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Ready for a brain teaser that mixes geography and wordplay? The weekly NPR Sunday Puzzle returns with a batch of six-letter word clues that mask familiar U.S. city names. Your task: decode each entry by restoring the city after the host swapped its first and last letters. Keep a pencil handy — these clues are short, clever, and built to make you smile when the solution clicks.
How this city-swap puzzle works
The game gives six-letter strings that look like ordinary words. Each one stands for a well-known U.S. city. The trick: the puzzle maker changed the city’s first and last letters. Your job is to reverse that swap and name the real city.
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Example: The clue JURORS corresponds to AURORA, Colo., and Aurora, Ill. The starting and ending letters were swapped to make JURORS.
Ten scrambled city clues to solve
- BALLAD
- MOST OF
- CUNEAL
- KOPEKS
- SIERRA
- RELENT
- NUNCIO
- NUGENT
- FUR HAT
- RUSTIC
Turn each six-letter entry into a U.S. city by swapping the first and last letters back to their correct places. Some answers may point to more than one city with the same name.
Hints and solving tips
- Think of common six-letter city names first.
- Replace the first and last letters of the clue with each other to form candidate names.
- Pronounce likely candidates aloud; familiarity with U.S. place names helps.
- Shortlists: If you’re stuck, jot down cities that match the pattern _ _ _ _ _ _ and test swaps quickly.
Last week’s feat and the winner
In the previous puzzle, listeners had to take a two-word drink, rearrange its letters, and find two legal-justice words: a prison name and a way out of prison. The drink was the Singapore sling. Repaired as wordplay, it becomes Sing Sing and parole.
The selected winner for that challenge was Tony Mangina of San Diego, California.
This week’s bonus riddle from a listener
Listener Donn DiMichele of Redlands, California submitted a cheeky side challenge. Name a famous, living American singer. Replace that singer’s last name with a casual demonym for a person from the singer’s hometown. Say the new name aloud. The sound you hear should match a style of singing that the artist does not normally perform.
Example format: [Famous Singer] → [Famous + local demonym] → spoken phrase equals a different way of singing.
How to enter and deadline details
If you think you’ve solved the city swaps or cracked the bonus singer riddle, submit your entries before the deadline. Entries must arrive by Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 3 p.m. ET. Include a phone number so the show can contact you if your entry is chosen. Selected callers may be invited to play on air.
Use the official entry form on the program’s submission page and fill in all required fields carefully. Only complete entries with a working phone number will be considered.
