Contest: Let's Guess Three Words IV! (Week 3 update)

For full rules, see here.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, "vowel" and "consonant" are defined as per National Puzzlers League rules, since those are the rules my readers seem to want to go along with. This means that A, E, I, O, U, and Y are vowels, and the other 20 letters are consonants.

Week 0:

The set of all words in which the second letter is a vowel: ONE
The set of all words containing a string of three or more consecutive consonants (e.g. THREE) and/or a string of two or more consecutive vowels (e.g. THREE): TWO

Week 1:

[Buster Beachside] The set of all words containing exactly four letters, exactly three of which are consonants: NONE

[Cody McWilliams] The set of all words that end with a vowel: NONE

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose first letter appears in the words "SPEED RACER": TWO

[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter strictly after Q alphabetically (RSTUVWXYZ): NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words in which a letter appears more than once: TWO

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words which begin with a letter found in the words "FOOD BANK": ONE

Week 2:

[BentFork06] The set of all 4-letter words which start with a vowel: NONE

[Buster Beachside] The set of all 5-letter words: NONE

[Cody McWilliams] The set of all the words that contain the bigram PH: NONE

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose second-to-last letter appears in the words "RAIN MAN": ALL

[John Bulten] The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and is a consonant other than S: ONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing exactly two vowels: ONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words that contain 3 or more vowels: TWO

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words in which all vowels are in alphabetical order (examples: FACETIOUSLY, BABOON, HMM): ONE

[Spheniscine] The set of all words with at least three vowels: TWO

Week 3:

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose third letter appears in the words "PERFECT BLUE": NONE

[John Bulten] The set of all words with an even number of letters greater than five: ONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words of odd length (3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, or 15): TWO

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length less than or equal to 5 letters: NONE

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $74. (Reminder: up to $50 will be donated for this contest, and the excess will carry over to the next one.)

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 428: Hex Pathfinder 26 & Wordy Wednesday 429: Crypticrostic 13

WORDY WEDNESDAY #426
SECTION SIX 42 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Lebowitz **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #427
PATHFINDER 24 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #428
HEX PATHFINDER 26
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron M. Sean Molley. Support me on Patreon at the Super Fan level ($5/month) and solve the monthly Patron Puzzle for a chance to suggest a seed word for a future puzzle, or at the Ultra Fan level ($20/month) to suggest one seed word every month!

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

1NW From 2003 through 2016, he passed for a total of 34,183 yards, the most of any quarterback in Dallas Cowboys history (8, 2 wds.)

2NW 2007 hack and slash game with Travis Touchdown (12, 3 wds.)

3NW Small restaurant (6)

4SW Old Testament queen (6)

5SW “____ Tonight” (1979 hit for the Eagles) (9)

6NE ____ speaker (7)

7SW Blubber (4)

8SW Follow (10)

9NW Georges Braque, for one (6)

10NW Courage (5)

11E Royal seat (6)

12E CNN commentator Cooper (8)

13W Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team (14, 2 wds.)

14NW Board game originally released in France as La Conquête du Monde (“The Conquest of the World”) (4)

15W Mischievous one (7)

16NE March of ____ (organization that works for the health of mothers and babies) (5)

17SE Device on a submarine (5)

18NW “Dancing on the Ceiling” singer (12, 2 wds.)

19SW Deep cut in flesh (4)

19SW Pertaining to the stomach (7)

20NE 3-2-1 ____ (1980-1992 PBS science series) (7)

20SE Name shared by the southernmost city in Illinois and an African capital city (5)

21SE Like an autonomous car (10)

22E Doomed from the start (13, 3 wds.)

23SW ____ of Dreams (1993 Billy Joel album) (5)

24SW Attempts (5)

25NE Envision, as a concept (6)

25W Like some coffee (7)

26SW Wily trick (4)

27NW Japanese art of growing small potted trees (6)

27E “God ____ Our Homeland Ghana” (Ghana’s national anthem) (5)

28E ____ circuit (5)

29NE Electronic dance music genre originating from Chicago (5)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #429
CRYPTICROSTIC 13
(click here for a PDF version)
(click here for rules)

The answer is enumerated (5-3).

