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Sunday Puzzle: Not Like The Others

Sunday Puzzle
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge:This week's puzzle is a variation on last week's. It's more like a quiz. I'm going to give four words. Three of them have something in common. I'll tell you what that something in common is. You tell me which word is the odd one out.

1. Words that are both flowers and girls' names: Violet, Lily, Iris, Cowslip

2. Words that start the names of state capitals: Big, Rich, Mad, Tall

3. Adjectives that are the titles of well-known movies: Frozen, Notorious, Sweet, Unforgiven

4. Words in the first verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner": Bright, Light, Night, Right

5. English words that have completely different meanings in French: Main, Pain, Rue, Wet

6. Three most commonly misspelled words in internet newsgroups (according to a survey by Cornell Kimball): Embarrassment, Millennium, Minuscule, Separate

Last week's challenge:Last week's challenge came from listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco. Write down eight different letters of the alphabet. Add an apostrophe. Then write the same eight letters in a different order. With proper spacing, you now have a four-word phrase meaning "took a risk." What is it?

Challenge answer:Stuck One's Neck Out

Winner:Dan Franzen of Arlington, Va.

This week's challenge:This week's challenge comes from Eric Chaikin, of Thousand Oaks, Calif. His brother is Andrew Chaikin, who created last week's challenge. Name a noted TV journalist — five letters in the first name, six letters in the last. Change an I in this name to a W and rearrange the result. You'll get a two-word phrase for where you might see this journalist. Who is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you by Thursday, Dec. 26at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has appeared on Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).