NG 418

New game 418 is now available.


Round 1: C O W M E L T H A

I had COME, COMET, lamented the lack of a second E for WELCOME, WEALTH, and observed CAMELOT but rightly rejected it.  I'm sure I've seen COM'WEALTH used as an abbreviation before, incidentally, but even if it were listed the apostrophe would rule it out.

Six turns out to be the best to be done; the others are LOCATE, LOATHE, CLOTHE, HAMLET, CAMLET ("a durable waterproof cloth used for cloaks, etc."), COMATE, and CHALET / THECAL (adjective derived from THECA: "a case or receptacle").

My selection: WEALTH


Round 2: P E E E M T O F L

I had ÉPÉE, TEPEE, METOPE ("Architecture one of the square spaces, either decorated or plain, between triglyphs in the Doric frieze"), OMELET (variant spelling of OMELETTE), and PELMET ("a short ornamental drapery or board, placed across the top of a window in order to hide the curtain rail") / TEMPLE.

Those appear to be all the sixes, and the best on offer.

My selection: TEMPLE


Round 3: Target 182 from 100 75 50 10 7 10

I went with a simple 182 = 100 + 75 + 7.

My selection: 182 = 100 + 75 + 7


Round 4: I T N U I D I B S

I had UNIT, BINDS, was unsure about UNBIDS (not valid; UNBID does get a mention, but only as an adjective, a variant form of UNBIDDEN), and DUSTBIN.

DUSTBIN appears to be the only seven.  The six is NUDIST.  BINDI is listed (another term for BINDI-EYE), but with an explicitly-given plural of BINDIES.

Update: Thanks to Mike for making me take a closer look at this, as he pointed out BINDII (another variant spelling of BINDI-EYE which I had overlooked) for six, and the probably BINDIIS for seven as a result.  It's a bit of a mess trying to figure this out: Under the old rules, BINDIIS would be valid but BINDIS would not.  Under the new rules, BINDII looks like a variant spelling of BINDI and should thus pluralise to BINDIIES; however, my interpretation is that BINDII is not a variant spelling of BINDI as such, but splits as BINDI-I to go with BINDI-EYE.  Hence BINDIIS gets the nod.

My selection: DUSTBIN


Round 5: D F T A A O K N R

I had DAFT and FANTOD.

There is a seven lurking in this mix after all: TANKARD.  The other sixes are ANORAK, KAFTAN, and KANTAR ("(in Muslim countries) a unit of weight corresponding to the hundredweight, but varying in different localities").

My selection: FANTOD
Best: TANKARD


Round 6: Target 267 from 25 100 4 8 6 5

The offset from 275 is 8, which we already have.  Several solutions follow, but I went with 267 = (6 + 5)*25 - 8.

My selection: 267 = (6 + 5)*25 - 8


Round 7: B N I E D E Y G U

I had BINE ("any bindweed"), BIND, BINDY (so soon after round 4), BUYING, wondered  about BUNGIED (another annoying case -- BUNGY is listed as synonymous with BUNGEE as a verb (and noun), so the question is merely if we are allowed to consider the past tense of BUNGY as automatically being BUNGIED; I don't think my revised rules covered this case, and I think the strict reading of the show's rules would be against it), and fortunately sidestepped that issue by finding BEGUINE ("a South American dance in bolero rhythm").

It seem that there are no other sevens; there's a few other sixes, such as BUDGIE and DYEING.

Update: Sam pointed out the other seven which I somehow missed despite mentioning the relevant bits above: BUNGEED.

My selection: BEGUINE


Round 8: Target 999 from 4 9 2 10 1 3

The target is clearly 9*111, which is 9*3*37.  I started with the first approach to get 999 = ((2*4 + 3)*10 + 1)*9, then moved on to the second to get 999 = (4*10 - 2 - 1)*3*9.

My selection: 999 = (4*10 - 2 - 1)*3*9


Round 9: DIRT MONEY

I chose this conundrum after being presented with the similar (letterwise, that is) CYTIODERM.

My selection: [N/A -- conundrum chosen explicitly]
Best: MODERNITY