New License Plate 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 in the doorway is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, Martha.

What’s up?

Hey, John, come in.

Thank you.

I’ll come right on in.

Here I am.

I have a seat, and I’ll sit, and I’ll talk to you guys for a while.

It’s very nice out, so I’m thinking about, you know, I’m thinking about a road trip, and I’m thinking it’s time to hit the road and play the license plate game again.

Okay.

Which one is this?

This is the one where I give you three letters from a license plate of a car going by, and you have to give me a word that contains those letters.

Now, usually we play that the letters don’t have to be together.

But today, to mix things up, we’re going to play that the letters do have to be together.

But they must be in the middle of the word, okay?

They can’t be at the beginning or the end of the word.

For example, if I said O-G-E is on a license plate going by, you could say together.

That contains the letters O-G-E in order.

Okay.

Together.

Here comes a car now.

The letters are BBO.

Abbott.

Abbott.

Right out of the gate, the shortest one I could find.

Abbott.

Very good.

My favorite words of BBO in it is shibboleth.

Oh, there we go.

I just like that word.

Let’s go on to the next one, number two.

Here comes a car, and it says zen, Z-E-N.

Not easy.

Not zenith, because it’s at the beginning.

Is there an anti-zenith?

Oh, good.

Let’s say you’ve got a cold and your throat is sore.

Lozenge.

No dozen.

Yes, lozenge.

Very good.

If you’re out there and you’re saying benzene, that’s a good word.

Oh, okay.

Or citizenry.

Oh, yeah, sure.

How about STC?

STC.

Waistcoat.

Yes, waistcoat is on my list.

Very good.

Waistcoat.

Oh, nice.

I think I have a word that is one letter shorter than that.

Since we’re on a road trip, we might as well send home a postcard.

Oh, there we go.

Postcard.

Okay, let’s try a couple more.

T-W-O.

Two.

Oh, T-W-O.

T-W-O.

I’m trying that division thing you mentioned.

I know.

Yeah, it helps.

In this case, I think it helps to divide between the first letter and the second.

Network.

Yeah, I was going to say.

Yes, network.

That’s the shortest one I could find.

Very good.

Cutworm.

Cutworm is good.

Cutworm or cutwork, very good.

Here’s the last one.

A-C-A.

Facade.

Facade is wonderful, yes.

Nicely done.

Jacaranda.

What’s a jacaranda?

It’s a tree with purple flowers.

Very nice purple flowers.

Common here in San Diego.

Oh, yeah.

Not in New York so much.

Not so much.

But I have something slightly shorter than facade.

I have a fracas.

Oh.

But I also have cacao.

Cacao.

Cacao.

All right.

Anyway, those are a trio of letters in the license plate game.

You guys did really, really well.

So where are we now?

Yeah, it’s a tough game.

No, where are we?

John, thank you so much.

Thanks, buddy.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you, Grant.

Bye.

This is the show where we goof around when it comes to language, so give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send us your stories about language to words@waywordradio.org.