Challenging Verbal Analogy Puzzle: Can You Solve It?

[tunma]

There it is. I'll congratulate the solver upon discovering the solution.

Hint: the answer is not a one-, two-, three-, or four-letter solution.

Good luck.

 

[berkeman]

There it is. I'll congratulate the solver upon discovering the solution.

Hint: the answer is not a one-, two-, three-, or four-letter solution.

Good luck.

wet

I win! :-)

 

[tunma]

"wet" is a three-letter solution - which is incorrect. The hint stated that one-letter, two-letter, three-letter, and four-letter answers are not correct.

Try as many times as you like.

 

[zoobyshoe]

"Pale" should be correct, except for the prohibition on four letters, so maybe it's "pallid"?

 

[berkeman]

drenched :-)

 

[tunma]

"pale", "pallid" and "drenched" are not solutions.

It's a tough analogy. ;)

 

[zoobyshoe]

Wrinkle?

 

[berkeman]

Or cancer ...

 

[tunma]

"wrinkle" and "cancer" are not solutions.

 

[zoki85]

angle has 5 letters

 

[tunma]

"angle" is not a solution.

This is not your everyday analogy. May have to resort to thinking outside the box...

 

[lisab]

Clothes?

 

[tunma]

"clothes" is not a solution.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Instead of saying "x is not the solution," tunma keeps saying "x is not a solution." Therefore, I wonder if the correct answer is something that would be classified as a solution, i.e. a homogenous mixture of two or more substances.

 

[tunma]

The only hint I have provided is that the solution is not a one-letter, two-letter, three-letter, or four-letter (proposed) solution.

I leave open the possibility of a better alternative answer, but I assure you that THE solution to this problem is extremely difficult. I'd say an IQ above Mensa level is required at minimum to find it.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I'd say an IQ above Mensa level is required at minimum to find it.

There are plenty of those here. However, I don't know how many have the time and patience for this sort of puzzle.

I'd say that since "sun" dries things and "rain" does the opposite, one would expect "tan" (which darkens or colours things) to be similarly related to an opposite like "bleach" (which lightens or fades things). I've not spotted anything about the letters or words which looks like a strong pattern (e.g. numeric equivalents or parts of related words), and I don't think "arctan" (as the inverse of "tan") would make much sense.

 

[tunma]

There are plenty of those here. However, I don't know how many have the time and patience for this sort of puzzle.

I agree, which is why I thought some might like the challenge and fun of this humble puzzle.

"bleach" and "arctan" are not solutions.

 

[256bits]

I have 2 answers
1. If there is more sun(shine) than rain, one can get a tan. here the answer is sunbathing, or perhaps even summer.
2. The sun ejects cahrged material, some of which falls back to the sun. The falling back part is called coronal rain, which may be an answer. Since this episode occurring on the sun is witnessed by high ultraviloet, one can also get a tan. Perhaps solar flare is the answer.

 

[tunma]

"shine", "bathing", "sunshine", "sunbathing" are not solutions.
"coronal", "solar", "flare", "coronal rain", and "solar flare" are not solutions.

Hint 2: the solution does not have spaces between separate values. I.e., if a word is a string of symbols, then the solution cannot be multiple separate strings.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Does finding the answer depend on sheer cleverness or is some specialized knowledge required?

 

[tunma]

I'd say both.

 

[256bits]

I have another one : Global Warming.
But that does fit into Hint 2

I take ":" as being the mathematical ratio, "::" as referring to global member in the C language, and ":?" is the tertiary, but backwards(inverted, reversed)
So if the ratio of sun/rain is inverted then lots of rain and little sun giving the global member "tan", but reversed gives "no tan", which is what one would have with Global Warming.

You have to give points for trying

 

[tunma]

"global warming" is not a solution.

 

[collinsmark]

Rainbow?

 

[tunma]

I've re-evaluated this problem and I'm afraid it's flawed. Very sorry to all the participants. You're all winners for putting in the effort!

 

[edward]

I've re-evaluated this problem and I'm afraid it's flawed. Very sorry to all the participants. You're all winners for putting in the effort!

Wait don't leave without a proper welcome to the forum... Then again it may be best. What made you flip out? I do understand, when I found out Tony Bennett and Lady Ga Ga had teamed up I posted flawed verbal analogies on other forums for months.

 

[AMenendez]

So, the original problem is ``flawed"? So, that's it, there's no solution? Or, should we keep trying?