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Big name in home security beginning to bulwark skating arenas __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                              24 19 14 04 39 30

Bit of coffee blend is not strong __ __ __ __ __ __ 

                                  07 22 26 01 13 37

Demon loses one shield __ __ __ __ 

                       27 35 23 17

Endlessly fake leader in coronavirus information! __ __ __ __ __

                                                  18 03 29 15 10

Hazy comedian Rocca in the air above us __ __ __ __ __ 

                                        12 32 20 34 40

Reportedly damages car rental company __ __ __ __ __

                                      09 25 38 08 21

Wander back around central Beijing – monumental __ __ __ __ __

                                                28 33 36 06 02

Watch actor Danson around noon __ __ __ __

                               31 16 11 05

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Love & ____ Drugs (2010 film)"?
* Patron Puzzle #88, which will be delivered on September 1, 2021, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is titled Just Solve A Simple Word Search.

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words IV! (Week 2 update)

For full rules, see here.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, "vowel" and "consonant" are defined as per National Puzzlers League rules, since those are the rules my readers seem to want to go along with. This means that A, E, I, O, U, and Y are vowels, and the other 20 letters are consonants.

Week 0:

The set of all words in which the second letter is a vowel: ONE
The set of all words containing a string of three or more consecutive consonants (e.g. THREE) and/or a string of two or more consecutive vowels (e.g. THREE): TWO

Week 1:

[Buster Beachside] The set of all words containing exactly four letters, exactly three of which are consonants: NONE

[Cody McWilliams] The set of all words that end with a vowel: NONE

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose first letter appears in the words "SPEED RACER": TWO

[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter strictly after Q alphabetically (RSTUVWXYZ): NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words in which a letter appears more than once: TWO

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words which begin with a letter found in the words "FOOD BANK": ONE

Week 2:

[BentFork06] The set of all 4-letter words which start with a vowel: NONE

[Buster Beachside] The set of all 5-letter words: NONE

[Cody McWilliams] The set of all the words that contain the bigram PH: NONE

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose second-to-last letter appears in the words "RAIN MAN": ALL

[John Bulten] The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and is a consonant other than S: ONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing exactly two vowels: ONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words that contain 3 or more vowels: TWO

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words in which all vowels are in alphabetical order (examples: FACETIOUSLY, BABOON, HMM): ONE

[Spheniscine] The set of all words with at least three vowels: TWO

Kyle Nils was technically late this week, but since I had time to edit the post, and since Kyle and Spheniscine are demonstrating some amazing teamwork, I decided to include the guess anyway.

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $76. (Reminder: up to $50 will be donated for this contest, and the excess will carry over to the next one.)

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 427: Pathfinder 24

WORDY WEDNESDAY #425
PENT WORDS 85 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #426
SECTION SIX 42 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #427
PATHFINDER 24
(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, an 8-letter word.

1 Moisten cooking meat, say (5)

2 NH3 (7)

3 Electric organ inventor and namesake Laurens (7)

3 Sports term originating from cricket, when H. H. Stephenson took three wickets in consecutive balls and was rewarded with a cap for the feat (3 5)

4 Items for fishermen (4)

5 Horror novelist Stephen (4)

6 Qualities (10)

7 Bangkok resident (4)

7 Stuff inserted in a needle’s eye (6)

8 Northern inlet of Asia’s Yellow Sea (5 3)

9 Margarine (4)

10 Sport from which the Japanese sport of gateball is derived (7)

11 Central American bird of the trogon family (7)

12 Film director Kubrick (7)

13 World ____ (annual baseball championship) (6)

14 Song in which Lee Ann Womack asks for “a man who can tame a wild mustang” (8)

15 Lacking wordiness (5)

16 Far from careless (11)

17 Prove the falsehood of (6)

18 Attractively full-figured (6)

19 Country in the Iberian Peninsula (5)

19 Certain Arabs (6)

20 Boats that carry people across a body of water (7)

21 Ventricle's counterpart (6)

22 My Friend ____ (1941 Mary O’Hara novel about a mustang horse) (6)

23 Wombs (5)

24 Zero out a scale (4)

25 Feline with orange and black stripes (5)

26 Royalty payment for a rerun, for instance (8)

27 Swiss breakfast made of rolled oats and fruit (6)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Name shared by the southernmost city in Illinois and an African capital city"?
* A Crypticrostic!

