Quiz Guy John Chaneski is back with his classic License Plate Game. He’ll give you three letters, and you have to come up with the shortest possible word that contains them in that order. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Another Round of the License Plate Game”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett, and look who it is, knocking his head on the doorway once again.
It’s John Chaneski, our quiz guy.
I have yet to figure out how to use the door properly.
What do you got there, quiz man?
This here in my hands, this is a quiz.
I decided we should play the license plate game again.
What do you say?
Okay.
It’s about time to hit the road.
Of course, there are lots of car games and license plate games, but our favorite is when I give you three letters from a license plate and you give me any word that contains those three letters in order, not necessarily consecutively.
Oh, boy.
Right.
Now, I’d like to give you style points for a shorter word.
Okay, good.
When you play in a car, you probably play longest word wins, but then, you know, you can just add suffixes and where’s the fun in that?
Right.
Here comes the first car.
Okay.
R-M-H.
R-M-H.
Yeah.
How about wormhole?
Wormhole’s great.
Wormhole is good.
Oh, nice.
It’s long, though.
Eight-letter word.
That’s okay.
I had a couple of sevens and I had one six-letter word.
How about arm and hammer?
All right.
I’ll give you extra style points for brand names.
Why not?
Okay.
We’ll give you wormhole and I’ll give you the ones I had.
I had, well, armhole actually is seven.
Triumph.
Triumph.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Rematch.
My six-letter word is warmth.
Ooh, nice.
Warmth.
Very good.
Okay.
So, so far I am winning.
All right.
Says the man who had ages to put the quiz together and has the answers in front of him.
Here comes the next car.
Let’s see, I can see, I think it’s a Tennessee license plate.
Okay, Z-I-H.
Zilch.
Zilch, Grant’s right in with a zilch.
Yeah, Zenith is not going to work.
And Zenith’s a good six, very good.
Azimuth. Azimuth by seven, yes, very good.
I had Zither also worked.
Oh, very good.
I also found Zilla.
As in Godzilla or Bridezilla?
What?
As in an administrative district in India.
Oh, never heard of it.
How do you spell that?
A Z-I-L-L-A or Z-I-L-L-A-H.
I guess I would never pass my Indian civil service exam.
I did not know that word.
Yeah.
I guess you’ve guessed by now I threw a couple of obscure ones.
Oh, yeah, but those are fun.
Just for fun.
Yeah, that’s why.
That’s why.
Okay.
Okay.
Here comes another one.
Y-P-H.
Y.
Oh.
Y.
P.
Silph.
Silph.
Very good five-letter word.
Yeah, I don’t think I have anything shorter than that.
And lymph.
Oh, lymph.
Yeah, very good.
Lymph, nymph.
Oh, yeah.
Yield Patrick Harris.
Glyph.
Glyph.
Glyph.
Cipher.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Let’s look at this car coming up.
He’s got his license plate.
PVC.
Oh, look at that.
Look at the pipe.
Prevaricate, but that’s too long.
Pre-vacation.
Nice long word, though.
Yeah.
Again, nice little insight as to Martha’s psyche.
What?
Prevaricating about her pre-vacation.
That’s right.
Province.
Province is good.
That’s my eight.
I have a six and a seven, though.
Yeah, a six and a seven.
Okay, let’s throw it out to the listeners.
Listeners, what do you got?
Yeah, that’s a good one.
Yes, pelvic is good for a six.
What’s that you say?
Privacy?
Yes, privacy is a good seven.
Yes.
Very good.
Very nice.
Okay, let’s pull this car over and stop and get some ice cream because I’m done.
All right, John.
Thank you.
That was quite a workout.
I don’t think I did that well on this one.
No, but you guys did great and it was a lot of fun.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Thanks, John.
We’ll see you guys next time.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Language.
It’s a strange beast.
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