Common Bonds Word 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 ducking into our recording igloo is our quiz guy, John Janeski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

I really wish we could raise the roof here a little bit. You know, I’m 6’5″. It’s kind of uncomfortable, but we’ll give it a shot, okay?

Yeah.

Now, this puzzle is something we’ve done before. This quiz, we’ve done it. We like it a lot. It’s called common bonds. It means that I will give you three things, and you tell me what they have in common.

Now, there’s lots of names for these things. If you’ve ever played the board game Tribond, same thing. If you’re a fan of the game show Only Connect in the UK, same thing. When I host Pub Trivia every week, it’s typically our last round. Again, I call it Common Bonds, okay?

Yeah.

For example, if I said slide, golden, five-second.

Rule.

Yes, they can all be followed by rule, slide rule, golden rule, and five-second rule. That last one being the giveaway.

The giveaway, indeed, and it’s also nothing. It doesn’t actually exist.

Okay, badminton, bikinis, limericks.

Badminton, bikinis, and limericks?

Yes.

How about things named for places?

Yes, things named for real places. Badminton in the UK and Bikini Atoll and Limerick, of course, in Ireland.

How about this one?

Allen, Crescent, Monkey.

Wrench.

Wrench.

Wrenches, yes, types of wrenches. Allen wrench, Crescent wrench, Monkey wrench.

How about this one?

Rain, Heart, Prose.

Purple.

Purple, yes. Purple rain, purple heart, purple prose.

Finally, noodle, bean, nut.

Don’t say they’re things you eat. That’s too easy.

Well, they are, but noodle, bean, nut. Should we use our noodles for this one?

Yes, you should.

So they can all mean brain or head.

Yes, they’re all synonyms or slang terms for the head. Use your noodle. Use your bean. Use your nut.

And you guys certainly did. You did a great job. Congratulations. Common bonds once again. You nailed it.

Thank you, John. We’ll work on adding a second story to our recording igloo.

To the igloo, yes, please.

And we’ll see you next week.

See you then.

Take care, guys.

Take care.

All right.

Bye-bye, John.

We’d love to talk with you about any aspect of language whatsoever, slang, grammar, word origins, or something fantastic that you read recently. Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your thoughts to us in email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.