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words IV! (Week 1 update)

For full rules, see here.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, "vowel" and "consonant" are defined as per National Puzzlers League rules, since those are the rules my readers seem to want to go along with. This means that A, E, I, O, U, and Y are vowels, and the other 20 letters are consonants.

Week 0:

The set of all words in which the second letter is a vowel: ONE
The set of all words containing a string of three or more consecutive consonants (e.g. THREE) and/or a string of two or more consecutive vowels (e.g. THREE): TWO

Week 1:

[Buster Beachside] The set of all words containing exactly four letters, exactly three of which are consonants: NONE

[Cody McWilliams] The set of all words that end with a vowel: NONE

[Izak Bulten] The set of all words whose first letter appears in the words "SPEED RACER": TWO

[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter strictly after Q alphabetically (RSTUVWXYZ): NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words in which a letter appears more than once: TWO

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words which begin with a letter found in the words "FOOD BANK": ONE

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $78. (Reminder: up to $50 will be donated for this contest, and the excess will carry over to the next one.)

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 426: Section Six 42

WORDY WEDNESDAY #423
PATHFINDER 23 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Tyler Hinman **
Brian Cross *
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #424
CODEWORDS 15 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cindy Heisler **
Karen Spencer **
Tyler Hinman **
Brian Cross *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #425
PENT WORDS 85 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #426
SECTION SIX 42
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle's grid has six rings and six sections. Each ring contains a series of words placed end to end, reading either clockwise or counterclockwise; all the words in a given ring will read in the same direction. Ring 1 (the outer ring) contains six answers that read clockwise; the starting spaces are numbered in the grid. Clues for the answers in the remaining rings are given in order, but their starting points and direction are for you to determine. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you place the inner rings: in a given section, each ring segment contains all but one of the letters in the next segment outward. In other words, a section's outermost segment contains six letters; the next segment inward contains five of those six letters in some order; and so on, until only one of the original six letters remains.

Arrange the letters in the six starred spaces to form the final answer, a 6-letter word.

Ring 1

1 Derringer, for example

2 A city in Pennsylvania

3 Not correct

4 ____ Happened to… Robot Jones? (2002-2004 cartoon)

5 Fear ____ (reality series)

6 Old Faithful, for one

Ring 2

* “____ my dead body!”

* Shawl that might be used as a bedspread

* The ____ Inferno (1974 disaster film)

* Feeling apprehension 

* Feel sorry for

Ring 3

* It may be measured in pounds

* Garden-variety

* They beat deuces

* Footrace participant

Ring 4

* Certain blood vessel

* Boredom

* The ____ Channel (network with Local on the 8s)

Ring 5

* Page listing corrections to a printed work

* “The ____ Takes It All” (ABBA song)

Ring 6

* Harry who wrote the music for the musical 42nd Street, or senator Elizabeth

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "Electric organ inventor and namesake Laurens"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words IV!

New rules are in bold! Read them carefully!

I am thinking of three distinct English words that are at least 2 letters long and no more than 15 letters long. All of the words are valid in Scrabble according to https://scrabble.merriam.com/. Your goal is to guess them. Everyone who guesses the trio of words correctly by the time the contest is over will be entered for a chance to win a gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles worth $10 (its value is no longer tied to the charity money pool), plus a surprise gift featuring a fox/badger character that veterans of this blog might remember (same surprise as in my last contest — I don't wish to spoil the surprise, but I've got dozens). Additionally, one random person who meaningfully participates in this contest (either by making a public guess at any time or by correctly guessing the word trio) will win the same prize package in a second random drawing! Now you don't even need to solve anything to win, just help people solve something! This is truly remarkable!

Once per week, each and every single person reading this blog post is allowed to e-mail a set of words to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. To give me more time to prepare the weekly posts (in case of a freak statewide power outage, for example), the deadline to guarantee your guess being accepted is 12:01 AM Central time each Sunday. If it is a set of at least 10 words or it is defined by a property of the words rather than an explicit list, I will publicly post on this blog (on the following Monday at 12:01 AM Central time) whether NONE, ONE, TWO, or ALL of my words are in that set. If it is a set of 9 words or fewer and you list the words explicitly (that is, you guess "{CINQ, QADI, QAID, QATS, QOPH}" rather than "the set of all Scrabble-legal 4-letter words with a Q and not a U"), I will privately give you the same information in an email sometime that Sunday.

