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        riddles >> easy >> Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
        
(Message started by: Phil on Jan 29^th, 2003, 1:45pm)

Title: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Jan 29^th, 2003, 1:45pm

How about a word puzzle?
What one word will complete this series?
rabbis
slutty
upping
onload
??????

And a second puzzle:
Skyjack
Jotting
Gruffly
Hunched
Bombard
???????

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by prince on Jan 29^th, 2003, 2:39pm

I have 2 candidates for the first puzzle:

rhythm

or possibly

intact

Is 1 or both of these acceptible?

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Garzahd on Jan 29^th, 2003, 2:52pm

Each word in both groups seems to have one letter twice (not necessarily adjacent), and all other letters only once.

But that can't be all there is; the puzzle seems to imply that there's only one solution...

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Jan 29^th, 2003, 3:26pm

The 2 proposed answers are not correct.
And actually, there are 2 possible answers for each puzzle, but in each case, one of the 2 is a somewhat obscure word.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Speaker on Jan 29^th, 2003, 8:02pm

I notice that the first series all have six letters and the second all have seven.

Also, I cannot find the word "Onload" in my dictionary, which leads me to think that the series doesn't rely on the meanings of the words.

Howabout: others and leveler

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Jan 30^th, 2003, 5:21am

From www.dictionary.com
on·load ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nld, ôn-)
v. on·load·ed, on·load·ing, on·loads
v. tr.
To load (a vehicle or container).

v. intr.
To load a vehicle or container.

Guess again.
And if anyone does figure out the solution, a real challenge would be not to post the answer but to post another puzzle of the same kind, preferably 5 or 6 letter words.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Jan 31^st, 2003, 4:14am

A couple more examples:

jazzy
eject
fifty
?????

rhythm
muffin
supper
savant
??????

wobbled
wishing
gruffly
symptom
checkup
???????

The words in each puzzle form a complete, interconnected set.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Feb 4^th, 2003, 10:54am

Tell you what, since no one's biting, I'm going to give you the answers to the last three examples to maybe help you figure out how to solve the first two.

jazzy
eject
fifty
lilac

rhythm
muffin
supper
savant
lively

wobbled
wishing
gruffly
symptom
checkup
tankard

Each of these lists forms a perfect interrelated set of words. Figure out why the last word is the only word that could complete a grouping (I'll tell you that word order is not important), and the first two puzzles will solve themselves.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by prince on Feb 4^th, 2003, 11:21am

I've just realized [hide] the number of words in a set is related to the number of letters in the words. [/hide]
Presumably, there is only one word that fits the following constraints--[hide]6 (or 7 for the second puzzle) letters with a certain letter appearing twice [/hide]
Since order isn't important, I still don't see what determines that all important [hide] double letter [/hide], but I'm sure it's in here somewhere.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by James Fingas on Feb 4^th, 2003, 1:39pm

eddy
says
????

roots
primp
lamas
?????

These are really hard to generate ... I think we need a dictionary-bot to find these word-cliques. I still haven't figured out what the word is for the first one--[hide]but then again I was never good at anagrams.[/hide]

There is a maximum word-length that you can use to make these puzzles. What is it?

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Chronos on Feb 6^th, 2003, 11:32am

Quote:

There is a maximum word-length that you can use to make these puzzles. What is it?

Well, considering that each of them seems to have one and only one pair of repeated letters, I can put an upper bound at 27. But words start getting somewhat sparse at that length, so the upper bound is probably considerably less. How much less, I couldn't say without some programming and /dict/words . Of course, there are probably some other constraints I'm missing here.

Wait, James Fingas just mentioned anagrams. With that in mind, I note that in each case, if you remove one copy of the repeated letter, then you can anagram it to another word. I think. But this still doesn't shed any light on the relation between number of letters and number of words. Perhaps the remaining words form some sort of perfect square?

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Feb 6^th, 2003, 12:14pm

James is right. The maximum length for this puzzle is 7-letter words, and the rules are strict enough that it would be virtually impossible to create a 7 letter puzzle without a dictionary bot. It's possible to create a 6 letter puzzle on your own. The first puzzle I worked out on my own, and found it very challenging, but the other 6 letter puzzle was, once again created by a computer. Five letter puzzles are fairly easy to create and 4 letter puzzles are trivial.
Here's another 5 letter:

polyp
coach
wheel
?????

