NG 252

New game 252 is now available.


Round 1: O U A N P L E B N

I had UPON, PANEL, UNABLE, and rightly rejected UNNOBLE and NOUNABLE (the flip side to verbing, perhaps).  After time I noted NOUNAL (the adjective derived from NOUN) as another six.

The other sixes are NEBULA and PUEBLO ("a communal habitation of certain Native Americans of the south-western US; the communal house or group of houses, built of adobe or stone").  But there is a seven: APOLUNE ("the highest point in the orbit of a body which is circling the moon, with respect to the moon's centre").

My selection: UNABLE
Best: APOLUNE


Round 2: S I U E R S B O N

I had RUSE, SIRES, RUBIES, BRUISES, and just a bit too late the eight of SUBERINS (SUBERIN: "a substance contained in and characteristic of cork tissue").  One might take the point of view that it is a mass noun, but Scrabble does allow it.  After time I noted two other sevens of SUBERIN and BOSSIER.

There are two other eights here: NEUROSIS / RESINOUS.  There are many sevens, of which I'll just mention some of the more common: SERIOUS, SENIORS, SUNRISE / INSURES, BONUSES, UNROBES, and SUBORNS.

My selection: BRUISES
Best: NEUROSIS


Round 3: Target 851 from 25 50 75 2 4 6

With no odd small numbers, getting odd offsets or multipliers may be difficult.  Fortunately I noticed the option of making a 1 as 25 - 4*6, and that left tweaking options open.  The remaining requirement is to get to 850 without the 25, and that could be done as 2*6*75 - 50.  Putting the components together yielded the solution 851 = 6*(2*75 - 4) - 50 + 25.

Heh, I was so focused on my method of getting there that I overlooked the gratuitous use of -50 + 25 instead of simply -25 until much later.  The simpler version is 851 = 6*(2*75 - 4) - 25.

There is one other solution, which adapts the same approach but uses 2 - 1 to make the 1 as follows: 851 = (50 - 6)*(25 - 4) + 2 - 75.

My selection: 851 = 6*(2*75 - 4) - 50 + 25


Round 4: T S E E E L D A I

I had TEES, SLEET / STEEL, SLEETED / STEELED, IDEATES, DETAILS, rightly rejected IDEALEST, and TEASELED (American spelling of TEASELLED; TEASEL as a verb: "to raise a nap on (cloth) with teasels; dress by means of teasels", where TEASEL as a noun is "the dried flower head or burr of D. fullonum, used for teasing or teaselling cloth").

TEASELED is the only eight (some sources allow LEADIEST, but the Macquarie does not list it).  The other sevens are DELETES, DILATES, STEELIE (colloquial for "a ball bearing used as a playing marble"), and DELATES (DELATE: "to inform against; denounce or accuse").

My selection: TEASELED


Round 5: O I I T N H C E P

I had HINT, TONIC, CHITON ("(in ancient Greece) a garment for both sexes, usually worn next to the skin"), and CHITIN ("a horny organic substance which is a component of the cuticula of arthropods and is found also in certain other invertebrates and in fungi").

There is longer to be had, though.  The eight is PHONETIC, which I wish I had seen; I considered the -OTIC ending but not the -ETIC one.

The sevens are THIONIC ("of or relating to sulfur"), OPHITIC ("denoting or relating to a rock texture exhibited by certain ophites (diabases), in which elongate felspar crystals are embedded in a matrix of pyroxenes"), ICHNITE ("a fossil footprint"), ENTOPIC (an anatomical term meaning "occurring in the usual place") / NEPOTIC (adjective derived from NEPOTISM), POTICHE ("a vase or jar, as of porcelain, with rounded or polygonal body narrowing at the top"), and PHOCINE ("of or relating to the seals") / CHOPINE (variant spelling of CHOPIN: "a kind of shoe with a very thick sole of cork or the like, sometimes suggesteng a short stilt, formerly worn especially by women").

My selection: CHITIN
Best: PHONETIC


Round 6: Target 697 from 25 100 6 8 7 5

A fairly straightforward target: 697 = 7*100 - (8 - 5).

My selection: 697 = 7*100 - (8 - 5)


Round 7: E A A H M Z E R R

I had AMAZE, an uncertain HARMER, and likewise uncertain HEARER / REHEAR.  I knew that I'd looked these all up in the past but I could not recall which were valid, although I was especially dubious of REHEAR.  I ended up going with HARMER, and fortunately it was valid.  HEARER is also valid, and REHEAR is not.  After time I noted REAMER as a safer six.

The other six is HERMAE, one plural form of HERMA.

My selection: HARMER


Round 8: Target 729 from 75 50 3 5 4 1

The target is the cube of 9 (or the sixth power of 3), but my forays in that direction were not successful.  But thoughts of 9 led me to consider 9*75, and everything unravelled nicely: 729 = (5 + 3 + 1)*75 + 50 + 4.

My selection: 729 = (5 + 3 + 1)*75 + 50 + 4


Round 9: END VECTOR

The -ED option was tempting, but it took me longer than it should have to look at the CON- fragment and so find CONVERTED.

My selection: CONVERTED (10.2s)