-letter words comprised of 18 unique letters,
Using C and V,
Not using KRANTZ / PLONGD / PRANCK,
Using a ...
-3
votes
1
answer
85
views
An 18-Letter Challenge-A: three 6-letter words, with limitations
Use the following 22 letters to make three 6-letter words (it's the alphabet w/o H, M, Q, and S):
ABCDEFGIJKLNOPRTUVWXYZ
Here are the limitations:
Use YAWL for wordlist: https://github.com/...
1
vote
2
answers
289
views
Perfect Pangram development
I aim to craft very specific "perfect pangrams." A perfect pangram consists of exactly 26 letters, each used once. I include the letter lengths of each word, as well, between slashes ...
1
vote
3
answers
218
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Can you use all 26 letters across four 7-letter words?
I'm wondering if there's a set of four 7-letter words that employ all 26 English letters. That's 28 letters total, allowing for 2 duplicates. I would even count getting 25 a win (see below for my 22- ...
2
votes
2
answers
329
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Three 7-letter words, 21 unique letters, excludes either HM or QS
I'm looking for three seven letter words consisting of 21 unique letters, and the final result must exclude either the letters HM or QS (Excluding S may be impossible based off of my own attempts). ...
27
votes
1
answer
3k
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What was I thinking when I drew this diagram?
True story which I thought worth sharing: I recently came across a scrawled diagram on a scrap piece of paper while tidying my house. It was clearly my handiwork (probably a rough idea for a puzzle), ...
4
votes
1
answer
380
views
What's the hidden message in this text?
The text is as follows:
John has a girlfriend. Her name is Samantha. She is a newbie singer. She sung one of her songs in a charity. She is also an English teacher for foreigners. She broke her hand ...
2
votes
1
answer
148
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Name of puzzle with 9 letters where you make 4-letter words always using the central letter
Years ago I used to do the word puzzles in magazines like That's Life, etc. My favourite puzzle used to be called a Wordsmith. It provided 9 letters, out of which you made words of 4 or more letters ...
3
votes
1
answer
268
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COMMENCE = 18251624, PRESERVE = 18323620, UNLAWFUL = what?
In a certain code language COMMENCE is coded as 18251624 and PRESERVE is coded as 18323620. How will ...
1
vote
1
answer
261
views
Four five-letter words from the 20 most common letters
The 20 most common letters in English are
ETAOINSHRDLCUMWFGYPB
Are there four five-letter words that use all 20 of the letters once?
6
votes
1
answer
358
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A lesson in attention to detail
Background (to be read): In 2023, I created and posted on this site a series of puzzles called A Trivial Pursuit. This involved creating 24 themed puzzles, each of which produced a one-word final ...
7
votes
1
answer
379
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Who’s missing from this group of stars?
You’ve recently joined the Grey Elm, an exclusive VIP club, as an event organizer. Tonight’s event in particular features a lot of starpower, going by these aliases:
Black-DRAGON
GreenTurtleShells
...
8
votes
1
answer
280
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Ordered Vowelburgers™ as many as possible
I wanted to order Vowelburgers™ as many as possible, and came up with one idea. But for the purposes of giving a puzzle, I'm concealing what the idea was.
Here are the Vowelburgers™ I've received, ...
5
votes
3
answers
1k
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Two 10-letter words consisting of 20 unique letters?
I'm looking for two words, 10 letters each, 20 unique letters. Below are my by-hand attempts.
https://www.wordunscrambler.net/word-list/10-letter-words-with-no-repeating-letters Find words with 3 or ...
4
votes
0
answers
339
views
Lucas's interesting cipher
Lucas was fooling around with some letters when he encoded some text into Gsobj lwmtkd sbceugb vfy rgdjb.. Can you figure out the original text he had?
18
votes
1
answer
690
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Alphabetic string theory
According to alphabetic string theory, the words we see are merely the visible portions of highly convoluted loops of multi-dimensional alphabetic string.
