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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35
newbie
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OP
newbie
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35 |
First Time Poster...
While on a monotonous drive recently, I invented a game to pass the time more quickly. Many license plates in the US now have three letters followed by three numbers as the standard plate template. This led me to try to discover the shortest English word (and then alternately the longest) that contains the three letters in the exact sequence that they appear on each plate. For example:
AAG would lead to the shortest answer ADAGE (5 letters) and perhaps the longest of INTERNATIONALIZING (18 letters)
HCV would give WHICHEVER (9 letters) and perhaps HALLUCINATIVE (13 letters)
etc.
I realize that not all 3 letter combinations (of which there are 26^3 = 17576) have solutions since combinations like JVB, OQP, or RXF seem to have no English words that contain those letters in those sequences, and thus appear intractable. I offer the following 20 three letter combinations to be solved for the shortest answer below:
1. CJY
2. AUQ
3. FBF
4. GFM
5. GJG
6. GMV
7. IMJ
8. IQB
9. JZT
10. KXY
11. MZB
12. OKV
13. SVF
14. TFV
15. TZU
16. WJE
17. XQA
18. YVC
19. QDM
20. PZB
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Dear BankrollBets,
Welcome!
I tried to do this quickly and did get a few (number 9 must surely be Jazzoctopus), but if you were able to come up with answers to all these off the top of your head then I am seriously impressed. Its a good game, but gives me a headache and I think I would need a paper and pencil to play it so could not do so while driving.
Its too easy to cheat however, so I wont put any answers in. Taking some of your letter sets and checking them out left me even more impressed, some of them throw up very odd words!
dxb.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35
newbie
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OP
newbie
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35 |
Nice one FallibleFiend (#1 ConJurY), and I must confess a shorter (hence better) answer than mine (CaJolerY). I have been shamed at my own game.
dxb, being a new poster here I was momentarily perplexed by your answer to #9, but quickly caught on that there must be a Jazzoctopus posting on AWAD, and I was shortly thereafter distracted by a whimsical discussion about the proper formation of the plural of said name.
I must admit that having been stumped once too often by certain 3 letter combinations, and having written them down on scraps of paper while speeding down the highway, I was driven to "solve" once and for all this insidious game. Now I could have begun the post with some more common combinations like IES, RES, ING, AES, EES, ERS, but what fun would that have been. While I realize that "cheating" might end the thread quickly, I respect the integrity of all of the anonymous masses who read posts here. Call me a naive newbie if you must :)
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
We are brimming over with integrity here. I was the one having to resist cheating - there is at least one website that will solve conundrums like this, and that is where I found that it would take unusual words to include some of your combinations. I guess I could put in the ones I worked out myself - and I think I've forgotten most of the others already. If you don't know the meaning of a word you never before encountered its pretty easy to forget it. Or p'raps its just old age!
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
OK, well here goes:
1 - I had ConJugallY for number 1, but it is longer than Conjury.
3 - FeBriFuge
7 - I like CanIs MaJor, but I guess its two words so doesn't count.
10 - Can I get away with KlaXonophY: noise produced when playing a Klaxon?
11 - Mozambique or Marion Zimmer Bradley?
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
EXCELLENT GAME
19. QDM = quondam
Welcome to our ranks!
TEd
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
18. YVC -- polyvinylchloride, though that's more than likely two words.
OK. polyvalence.
TEd
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35
newbie
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OP
newbie
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 35 |
UPDATE... Nice start....
1. CJY Conjury (the Fallible Fiend), Cajolery (my poor answer which was trumped by TFF for shortest and then by dxb for longest), Conjugally (dxb)
2. AUQ stAtUesQue (dxb) this is the one I had (autosequence will probably be a word shortly TFF)
3. FBF febrifuge (dxb.... longer than the word I have, but it is a derivative)
4. GFM (engulfment ... tsuwm....good but 10 letters bigger than 8)
5. GJG
6. GMV
7. IMJ
8. IQB
9. JZT jazziest (good one tsuwm)
10. KXY
11. MZB
12. OKV
13. SVF
14. TFV
15. TZU
16. WJE
17. XQA
18. YVC (Polyvalence 11 letters.... TEd REmington), but there is a shorter one... and polyvinyl chloride is two words
19. QDM Quondam (TEd REmington), this is the one I had in mind
20. PZB (polarizable.... tsuwm 11 letters better than my 12 letter hypnotizable)
I'm not saying I have definitive answers as evidenced by #1, but I do have at least one answer for each of them.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
well, here are three:
PZB - polarizable (polarizability!)
GFM - ?forms are probably longer, but engulfment works
JZT - jazziest
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