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Sunday Puzzle: Beware the Ides of March

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: We just passed the Ides of March, or March 15, an Ancient Roman date best remembered for the assassination of Julius Caesar. Now, I know that IDES is a singular noun in Ancient Roman, but today we're calling it a plural. We're going to insert a bunch of I-D-Es into words to make new words.

I'll give you a word, you insert IDE into that word to make a brand new word or phrase. For example, if I gave you the word BRAD, B-R-A-D, you'd say BRAIDED, which is BRAD with I-D-E inside of it.

  1. SCAR
  2. BESS
  3. GUS
  4. MAN
  5. PRESS
  6. STABLE
  7. WANGLE

Last week's challenge: Take a body part, add a letter at the beginning and end to get another body part, then add another letter at the beginning and end to get something designed to affect that body part.

Challenge answer: Ear, heart, the arts

Winner: David McKinnis of Fairfield, Connecticut

This week's challenge: Our challenge comes from Emma Meersman of Seattle, Washington: Take two three-letter tree names and combine them phonetically to get a clue for a type of fabric, then change one letter in that word to get something related to trees. Your answer should be the two tree names you started with.

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, March 21st at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2024 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).
Greg Pliska
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