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Sunday Puzzle: Can you guess these words from these phonetic clues?

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: This is a phonetic puzzle. If I asked you to say the cry of a ghost plus a letter of the alphabet to get a bunch of flowers, you'd say BOO plus K to get BOUQUET. Now try these.
 

Say ... plus a letter of the alphabet ... to get ...

  1. The sound of a horse ... military force at sea
  2. The sound of a cow ... given to sudden changes in temperament
  3. Grind with the teeth ... difficult to satisfy
  4. French city with an annual film frestival ... sweets
  5. Dull shade ...  meat sauce
  6. Huffed and puffed ... a colorful bird
  7. Went across, as a river ... a stretchable fabric
  8. One who violates the Ten Commandments ... result of two things working together advantageously 

Last week's challenge: Name a place somewhere on the globe — in two words. Rearrange the letters of the first word to name some animals. The second word in the place name is something those animals sometimes do. What is it?
 

Challenge answer: Hudson Bay (hounds, bay)

Winner: John Byrne of Watertown, Massachusetts

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Maxwell-Smith. Name a place where experiments are done (two words). Drop the last letter of each word. The remaining letters, reading from left to right, will name someone famously associated with experiments. Who is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, November 7th 2024 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2024 NPR

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has appeared on Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).