Skip to content

Word Puzzles

My fellow word nerds, these are for you. Enjoy!

(Return to puzzles home)

 

Can you name these famous novels from their vowel-less titles?

•TH HNDMD’S TL (Margaret Atwood)

•TH D VNC CD (Dan Brown)

•ND THN THR WR NN (Agatha Christie)

•PRNC CSPN (C.S. Lewis)

•LF F P (Yann Martel)

•NML FRM (George Orwell)

The Handmaid’s Tale, The Da Vinci Code, And Then There Were None, Prince Caspian, Life of Pi, Animal Farm

 

These three words all lead to one mystery word. One word is a synonym of the answer, one is a rhyme, and one is an anagram. What is the mystery word?

•HEART

•SOIL

•WORTH

 

These sentences all contain hidden words (like how gentle monster hides lemon) that are part of the same category. Which of these words also fits into that category: Carrot, Green, Mexico, or Pencil?

•When speaking in anger, many people say things they don’t mean.

•My one pal, Jimmy, likes pizza.

•At the lab, Eli zealously tried a new experiment.

•The eye men look at the most is the right eye.

•Check out the jujitsu dance my teacher taught me!

•If you want to pet a cat, shout “hail” and tip your hat.

•After a frantic hi, Nancy dashed out the door.

Mexico — the sentences are all hiding different countries. (Germany, Nepal, Belize, Yemen, Sudan, Thailand, and China)

 

Can you rearrange these fragments to spell the opening line of a well-known novel?

•EADIT

•EBOOK

•EVERR

•HAVEN

•INALL

•OUGHI

•RLDTH

•SMYFA

•THEWO

•THISI

•VORIT

“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.” (The Princess Bride, William Goldman)

 

Which word comes next in the following sequence: add, breakroom, claustrophobe, demonstrated…

•Eternal

•Emancipated

•Easy

•Evolution

Emancipated — each word has one more syllable than the previous word.

 

Each of these pairs of words overlap by one letter — that is, the last letter of the word on the left is the same as the first letter of the word on the right. Can you fill in the missing letters to spell a book title?

•BATC _ AIKU

•PIZZ _ PPLE

•DRAF _ RUST

•LOGI _ ABIN

•SOUT _ ONOR

•ALIK _ MBER

•WHEA _ HREE

Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)

 

Which word doesn’t belong in this set?

•Deer

•Emit

•Gulp

•Hand

•Keel

•Liar

•Part

Hand — it’s the only word that doesn’t make a different word when spelled backward.

 

Thomas is very picky about what he likes:

•He likes tigers, but not lions.

•He likes hoodies, but not jackets.

•He likes olives, but not peppers.

•He likes math, but not gym.

•He likes airplanes, but not cars.

Will he like bacon or sausage?

He will like sausage! Thomas only likes things that start with the letters in his name.

 

I’m thinking of a musical instrument! Can you figure it out from this riddle?

My first is in DICTION but not found in CODING;

My second in ROLAND but never in LOADING.

My third is in HOMECOMING, BALLOONS, and PROSE,

But isn’t in CHEWY or PRESS or BUREAUS.

My fourth is in MINCED and LEMON and SMALL,

But absent from DALE and NINER and CALL.

My fifth is in PLUMBER and even BUFFET,

While not found in PUFFY or TREMOR or LAY.

My sixth is in BOTTLE but not found in BELTED,

My seventh in LENTIL but not found in DELTOID.

My last is in COFFEE and CAKES and TEA,

Now what am I playing? You can tell me!

  

Can you unscramble the names of these authors?

•NHSA SRAICTHNI EDNEASRN

•ESLWI RCLRALO

•DARLO LADH

•NKHETEN MHAREAG

•UADRYRD LPNIKIG

•TEIBXRA TEORPT

Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling, Beatrix Potter

 

The titles of these movies have been swapped out for synonyms. Can you figure out what they are?

•A Dozen Furious Guys

•Out of Here With the Air Current

•Program Long Shot

•Return to the Yet-To-Come

•Stealers of the Missing Vessel

•A US Citizen in France’s Capital

Twelve Angry Men, Gone With the Wind, Project Hail Mary, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, An American in Paris

 

Put the secret letters together to discover the name of a famous literary work:

•The second letter of Anne’s last name in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables

•The second letter of Frodo’s last name in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

•The fourth letter of Ramona’s last name in Beverly Cleary’s Ramona the Pest

•The fifth letter of Fern’s last name in E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web

•The last letter of Lucy’s last name in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

•The sixth letter of Stanley’s last name in Louis Sachar’s Holes

Hamlet (William Shakespeare)

The answers to the prompts are Shirley, Baggins, Quimby, Arable, Pevensie, and Yelnats.

 

Each of these phrases describes a pair of rhyming words. For example, “young cat’s gloves” would be “kitten’s mittens.” Can you figure out all of the rhymes?

•Thick sky-colored soup

•A neat and tidy female ruler

•Frigid yellow metal

•A fairy who controls sunbeams

•A very clever little tune

Blue stew, clean queen, cold gold, light sprite, witty ditty

 

Decipher these symbols to make the name of a book:

•My first letter is a pair of arches

•My second represents the element we breathe

•My third measures temperature

•My fourth counts thousands

•My fifth is a stick figure’s body

•My sixth is a line connecting two parallel lines

•My seventh is a spinning arrow

•My eighth is a hook

•My ninth comes first

•My tenth is a crossroads

Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)

 

(Return to puzzles home)

Images throughout the site found on stock.adobe.com