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Tue 10 Dec, 2002 04:17 pm
OK wordsmyths (or those who are skiving at work), here's a little teaser that should keep your brain cells frying for a while:
I'm looking for a 9-letter English word (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) which matches the following
Clues:
The letters 5, 3, & 4 (in that order) spell a type of BIRD.
The letters 6, 2 & 1 (in that order) spell a type of FISH.
The letters 7, 8, 1 & 4 (in that order) spell a type of FLUID.
The letters 1, 8, 7 & 9 (in that order) spell a type of BEAN.
Notes:
Seven of the nine letters are different.
Six of the nine letters are vowels.
The correct word is found in Webster's Dictionary.
Happy sleuthing 
I'm going to start with the type of bean. The only 2 4-letter beans I can think of are mung and lima. This would give us either:
M-----nug or
L-----mia
Can't think of a three-letter bird other than t1t. A three-letter fish could be cod. A four-letter fluid could be Coke but it's not necessarily edible (hey, Coke isn't necessarily edible).
How about "jay" for 3-letter bird? Or "owl"?
By the way, I notice 8, 4, 1, and 7 are multiples, which makes it likely they're vowels.
Ah, fantastic! We can do it!
"Six of the nine letters are vowels"... that's a lot. I think we're looking for maximally vowelly short words -- "lima" (2/2) over "mung" (1/3), for example.
I got it
I'm smiling because I'm always the last one to guess word games. But, I won't give the answer. I don't want to spoil the fun. The word fooled me, though because it can be spelled two ways.
Ah Oh
I just noticed that the clue is 7 of the nine letters are different. I only have five different. But everything else fits into place.
Duh. I get it. 7 of the letters are different. Two are repeated. Yippee. I got it.
Did I make this Word Puzzle too easy?
Or would you like me to create some more in a similar vain?
When you think you have the correct answer, then it should conform exactly with every one of the CLUES and NOTES given with the question.
Ah, I believe I just got it. It's a British spelling, yes?
li'l k, it's an auk:
Main Entry: auk
Pronunciation: 'ok
Function: noun
Etymology: Norwegian or Icelandic alk, alka, from Old Norse Alka
Date: 1674
: any of several black-and-white short-necked diving seabirds (family Alcidae) that breed in colder parts of the northern hemisphere
Yeah, I figured that one out backwards, I was just playing.....
...and an iuk is a finicky little bird that is very hard to raise in captivity as it tends to turn up its nose at everything offered while uttering its eponymous cry.
Oh jee, call time right when I'm about to answer.
Kiddin', I was offline and didn't have a chance to see this but I wouldn't have gotten it.
CDK:
Sorry my friend for cutting this word puzzle short, but there's plenty of time to solve the next one. - if you've got the stamina :wink:
I probably won't have the time. :-(
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