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by James Fingas on Feb 6^th, 2003, 12:55pm

Ha!

I have created a number of 6-letter puzzles on my own. I guess that just means I have too much time on my hands :( I've also figured out that it's practically impossible to have the letter 'q' appear in one of these puzzles.

Here are some 5-letter puzzles:

oddly
tarot
every
?????

twixt
swabs
annex
?????

And here are some 6-letter puzzles:

gnocce
grubby
skanky
dusted
??????

cached
psalms
optget
libido
??????

lipped
marker
clicks
nanoid
??????

Enjoy :)

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Phil on Feb 6^th, 2003, 1:37pm

I haven't figured out your oddly puzzle yet, but I think the last one has a mistake.
And your q comment sounded like a challenge to me, so here are two:

qanat
snubs
robot
?????

sheqel
quaggy
ripply
throat
??????

Okay, I got oddly, but you should check whether your last puzzle fits the rules (they are strict).

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by James Fingas on Feb 6^th, 2003, 1:45pm

But my first-grade teacher told me that 'q' always had a 'u' after it!

<shards of broken reality fall to the ground>

You're just not thinking hard enough if you can't find the last word for those ones ;D Oh right... never mind. My last one is screwed up :( replace it with this:

pulped
marker
clucks
nanoid
??????

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by lukes new shoes on Feb 6^th, 2003, 6:23pm

how about...

rerun
belly
dandy
?????

maims
soggy
billy
?????

(james- i think ur last puzzle is still wrong?)

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Brett Danaher on Feb 7^th, 2003, 9:54am

I see the double letter pattern in here, and I see the "number of letters = number of words + 1" pattern, but I'm not yet sure I can piece it all together and understand how that connects the words.

Anyone have a good hint, besides "order does not matter?"

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Brett Danaher on Feb 7^th, 2003, 10:11am

Forget it, I just spent 25 more minutes on this and got it. I'm working on forming the last word for the first puzzle in this topic, but then again maybe I should take a moment away from this - I don't want to be too greedy in my quest for answers.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by James Fingas on Feb 7^th, 2003, 11:28am

You're right... it's still wrong :( I don't know how I got it that screwed up to start with ... I don't know how to fix it. Sorry!

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by SWF on Feb 7^th, 2003, 5:40pm

If I am understanding this problem, here are two sets of words using the maximum possible number of letters per word. One of these even has two solutions:

rhythms
killjoy
cutback
bridged
jazzmen
------- ?

thrifty
propmen
schmuck
bowlful
daybeds
------- ?

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by SWF on Mar 5^th, 2003, 5:13pm

Since I went to the trouble of figuring them out, I have a some lists of 7 letter solutions to this that I might as well post before being forgotten:

cackler (or crackle), dybbuks, fifthly, hangdog, muezzin, prompts

chapped, conking, dybbuks, fifthly, guzzler, marmots

checkup, gruffly, hobbing, sizzled, symptom, tankard

conking, drachma, dybbuks, fifthly, guzzler, moppets

conking, dybbuks, fifthly, guzzled, headman, prompts

cockshy, grizzly, handbag, mottled, pumpkin, buffers (or rebuffs)

There is another that uses a word that may be offensive to some, so I will leave it out.

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by Icarus on Mar 5^th, 2003, 9:02pm

But "dybbuks" is extremely offensive to me! >:( I demand a grovelling apology!

Oh, and while you are at it, what the heck is a "dybbuk"? ???

Title: Re: Word puzzle: slutty rabbis
Post by wowbagger on Mar 6^th, 2003, 1:40am

on 03/05/03 at 21:02:08, Icarus wrote:

Oh, and while you are at it, what the heck is a "dybbuk"? ???

Merriam-Webster (http://www.webster.com) says:

dyb·buk /'di-b&k/ (n.); plural dyb·bu·kim, also dybbuks
Etymology: Late Hebrew dibbuq
: a wandering soul believed in Jewish folklore to enter and control a living body until exorcised by a religious rite