For example, here is what we see in our space-...
0
votes
1
answer
113
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"Anagrams mod two," U.S. states and territories
I blogged this here, but am crossposting to Puzzling.SE for my benefit and yours. :)
At today’s “Gathering 4 Gardner” social, Gordon Lessells presented his annual Christmas puzzle. The mechanism, ...
13
votes
1
answer
460
views
17 letters, 4 groups
Arrange these 17 letters into four groups of four:
B, A, N, X, O, V, AB, Q, Z, J, I, L, S, C, W, E
This is inspired by the New York Times Connections puzzles.
13
votes
1
answer
744
views
PSE Advent Calendar 2023 (Day 6): It's a beautiful day for a ballgame
This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2023. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.< Previous Door Next Door >
It's the ...
6
votes
2
answers
718
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Can you employ all 26 letters using three 11-letter, three 10-letter, or three 9-letter words?
I'd like to take the premise of my previous (and insofar, only other) post and extend it. Are there any wordsets that cover all 26 letters across...
Three 11-letter words,
Three 10-letter words,
or ...
8
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Three 8-letter words with at least 23 different letters
I have literally dozens of wordsets containing 22 different letters, but haven't been able to crack 23, and DEFINITELY not 24. Can you do it?
Here are as many of mine as I feel like posting, to get ...
6
votes
6
answers
6k
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'SILVER' -> ‘LESIRU' and 'GOLDEN' -> 'LEGOND', so 'NATURE' -> what?
I found this problem in an Indian Highschool Reasoning Olympiad. (image)
If 'SILVER' is coded as 'LESIRU' and 'GOLDEN' is coded as 'LEGOND', then in the same code language how 'NATURE' will be coded ...
1
vote
0
answers
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Can you find the missing letters?
A pattern of letters has had letters 10 through 20 deleted. Your job is to find out what letters should go in spots 10-20. Here is the pattern:
a, b, c, d, d, d, f, e, f, _, _, _, _, _, _, _, _, _, _, ...
21
votes
1
answer
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Order the cities, then find which one is not described
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #14: Think inside the (very small) box!.
Here are four cities, each of them in a different country. What you need to do is the following.
Figure ...
15
votes
1
answer
858
views
A Trivial Pursuit #07 (Geography 2/4): String Theory
This is part 7 of A Trivial Pursuit, a 25-part puzzle hunt. Each part is solvable on its own, with the exception of the meta-puzzle at the end.
If
e*
t*
u*
v*
w*
x*
y*
is H...
What relevant (if ...
20
votes
1
answer
770
views
A Trivial Pursuit #04 (Art and Literature 1/4): Threesome
This is part 4 of A Trivial Pursuit, a 25-part puzzle hunt. Each part is solvable on its own, with the exception of the meta-puzzle at the end.
QUE
STI
ONS
SEC@ND
L@TR
V@LUME
B@ANWELL’S
AUTHO@
...
1
vote
1
answer
206
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Quordle: Killer Guess
The last time I played Quordle, I didn't perfectly match any of the four words on my first guess. But my first guess did give me enough information to fully deduce the solution. (Note that a solution ...
69
votes
1
answer
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Alphabet snake, master of camouflage
The alphabet snake
is a master of camouflage. It finds a section of text in an old book or newspaper...
...crawls upon it...
...and disappears.
Now see if your camouflage skills can match those ...
20
votes
1
answer
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Only Connect - all at once!
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #9: Game/Quiz Shows.
Did you see the glitch on Only Connect last Monday?* The one where all four of the rounds got merged into one?!
Effectively, ...
13
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Patrick Terne Wants to Be a Millionaire
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #9: Game/Quiz Shows.
Sergeant Sequence had it all sussed out at last - his nemesis Patrick Terne was funding his criminal operations via an enormous ...
5
votes
1
answer
494
views
Whose garden centre did we visit?
So my mum and I were in a garden centre the other day, run by a large British organisation.
