New Word Sudoku (Swifty Sudoku!) Puzzles for Saturday, 1/3/2015

It fell apart in my hands," Tom rejoined.

A Tom Swifty is an adverbial pun that simultaneously describes a speaker and refers to the speaker's statement. The name comes from the Tom Swift book series for young readers. The authors were roundly criticized for overusing adverbs and descriptive phrases, so that Tom rarely said anything without a qualifying adverb. A Tom Swifty pun is a parody of this style that will make you groan out loud.

CARBON
6x6 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

EIGHTS
6x6 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once
Copy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the Tom Swifty

Solutions first thing in the morning.

Thanks,
--Dave

Solution to Friday's Word Sudoku Puzzle

Yesterday’s 10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku puzzle was based on all the letters in TWOHUSANDFIEY except OWY (spelling out UNSIFTED AH and HAUNTED IFS and SHADE UNFIT).

A new puzzle in a few hours.

Thanks,
--Dave

New Word Sudoku Puzzle for Friday, 1/2/2015

Today’s 10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku puzzles each contain all the letters in TWOHUSANDFIEY except three.

(In 2015, every daily puzzle is composed of only the distinct letters in "two thousand fifteen" and "twenty fifteen" (i.e., only the letters TWOHUSANDFIEY). Some days, I'll give you the exact letters; other days I'll only tell you which letters are NOT used, leaving you the extra chore.)

TWOHUSANDFIEY-OWY
10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x5 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

TWOHUSANDFIEY-OWY
10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x5 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

TWOHUSANDFIEY-OWY
10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x5 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

Solution first thing in the morning.

Thanks,
--Dave

Solution to Yesterday's Extra Word Sudoku Puzzles

Yesterday’s extra Word Sudoku puzzles were based on the distinct letters in NEW YEAR’S DAY, plus one more.

DARES+B: BREADS
DARES+C: SACRED
DARES+F: FADERS
DARES+G: GRADES
DARES+H: SHARED
DARES+I: RAISED
DARES+K: DRAKES
DARES+L: ALDERS
DARES+M: DREAMS
DARES+N: SNARED
DARES+O: ADORES
DARES+P: DRAPES
DARES+T: STARED
DARES+W: WADERS
DARES+Y: YEARDS
DARES+Z: ZERDAS

WANDERS+H: SWAN HERD
WANDERS+T: ST. ANDREW
RE YAWNS+T: STERNWAY
RE SANDY+T: DAY'S RENT

Thanks,
--Dave

Solution to Thursday's Word Sudoku Puzzle

Yesterday’s 9x9 AEIOU Classic Word Sudoku puzzle was based on the word VERACIOUS.

A new puzzle in a few hours.

Thanks,
--Dave

Extra Word Sudoku Puzzle for New Year’s Day, Thursday, 1/1/2015

Today’s extra puzzles use a similar theme to the daily puzzles this year. The daily puzzles use only the distinct letters in the names of the year, TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN and TWENTY FIFTEEN. The extra puzzles that show up on some of this year’s holidays use only the distinct letters in the name of that particular holiday. So today’s puzzles only use the distinct letters in NEW YEAR’S DAY.

Well, almost! NEW YEAR’S DAY has so few distinct letters that there just aren’t that many different words using the same letters. So I cheated—or as I would prefer to put it: I got creative. To come up with some interesting 6-letter words, I chose five letters from NEW YEAR’S DAY, and then ran through the alphabet, one extra letter at a time, to see how many words I could come up with. I found many more than the mere 16 six-letter words I’m challenging you to uncover…

DARES+B
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+C
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+F
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+G
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+H
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+I
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+K
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+L
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+M
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+N
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+O
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+P
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+T
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+W
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+Y
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

DARES+Z
6x6 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x3 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

I took the same approach to finding some interesting 8-letter words: In each case, seven letters come from NEW YEAR’S DAY.

WANDERS+H
8x8 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x4 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

WANDERS+T
8x8 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x4 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

RE YAWNS+T
8x8 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x4 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

RE SANDY+T
8x8 Hidden Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 2x4 rectangle contains all the remaining letters exactly once
The hidden word or words spell down the diagonal

All 20 puzzle solutions first thing in the morning!

