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Sunday Puzzle: It Takes Two

Sunday Puzzle.
NPR
Sunday Puzzle.

On-air challenge: I'm going to give you some four-letter words. For each one, add one letter in front and one letter in back to complete a familiar six-letter word. No proper names are allowed, and you can't add an "s" or "d" at the end of a five-letter word to get the six-letter one.

Example: LANE --> PLANET

1. MOOT
2. HANG
3. WENT
4. NIGH
5. TREE
6. REFI
7. BRAD
8. AWES
9. ONTO
10. CRAW
11. ISLE
12. REST
13. PLAN
14. PONY
15. AFAR

Last week's challenge: Name a world capital. It's an older way of spelling the name. Drop three letters, and the remaining letters, in order, will name another world capital. Both cities have more than a million residents. What cities are these?

Answer: Djakarta --> Dakar

Winner: Dan Streit of Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Next week's challenge: This challenge comes from listener Tom Arnold of Eugene, Ore. Take the name of a conveyance in seven letters. Drop the middle letter, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to name the place where such a conveyance is often used. What 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, Jan. 25 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).