NG 71

New game 71 is now available.


Round 1: S T T D O I I O D

Lots of duplication, and not much hope for long words as a result.  I had DOTS, DITTO, wondered about DITTOS (it turns out to be valid), and IDIOTS.  If only that last vowel had been an E we could have had ODDITIES again.  For that matter, taking a sixth consonant would have brought in an R and allowed DISTORT for seven.

Six is the best to be done; the others are OTITIS ("inflammation of the ear") and IODIDS (IODID being a variant form of IODIDE, a compund involve iodine).

My selection: IDIOTS


Round 2: R N E E M F O H A

I had FREE, FOREMEN, FOREMAN / FORAMEN ("an opening, orifice, or short passage, as in a bone or in the integument of the ovule of a plant"), and FORENAME.  After the first six letters I was tempted to write down a speculative FRENEMY, but the Y is a bit too uncommon.

Unfortunately, I talked myself out of FORENAME; just one of those confusions that happens without enough time to think about things.  That's a shame, as it is the only eight.

The other sevens are FREEMAN and MENORAH.

My selection: FOREMAN


Round 3: Target 576 from 25 8 5 1 2 10

The target is the square of 24, and there's a lot of promise to that observation.  I went with 576 = (25 - 1)*8*(5 - 2), then switched tacks to the standard method and 576 = (2*10 + 8 - 5)*25 + 1.

My selection: 576 = (25 - 1)*8*(5 - 2)


Round 4: I E L C O M E R D

I had LICE, MOILER (MOIL: "to work hard; toil; drudge"), MELODIC, DORMICE, REMODEL, and COMELIER (COMELY: "pleasing in appearance; fair").

The other two eights are RECOILED and MEDIOCRE.  The other two potential sevens are derived forms of alternate spellings: MODELER and MOLDIER.

My selection: COMELIER


Round 5: S C F S I U I A T

I had FICUS, FASCIST, and CASUIST ("someone who studies and resolves cases of conscience or conduct").

The other seven here is FUSTICS (FUSTIC being a type of tree).

My selection: FASCIST


Round 6: Target 194 from 25 50 8 3 6 5

The standard method applies easily to yield 194 = 8*25 - 6.

My selection: 194 = 8*25 - 6


Round 7: P L B N T A A U I

I had PLANT, BANAL, and ABLAUT (as I mentioned recently in NG 66, an ABLAUT is "regular change in the internal structure of word roots, particularly in the vowel, showing alteration in function and meaning").  After time I noted PLAINT (an old form of COMPLAINT) as another six, and checked up on PLATINA to find that it was valid ("a native alloy of platinum with palladium, iridium, osmium, etc.").

The other sevens are NUPTIAL / UNPLAIT.  The other sixes are PLIANT, PIÑATA / TAIPAN, PATINA, PLATAN (a type of tree), and ABULIA (variant spelling of ABOULIA: "the inability, usually pathological, to make or act on decisions").

My selection: ABLAUT


Round 8: Target 528 from 25 75 8 5 8 6

It would have been nice to make this as 7*75 + 3, but making a 7 is costly.  While considering close values I saw that the offset from 600 was also divisible by 8, leading me to the factorisation 8*66 and thus the solution 528 = (75 - 8 - (6 - 5))*8.

Some time later it occurred to me that the factor of 6 was also extractable in that way, giving the solution 528 = 6*8*(8 + 75/25).  But the shortest solution is 528 = (75 + 5 + 8)*6.

My selection: 528 = (75 - 8 - (6 - 5))*8


Round 9: BAD SENTRY

No timing to give for this one -- I thought of the word as a result of UPSTANDER being suggested to me during the conundrum search.  The Macquarie does not have that, but it does have BYSTANDER, and I decided to simply use that.