NG 164

New game 164 is now available.


Round 1: C R O C I E C U N

I had CROC, RICE, OUNCE, and a late spot of CORNICE ("a horizontal moulded projection which crowns or finishes a wall, building, etc."); I'd spent a lot of time looking at CON- but not CORN.

Seven looks like the best, with CORNICE being the only one.  The sixes are CONCUR, COINER / ORCEIN (a red dye), and CICERO ("a European unit of measurement for type, slightly larger than the pica").

My selection: CORNICE


Round 2: Y A T I R B O S N

I had TRAY, ORBIT, ORBITS / BISTRO, and RATIONS.  Towards the end I was hoping for an E to show up and make BESTIARY / SYBARITE ("someone devoted to luxury and pleasure; an effeminate voluptuary"), but the tiles did not fall that way.  I also noted that a G instead of the B would have given GYRATIONS, and flirted with TRAINBOYS but not seriously so.

There are two eights here: TABORINS (TABORIN: "a small tabor", which is a type of drum) and BARYTONS (BARYTON being a variant spelling of BARYTONE: "a form of bass viol having sympathetic strings").

The other sevens are TABORIN, BARYTON, OBTAINS / BASTION, BARYONS (BARYON: "one of the group of elementary particles consisting of nucleons and hyperons"), and OSTIARY ("a doorkeeper, as of a church").

My selection: RATIONS
Best: BARYTONS


Round 3: Target 361 from 100 75 9 10 6 9

I recognised the target as the square of 19, and 19 was pretty formable from those numbers; the resulting solution was 361 = (10 + 9)*(100 - 75 - 6).  Opting for more standard approaches I found 361 = 6*75 - 100 + 10 + 9/9, and then looked at 75 + 6 to provide the terminal 1.  The rest needs to make 280, and that also works out, giving 361 = (9 + 9)*10 + 100 + 75 + 6.

My selection: 361 = (10 + 9)*(100 - 75 - 6)


Round 4: L I R O D W I S T

I had ROIL, WORLD, WORLDS, IDIOTS, and STOLID.  I had also wondered about DISTRO (used in the Linux community, in particular, as a shortening of "distribution") and WORDIST, but did not like them and indeed they are not listed.

The longer word here is one I've used on the blog before: WORDLIST.  Worse, I considered it within time but decided it would be two words and did not even write it down.  Ah, well.

There do not seem to be any sevens; the other sixes are TWIRLS, DISTIL, DROITS (DROIT: "a legal right or claim"), and SOLIDI (plural of SOLIDUS, an old Roman coin).

My selection: WORLDS
Best: WORDLIST


Round 5: N A L O R U I H R

I had LOAN, LORAN ("a long-range radionavigation position fixing system using the time difference of reception of pulse type transmissions from two or more fixed stations"), and URINAL.

Six looks like the limit; the others are OURARI (variant form of CURARE), UNHAIR, INHAUL ("a rope for hauling in a sail or spar"), and RHINAL ("of or relating to the nose").

My selection: URINAL


Round 6: Target 523 from 100 75 10 9 1 8

The 75-times tables clearly suffice to get one away, and I wrote down that fallback of 524 = (8 - 1)*75 - (10 - 9).  I was not able to better that.

With good reason, too, as the target is unreachable and one off is the best to be done.

My selection: 524 = (8 - 1)*75 - (10 - 9)  [1 off]


Round 7: S E S O I M D I A

I had SOME, DIMES, and MISSED.  It felt certain that longer was there, but I could not see it.

Indeed, there are some sevens: DAISIES, MISDOES, IODISES, IODISMS (IODISM: "a morbid condition due to the use of iodine or its compounds"), DAIMIOS (DAIMIO being a variant spelling of DAIMYO: "the class of greater nobles in Japanese feudalism, often the descendants of younger sons of emperors"), and MEIOSIS ("the cell division process in the production of gametes, consisting of chromosome conjugation and two cell divisions, in the course of which the diploid chromosome number becomes reduced to the haploid").

But there is also an eight of SESAMOID ("shaped like a sesame seed, as certain small nodular bones and cartilages").

My selection: MISSED
Best: SESAMOID


Round 8: Target 770 from 75 7 2 7 3 4

I was eager to pull out the factor of 7 here, and set about trying to make 110 from the rest.  Then a bit of sense reasserted itself as I realised that 77*10 was much more tempting, and found the solution 770 = (75 + 2)*(7 + 3).

(I'll note that the original idea could work, for instance with 770 = 7*(75 + 7*(3 + 2)).)

My selection: 770 = (75 + 2)*(7 + 3)


Round 9: BAGEL FIAT

A new word to me, but after pulling out the -ABLE ending FATIGABLE was too plausible to turn down.

My selection: FATIGABLE (2.4s)