Here are my 17 words that contain the consonants CLR, in that order:
Éclair, caller, calorie, celery, cellar, clayier, clear, cloyer, cluer, coiler, collier, collar, color, cooler, couloir, culler, and ocular.
A couple of obscure words that work are coalier (more coal-like) and celure (a drape or canopy).
The two phrases that started me thinking were “water cooler” and “water color.”
I read the phrase “water color” at some point this weekend, and it occurred to me that another common phrase contains the exact same consonants in two words. Because the WTR part of the equation didn’t interest me as much, I’ve chosen CLR as today’s consonants.
How many non-capitalized English words can you think of that contain the consonants CLR, in that order, and no others? Complete rules are at the link at the upper right. I have a list of 10 so far and expect to have 12 to 15 by Wednesday, when I’ll post my list.
Tools offer a lot of possibilities for smiles. This one is from a circular saw.
I have a sick kid at home. She’s had a fever for three days, so I’ll be laying low watching movies and reading a lot. I hope that by my next post on Monday, she’s feeling like herself again. Be well.
Here are my answers to the Constant Consonants challenge from Monday. I found 23 words:
Asset, east, oast, oust, sat, satay, sate, sauté, seat, set, settee, sit, site, soot, sooty, sot, suet, suit, suite, stay, stoa, sty, and stye.
There are a couple of obscure words too, like sotie and suety. Of course, you might consider oast and satay to be obscure as well, but I think they are vaguely familiar as “crossword puzzle words.”
I thought I had used this combination of consonants before, but apparently not.
How many words can you think of that use the consonants S and T, in that order, and no others? Words may not be capitalized, and you may not repeat a consonant, unless there is no vowel in between. (So, “asset” is okay, but not “state”). For the full list of rules, see the link at the upper right.
I expect to have a list of over 20 words by Wednesday, when I’ll post my answers.
A page of my smile photos may be appearing in an upcoming issue of Games magazine, with the added puzzle being: What is this object?
Here’s an example of such a smile (this is not one that will appear in the magazine). What is it?
(If you hold your cursor over the picture, you’ll find the answer.)
I found a few more opposites that begin with the same letter than I expected. My rule was this: If you asked someone, “What’s the opposite of X” they should answer “Y” and then your pair X, Y would count. Here’s my summary:
Awake / asleep; boom / bust; concave / convex; do / don’t; entrance / exit; fact / fiction; (no G); heaven / hell; (no I, J, K, or L… any ideas?); maximum / minimum and major / minor; naughty / nice (unsure about that one); on / off; parallel / perpendicular; (no Q); rise / run; sunrise / sunset; thick / thin; (no U); virtue / vice; wax / wane; (no X); yin / yang; and zig / zag.
Today’s puzzle is a little bit different. It occurred to me over the weekend that there are several sets of opposites in which the two words begin with the same letter. For how many letters of the alphabet can you think of a set of opposites?
In my list, I will accept pairs that are not traditional opposites, such as might be found in a children’s book, but that are commonly portrayed as opposites. For example: ‘public and private’ is a good set. (I have one or two more examples for the letter P if you still want to come up with your own complete alphabet). A pair like ‘paper and plastic,’ on the other hand, is not an opposite, but a phrase that might be linked by the word “or.”
I don’t expect to find opposites for every letter of the alphabet, but I have 11 now, and I hope to have a few more by Wednesday, when I’ll post my list.
I hope that these twin pieces of hardware give you something to smile about today:
Happy October!
Here is my list of words for the RST Constant Consonants puzzle posed on Monday (I found 15):
Airiest, arrest, eeriest, erst, reseat, rest, risotto, roast, roost, roseate, rosette, roust, russet, rust, and rusty.
In addition, there’s resto (obscure for an antique, or the remainder), and Rasta (which is capitalized and doesn’t count).