Of course, garden centres sell all kinds of things, including home decoration. They had some jarred candles ...
15
votes
1
answer
2k
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Known for my code
I am known for my code. If you add a letter before my last one, my first three letters are never eaten by my last five letters. What is my first letter?
1
vote
1
answer
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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 ...
20
votes
1
answer
2k
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Using sentence, turn intense into incense; what tool do I need?
Puzzle
What tool do I need to turn intense into incense, using sentence?
The same tool can turn dated into demented, using statement.
Hints
(Kudos: the accepted answer was published before the hints.)...
5
votes
1
answer
514
views
Right turn only puzzle
Here is a grid with 24 spaces filled with letters.
Pick any place to start your travel in the grid taking right turns only. You must get to all remaining 23 spaces but only once. By doing so create a ...
0
votes
1
answer
117
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Dangerous affection
This word means "(ability) to impose affection", good or malicious.
But if broken apart, the spelling of the parts would mean "to witness damage".
What is this word?
16
votes
1
answer
763
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PSE Advent Calendar 2022 (Day 3): Okay everybody, from the top!
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 >
My brother ...
6
votes
2
answers
436
views
Beatboxer? Get on the tiles!
The three overlapping ellipses form seven curved regions - place one tile in each region so that the tiles in any one ellipse can be re-arranged into an eight-letter solution to the corresponding clue!...
10
votes
3
answers
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Catching the "L" train
This is a more difficult version of an earlier puzzle.
Hit the "C" ball at such an angle that it creates a chain reaction which ultimately dislodges the "L" ball.
Whenever the ...
45
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Release the "Q" ball
Hit the "I" ball at such an angle that it creates a chain reaction which ultimately dislodges the "Q" ball.
Whenever the ball in motion hits a stationary ball, the ball in motion ...
17
votes
1
answer
2k
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We're just hanging out, man
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #3: Pencil and Paper Games
I'm a bit unsure who to ask about this...
You see, there's this guy I know. I say 'know' - we're not close mates, come ...
29
votes
1
answer
3k
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Avoid consuming broken cereal?
Please allow me to lead you on a merry dance through the following original puzzle (for which you will need to work out exactly which way to proceed).
The question is: What type of dance is it? The ...
11
votes
1
answer
1k
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Pigpen Tic-Tac-Toe
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #3: Pencil and Paper Games
Introducing a new tic-tac-toe variant of my own devising (at least I haven't found an equivalent anywhere online).
...
5
votes
1
answer
186
views
Swimmers' favouritism towards letters!
This puzzle is about five professional male swimmers
In 2004, after swimming for 200 m and 400 m separately, Michael Phelps started disliking double E but liked the letter I. He then started reading ...
9
votes
1
answer
930
views
An IQ test for the brave
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #2: IQ Puzzle Parody
$$
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|}
\hline
\text{Cr} & \text{Br} & \text{Rl} \\
\hline
\text{Je} & \text{Ud} & \text{Ft} ...
21
votes
1
answer
3k
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Another pseudo-IQ question
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #2: IQ Puzzle Parody
People keep asking me if there's anything between me and my good friend Ingrid Deduction... Well, it's... complicated... We go ...
10
votes
1
answer
580
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Now I've boxed my ABC's
Well, almost. Can you figure out my letter-classifying system, and where to put W, X, Y, and Z?
21
votes
2
answers
2k
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Longer Than Usual
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx
One for my fellow mapheads and pub quiz fans... There are many puzzles on PSE which use one-or-two-letter ...
27
votes
1
answer
2k
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Two mystical trees
Behold, the mystical Tree of B:
Notice that every path from trunk to canopy forms a word. You should see 16 words (from left to right: BLOOM, BLOOD, BLOWN, BLOWS, BLAND, BLANK, BLASÉ, BLAST, BROOK, ...
18
votes
2
answers
851
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The Moon and the Great Wall
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx
Instructions for this modified connecting wall:
In the connecting wall below, each item as written contains one ...