Posted by ericsaints on October 13th, 2007 in Feature articles

Nope, this ain’t nothin’ to do with the Jason Mraz song (Ha La La La La …). Time to have a little fun is all, seeing as we’re taking a breather after those not-so-easy-breezy midterms. So that frontal lobe of your cerebral cortex (that portion of the brain that’s associated with, among other things, parts of speech) doesn’t quite lose its keen edge honed by hours of cramm…, err, diligent reviewing, here’s a wordgame to tide you over till you get to renew acquaintances with your favorite Comm Arts teacher.

There are groups of words listed below, with the words in each group sharing some peculiar trait. For example (and just to start you off with what’s practically a no-brainer), what unique characteristic do the following words have in common? rhythm, gypsy, sylph, hymn

Got it? Yep, knew you would: those are all-consonant words.

Now see if you can guess what’s so special about each of the following word groups. Answers are listed at the end, but no peeking until you can honestly say “I give up!” Here goes:

1. sequoia, facetious, eukaryotic, unsportsmanlike
2. biopsy, abhors, almost, begins, chimps
3. civic, civil, livid, mimic, villi, vivid
4. accede, baggage, cabbage, deface
5. rotator, reviver, deified
6. brunch, emoticon, genome, internet, motel, smog

Think, think, think. Just to make sure you don’t throw in the towel so soon, we’re inserting a break for this post right about here.

(Hmmm, that didn’t work.) Oh c’mon, you can do better than that. Give it another shot before rushing to click the link to the next page we’ve inserted here.

(Dang, that break function still didn’t work.) Ok, impatient ones, you’ve reached the portion where you can find the

ANSWERS:

1. All vowels appear once in these words.
2. The letters in each word appear in alphabetical order.
3. They’re all spelled with Roman numerals.
4. These are spelled with piano notes.
5. These are palindromic words, or words which read the same backward as forward.
6. These are portmanteau words. A portmanteau word is a word that fuses or blends the sounds and combines the meanings of two others. (BONUS: Can you figure out what two words make up each of the portmanteaus?)

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