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Looking for a weekday brain tease? NPR’s Sunday Puzzle returns with a compact, clever exercise that rewards pattern-spotting and quick word play. Read the rules, scan the clues, and decide whether you have the ear for letters that the show’s puzzlemaster enjoys.
How to play the challenge: rules made simple
The task is to answer each clue with a word that begins with the same first two letters as the clue itself. Keep that pattern in mind for every response.
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Quick example
Planetoid beyond Neptune gives the answer PLUTO. The clue and the solution share the same starting two letters.
Fifteen clues for this week’s puzzle
- Car at the end of a train
- Early spring holiday
- Windshield clearer
- Bank amount
- Boxing match
- “Gilmore ___”
- What crop North Dakota raises a lot of
- Burger holder
- Almighty one, to Muslims
- Canada’s current prime minister
- Supporting straps for pants
- Oranges are grown in it
- Bales of hay are stored in it
- City where the Reds play
- Melodious amusement park ride
Last week’s puzzle and the winning entry
Last week’s challenge asked solvers to take an eight-letter modern animal movie title, drop the first and last letters, and then switch one of the remaining six letters to a C. The result should spell a plural term for certain animals.
The film was ZOOTOPIA. After removing the first and last letters and changing one letter, the answer becomes OCTOPI.
Winner
Daniel Erenstein of Lafayette, California
Special challenge from a listener: five linked five-letter words
Contributor Evan Kalish of Bayside, New York, submits a word-play puzzle. Find a set of five five-letter words that differ only in their third letter.
If the middle letter is any one of K, L, M, N, O, the word is common and valid. No other middle letters will produce a real word in this pattern.
How to submit your answers and contest details
- Send your answers through the official entry form linked on the Sunday Puzzle page.
- The submission deadline is Thursday, July 30 at 3 p.m. ET.
- Include a phone number where you can be reached if selected.
- Selected entrants win a chance to play the puzzle on air.
