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Sunday Puzzle: D's And N's

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: Every answer today is a word, name, or familiar phrase in which the only consonants are D and N — repeated as often as necessary. All the other letters are vowels.

Example: Had a fancy meal --> DINED

1. Poet John who wrote "No man is an island"

2. The Hoosier State

3. Cul-de-sac (2 words)

4. Signaled at an auction

5. Any of the celebrated 1930s quintuplets

6. Movie "Crocodile ___"

7. Epic poem by Virgil

8. Brand of yogurt

9. Supplementary parts of books

10. Oblique remark about someone that casts aspersion on them

11. Verily or without a doubt

12. Relating to the lymph glands

13. Girl in the musical "Oklahoma!" (2 words)

14. "Beats me!" (2 words)

15. Interminably (3 words)

16. Like zombies

Last week's challenge: Think of an adjective in five letters in two syllables. The first syllable phonetically sounds like a synonym of the full, five-letter word. And strangely these two words have no letters in common. What words are these?

Challenge answer: Phony, faux

Winner: Richard Friedman of Silver Spring, Md.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Dorothy Baker of Dallas. Think of a word that has five vowels — two E's, an I, O, and U. Curiously, every vowel except the "I" is pronounced like a short "I." And the "I" in the word is not pronounced at all. What word 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, Oct. 3, at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Will Shortz
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).
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