easy

Stinky-pinkies

Stinky-pinkies are pairs of rhyming words. See if you can guess the pairs from these clues.

Example: A handbook about long-eared dogs.
Answer: spaniel manual.

1. A conceited horse-rider.
2. An unfeeling friend.
3. Dubious Scottish drink.
4. Clergyman’s underpants.
5. Summer flower disappointment.

Side-by-Side

Alphabetical order links words strangely in the dictionary. Try to identify these pairs from their definitions.

Example: A small citrus fruit; touchable.
Answer: tangerine; tangible.

1. A structure leading out to sea; to make a hole through.
2. A savoury appetiser; a hoofed quadruped with a flowing mane.
3. The person in charge of a ship; an explanation appended to a picture.
4. A medical listening device; a hat with a very wide brim.
5. A brave woman; a wading bird with long legs.

harder

Homophones

Homophones (or homonyms) are words that sound the same but are spelt differently. Try to identify these pairs of homophones from the clues.

Example: The first day – an ice-cream concoction.
Answer: Sunday – sundae.

1. Unmoving – paper and envelopes.
2. Alcoholic drink – disapproving shouts.
3. Middle of the body – unwanted material.
4. Pulled along – a tailless amphibian.
5. Exact – of the seashore.

Russian Dolls

Russian dolls fit neatly inside one another. In this quiz, you have to put one word inside another to make a third word.

Example: Put a word for eternal into a sea creature to get excited.
Answer: ever + fish = feverish.

1. Put a group into a vegetable to make the old monetary unit of Spain.
2. Put anger into a vapour to make places for cars.
3. Put a heavenly creature into a board game to make a word for eternal.
4. Put a cylinder into a spinning toy to make a disreputable woman.
5. Put an American railway into a personal word to make a glossy substance.

difficult

Three in One

Try to discover the nine-letter word that can be made from the letters in the three words listed.

Example: Agent, gnat, stages.
Answer: stagnates.

1. Crush, pout, rip.
2. Bile, roar, tribe.
3. Cop, nymph, siphon.
4. Gay, prop, purl.
5. Mane, Roman, wise.

Superghosts

Here you are given some letters and you have to think of a word which has them together somewhere in the middle.

Example: TROV.
Answer: introverted, incontrovertible or several other words.

1. RTG.
2. UEM.
3. EIP.
4. LEDEH.
5. ZLEM.

Spoonerisms

When a speaker transposes one or more letters or sounds of adjacent words – saying something such as “a blushing crow” instead of “a crushing blow” – we say that they have committed a Spoonerism.

Try to solve these clues to words or phrases that can be turned into other words or phrases by using Spoonerisms.

Example: Change a comfortable corner into an inquisitive chef.
Answer: cosy nook – nosy cook.

1. Change impolite behaviour into insane pieces of cloth bearing slogans.
2. Change a rich man into copies of Playboy.
3. Change a stringed instrument into a noisy puppy.
4. Change Falstaff’s pub into his frequent resting place.
5. Change a French writer into a decorative part of a wall.

Oxford Guide to Word Games by Tony Augarde is published by OUP at £14.99. Buy here for £13.49 inc p&p

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