Thanks,
--Dave

New Word Sudoku Puzzle for Thursday, 1/1/2015

Today’s 9x9 AEIOU Classic Sudoku puzzle is based on the word VERACIOUS.

VERACIOUS
9x9 Classic Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column and 3x3 square contains the letters in the word or phrase exactly once

Solution first thing in the morning.

Thanks,
--Dave

2015 posting schedule

Happy New Year!

I started Magic Word Square in mid 2008—more than 6,000 posts ago—to explore the fun of mixing words, letters and logic. I hope you enjoy solving these puzzles at least as much as I do creating them. As always, I invite your comments—please let me know what you think!

Here’s the 2015 posting schedule.

Daily posting schedule, each week

• Monday: 6x6 Word Sudoku puzzle
• Tuesday: 8x8 Word Sudoku puzzle or 8x8 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku puzzle
• Wednesday: 9x9 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku puzzle
• Thursday: 9x9 AEIOU Classic Word Sudoku puzzle
• Friday: 10x10 Word Sudoku puzzle or 10x10 Hidden Word, Takeaway Letter Sudoku puzzle
• Saturday: Swifty Sudoku
• Sunday: ‘Punnish’ Word Sudoku puzzles, and sometimes also the Sunday Challenge—12x12 Word Sudoku puzzles

A Swifty Sudoku puzzle spells out a hopefully very bad adverbial pun named after (and loosely based on) the wonderful children’s books about fictional character Tom Swift. The series authors hardly ever used the verb “said” by itself. A Swifty pun takes Tom’s speaking style to the max on the absurd scale, as in:

Parsley, sage, rosemary," said Tom timelessly.

or

Let's go for another gallop," Tom recanted.

Solve the individual Word Sudoku puzzles and place the circled letters in the corresponding numbered quote grid to spell out the pun. Then groan aloud!

A Punnish Word Sudoku puzzle set spells out a more general pun; in 2015, our theme is “Never die” puns—as in:

Old lumberjacks never die, they just split.”

Some Sundays I’ll also include the Sunday Challenge, which for the past six years was a 12x12 Hidden Word Sudoku puzzle, but for 2015, will also be a Takeaway Letter puzzle. Like I’ve been doing every year as I experiment with puzzle making, for 2015 I’ve added another wrinkle to the daily puzzles: every daily puzzle (except Thursdays) is composed of only the distinct letters in "two thousand fifteen" and "twenty fifteen" (i.e., only the letters TWOHUSANDFIEY). Some days—Mondays and some of the time on Tuesdays and Fridays—I'll give you the exact letters; other days I'll only tell you which letters are NOT used, leaving you the extra chore of determining what letters the puzzle uses by taking away the noted ones from the list of possible letters. That’s what I mean by “Takeaway Letter.”

Specific date posting schedule
And finally, I post two series of puzzles based on dates throughout the year.

• Holidays: I’ll challenge you with extra sets of extra Hidden Word Sudoku puzzles on certain holidays—puzzles using the same letters to spell out different words. Each holiday’s set of letters comes from the holiday’s name.
• President’s birthdays: On the anniversary birthdates of America’s presidents, I’ll present you a puzzle set to spell out a quote each president made.
• State Sudoku: On hold for 2015; I'm producing a book of these puzzles this year. I'll tell you all about it when I'm done. 

So in 2015, I’m posting more than 500 Word Sudoku puzzles. I hope you enjoy them! I look forward to your comments: Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
--Dave

All puzzles and text contained in this blog are copyright © 2008-2015, David H. Thompson. All rights reserved. Please tell your puzzle-loving friends to follow this blog. Thank you!

Solution to Wednesday’s Word Sudoku Puzzle

Yesterday’s 9x9 Missing Letter, Hidden Word Sudoku puzzle was based on the anagram MALIGN (+SET) (LIGAMENTS).

A new puzzle in a couple of hours.

Thanks,
--Dave