NG 176

New game 176 is now available.


Round 1: T T D E A A W C N

I had TEAT, DATE, CATTED, CANTED / DECANT, and WANTED.

Six looks like the best on offer; the others are ATTEND, CADENT ("having cadence"), CATENA ("a chain or connected series, especially of extracts from the writings of the fathers of the Christian church"), and ADNATE ("grown fast to something; congenitally attached").

My selection: WANTED


Round 2: N C E T U I L S A

I had CENT, CUTIE, LUCENT ("shining"), LISTEN / SILENT, and INSULATE.  After time I noted that adding an M into the mix would give CULMINATES, and that ALUNITES was an anagram of INSULATE.

Quite good letters, but there does not seem to be a nine in the mix.  The other eights are LUNATICS / SULTANIC, LUNACIES, CANISTEL (a type of tree), and TUNICLES (TUNICLE: "Ecclesiastical a vestment worn over the alb by subdeacons, as at the celebration of the mass, and by bishops").

My selection: INSULATE


Round 3: Target 775 from 50 25 7 10 9 3

A multiple of 25 is rarely difficult; while waiting for the target to reveal I had observed that 9 + 7 was 16, and 16*50 was 800, which made the final target trivial: 775 = (9 + 7)*50 - 25.  I experimented with some other options to get 775 = (3*7 + 10)*25 and 775 = 9*(50 + 25 + 10) + 7 + 3.

My selection: 775 = (9 + 7)*50 - 25


Round 4: U E K G E M N I G

The -ING is in play but it's a very difficult mix to use it with.  I had GEEK, MUNGE, rightly rejected GEEKING, wondered if MUGGIN might be an acceptable backformation from MUGGINS (it is not), and settled on EKING for five.

It does seem that five is the limit; in principle GEEING is valid but GEE is only listed as a verb sense implicitly in the phrase GEE SOMEONE UP so cannot be used.

The other fives are GENIE, GUNGE, MINGE, NEUME ("any of various symbols used in medieval musical notation, and still used for noting Gregorian chant, etc."), MINKE (variant form of the MINKE WHALE), and GIGUE (variant spelling of JIG, in the dance sense).

My selection: EKING


Round 5: B T S M A I O R F

I had MATS, AMBITS, RATIOS, and FORMATS.  I amused myself by considering BOATFIRMS and FIBROMATS, but not seriously.

That last was close to a good result, though -- FIBROMAS is the only eight here (FIBROMA: "a tumour consisting essentially of fibrous tissue").  The other sevens are FIBROMA and AMORIST.

My selection: FORMATS
Best: FIBROMAS


Round 6: Target 730 from 25 50 100 7 4 6

My technique of successive approximation worked out pleasingly well here; I started with 7*100, tweaked that to 7*(100 + 4) which was only 2 away, and then completed it to 730 = 7*(100 + 4) + 50/25.

My selection: 730 = 7*(100 + 4) + 50/25


Round 7: H T H R E O A S M

I had OTHER, OTHERS, and MOTHERS.  I also observed HORSEMATH in passing, but obviously that was never a contender.  After time I noted that SMOTHER was another seven in the mix.

Seven looks like the best on offer; TERAOHMS is a word, but it's not explicitly listed in the Macquarie, which in general is reticent about listing the various combinations of SI prefixes joined with units.  The other sevens are HEARTHS, HAMSTER, THERMOS, and MAESTRO.  (I've discussed the invalidity of EARSHOT in the comments to this post.)

My selection: MOTHERS


Round 8: Target 371 from 50 100 25 9 4 7

The standard method works handily, yielding 371 = 7*50 + 25 - 4.

My selection: 371 = 7*50 + 25 - 4


Round 9: TIN RABIES

We've had this word turn up on the show before, but during the main rounds of episode 409.  I was rather embarrassed to miss it at the time, and was still pretty slow to pull out the -IEST fragment and find BRAINIEST this time.  But at least I got there!

My selection: BRAINIEST (10.8s)