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Shuffle Your Way Toward A Synonym

On-air challenge: You'll be given a five-letter word and a six-letter word. Rearrange the letters of the five-letter word to get a synonym of the six-letter one. For example, given "carve" and "desire," you would say "crave."

Last week's challenge: Take the word EASILY. You can rearrange its letters to spell SAY and LEI. These two words rhyme even though they have no letters in common.

What is the longest familiar word you can find that can be anagrammed into two shorter words that rhyme but have no letters in common? The two shorter words must have only one syllable.

Answers: light-years: sleigh and tray; chickpeas: chic and speak; physicked: psych and dike; heapingly: neigh and play

Winner: Bruce Sutor of Rochester, Minn.

Next week's challenge, from listener Sandy Weisz of Chicago: Name a famous military figure of the past 50 years. The first three letters of his first name and the first three letters of his last name are both well-known military abbreviations. 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 Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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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).