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5 Letters With Which To Play, Here's A Puzzle To Blow You Away

On-air challenge:

In a series of categories, name something in the category starting with each of the letters W-I-N-D-S. Any answer that works is fine, and you can give the answers in any order.

For example: Two-Syllable Girls' Names --> Wilma, Ingrid, Nancy, Donna, and Suzanne.

Last week's challenge: What two eight-letter terms in math are anagrams of each other? One word is from geometry, and the other is from calculus. What words are they?

Answer: Triangle, integral.

Winner: Makena Dyer of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Next week's challenge: Bail, Nail, and Mail are three four-letter words that differ only by their first letters. And those first letters (B, N, and M) happen to be adjacent on a computer keyboard. Can you think of five four-letter words that have the same property — that is, they're identical except for their first letters, with those first letters being adjacent on the keyboard? All five words must be ones that everyone knows. Capitalized words and plurals are not allowed. What words are they?

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, March 10 at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2021 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).