I reserve the right to reject any guess if it is impossible for the average reader (who doesn't know what my words are already) to determine whether or not any given word is in your set within a relatively short amount of time. This is a difficult quality to define empirically, but valid guesses would include "the set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME" or "the set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters", and invalid guesses would include "the set of the three words Grant is thinking of" and "the set of all words still in at least one possible word trio given the information publicly available right now, and which, if the words in that set were listed and numbered alphabetically starting from 1, would have prime indices". Keep it simple!

Once someone has guessed the trio of words (that is, submitted to me a set of exactly three words and gotten a result of ALL), one last weekly update will be posted on this blog, including one last hint from me, and then people who haven't guessed the words yet will have one more week to try to do so and be entered in the prize drawing. The deadline for this final week will be 12:01 AM Central time on the following Monday (that is, the aforementioned 12:01 AM Sunday deadline will not be applied). The rules for private guesses still apply (you must explicitly list the three words you are guessing, not define them uniquely by some convoluted property).

This contest will also benefit the Food Bank of West Central Texas. The money pool will start at $80, the amount determined by the previous contest, and then go down $2 for every weekly update that has gone by without someone guessing the trio of words. (Exception: the value cannot go below $2.) Up to $50 of the money pool will be donated once the words are guessed. If there's any money left over, it will carry over to another word-guessing contest one week after the results of this contest are announced. Even if you aren't interested in the prize drawing, your participation may help someone else solve the words faster and thus help charity!

To kick things off, I'll make two guesses for you (not four, because you people are getting smarter!), chosen from among the guesses that were made in Let's Guess Three Words III!. Note: Unless otherwise specified, "vowel" and "consonant" are defined as per National Puzzlers League rules, since those are the rules my readers seem to want to go along with. This means that A, E, I, O, U, and Y are vowels, and the other 20 letters are consonants.

The set of all words in which the second letter is a vowel: ONE
The set of all words containing a string of three or more consecutive consonants (e.g. THREE) and/or a string of two or more consecutive vowels (e.g. THREE): TWO

Good luck, and happy guessing!

Wordy Wednesday 425: Pent Words 85

WORDY WEDNESDAY #422
DIVIDED INTO COLUMNS 7 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cole Kendall **
Karen Spencer **
Tyler Hinman *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #423
PATHFINDER 23 (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #424
CODEWORDS 15 (hint)

As of this writing, 6 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #425
PENT WORDS 85
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Kyle Nils. Support me on Patreon at the Super Fan level ($5/month) and solve the monthly Patron Puzzle for a chance to suggest a seed word for a future puzzle, or at the Ultra Fan level ($20/month) to suggest one seed word every month!

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the Across clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the Pentominoes clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):

1 Mammalian feature / ____ 5 (1993-1998 sci-fi series)

2 Comedian Mulaney / Pincher bug

3 Mouth, slangily / Freshly made over

4 Become adjusted (to) / “Trip Through Your ____” (U2 song)

5 Emerald, for example / Dishonor

6 Personal belief / Earl Grey, for example

7 Miner’s target / Rot

8 Piercing item / Morally rigid, like “religious scholar” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi according to The Washington Post in 2019

9 Word for a person, place, thing, or idea / Prince of ____ (video game franchise)

10 South America’s third largest country / Incontinence pad brand you can “rely” on

PENTOMINOES:

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* Negatively charged particle

* Fouled up

* Long narrow sea arm bordered by steep cliffs

* Moisten cooking meat, say

* Jeweler’s lens

* Item in the Tor logo

* Local ordinance

* Become mature, as fruit

* ____ Cowboy (1980 film with Debra Winger as Sissy)

* Spin quickly

* Excessive moralist

* Honking waterfowls

* Junkies

* Large shrimp

* Verboten

* Bird’s nest on a cliff

* In the lead

* “A mind is a terrible thing to ____”

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Fear ____ (reality series)"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Contest: A Musical Crisscross (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted the contest A Musical Crisscross. Here are the results!