Hidden Words Quiz

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 we’re joined once again by our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, guys.

I’m back once again with a quiz for you.

Welcome.

You know, people are always asking me, where do you get the ideas for your quizzes all the time? This one was something I saw on the side of a bus. There was an ad for an explosive expose. And I’m like, hey, wait a second. The word expose is inside the word explosive.

Oh.

That’s the kind of thing that’s always interesting to me. I’ve gathered a few of these words that are inside other words for you. And to make it easy to figure it out, I’ve limited my search to four-letter words that are inside other words.

Okay.

I’ll give you the long word. You give me the word inside, and the clue will clue the whole thing.

Got it.

For the most part, these will be nouns inside of adjectives.

Oh, okay.

That can describe that noun. For example, in the clue, a union member might find him despicable. The word despicable contains the word…

Scab.

Yes, very good. Now, to be even more helpful, the outside word, as I call it, the outside word, is always the last word in the clue.

Okay?

Okay.

Gotcha.

Here we go. This one’s a little cryptic, but I think you can get it. It can be quite soothing.

It can be quite soothing.

Right.

Sing?

Song.

Song, yes. Very good. This one’s actually different from the others. This has a verb inside it.

What I do with my psychiatrist.

Chats?

Yes, chat. Grant, already getting out of the gate with two.

For once.

Yes.

Here’s the next one. This office staple is often transparent.

Tape.

Tape, yes. It’s actually also inside staple, which is weird. It is writing that is libelous.

Libelous.

Lies.

Lies.

You sit on a throne of lies. These would be useful in studying demographics.

Demographics.

Maps.

Yes, maps is right. Nice. I think we’ve hit a puzzle that Grant is in tune with.

Bring it on, my brother!

Finally, hopefully, it is buoyant.

Buoyant.

Buoyant.

Buoyant.

A buoy.

Well, yeah. Now, the letters are separated by other letters in this one.

Boat.

Boat is correct. Yes, way to go. It’s time for me to get on my boat and sail on out of here.

You guys did terrific.

Sail away, sail away.

Wow.

Well, that was tough.

Tough for me, not for Grant. Some days you’re in the pocket. Some days you’re out of the pocket.

That’s right.

Some days you’re inside the word. I feel like Martha usually cleans my clock, so I feel pretty happy today.

Yeah, my clock’s pretty dirty right now.

Thanks, John. Really appreciate this one.

Thank you, Grant.

Thank you, Martha. I’m going to feast off this for weeks. And if you want to talk with us about language, call us 877-929-9673 or send us an email. The address is words@waywordradio.org.