Sunday, September 12, 2010

PUZZLE: Word Squares

The Sator Square. (Ancient Rome, actual date unknown)
A word square is made up of words, all the same length, that read the same across and down.  A simple one would be

S A T
A R E
T E N

The longer they get, the more complex and challenging they are to make. Even with the aid of a computer, it has proven impossible to create a "perfect" 10 letter/word square, meaning on made of complete words without any proper nouns. The only way to actually do it is to use tautonyms: word pairs that repeat a single word, such as "rangaranga."

There are reportedly, however, about 900 9 letter/word squares, although they require some incredibly obscure words and names, so there may be proper nouns.

Q U A R E L E S T
U P P E R E S T E
A P P O I N T E R
R E O M E T E R S
E R I E V I L L E
L E N T I L L I N
E S T E L L I N E
T E R S E N E S S


I've constructed a pretty simple one of 5 letters/words. Let's see if you can figure out the words from these clues. Remember, each word is 5 letters, and is written vertically and horizontally. I have not attempted to make it a "perfect" square.

1. Kind of queen
2. Repeated
3. Town for a bell
4. Not of age
5. To worship

4 comments:

Thomas L. McDonald said...

Wow, this is the first puzzle I've posted that didn't get solved almost immediately. No brave souls willing to take a stab?

If it's still not solved tomorrow, I'll give a clue. (My wife tells me that number 3 was too obscure, so here's a little nudge: it's a literary reference.)

Kaypt said...

D R A M A
R E D I D
A D A N O
M I N O R
A D O R E

Thomas L. McDonald said...

That is correct. Great job!

Kaypt said...

Had to have the clue to get the 3rd one. It WAS hard.

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