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This week’s blog is all about the letters HONDA. Unfortunately, despite that topic, we have not received any monetary contributions that would help pay for our website!

A Grade Challenge

You need to find 5 words as usual for this week’s challenge, but for a change you only get one rack. You probably know the word HONDA. No it isn’t a Japanese word for car. It is imported from Spanish referring to part of a lariat. Today you have the letters HONDA plus a blank and an S. Can you find the 5 possible bingos you might play?

H      O      N     D     A     S     ?

B & C Grade Study List

Here are all the 3 and 4 letter words that you can make from the letters HONDA. For the 3 letter words it oddly makes 8 anagram pairs for a total of 16 words.

DAH   A dash in Morse code. Takes an L for DAHL as well as an S

HAD   To hold. Hooks to make HADE, HADJ and HADS

AND   Something added. Can take an S for ANDS

DAN   A level in Japanese sport. DANG, DANK, DANS, DANT

Do not play DANE. I have challenged that off more than once

ADO   A fuss. Takes an S for ADOS

ODA   A room in a harem. ODAH, ODAL, ODAS

HAN   3rd person plural of have. HAND, HANG, HANK, HANT

NAH   An interjected no. And nah, it doesn’t take any hooks!

Make sure you know that neither of these two take an S. Hans may be a boy’s name, but it is no good for scrabble.

HAO   A monetary unit of Vietnam. Takes an S for HAOS

HOA   To stop. HOAR, HOAS and HOAX

Remember the front hooks for these 2 -- CHAO and WHOA

DOH   A musical note. Just DOHS

HOD   To bob or jog. Just HODS

DON   To put on. DONA, DONE, DONG, DONS

NOD   A forward head motion. NODE, NODI, NODS

Another pair noted for the front hooks -- UDON and SNOD

HON   Short for honey as a term of endearment

NOH   The classical drama of Japan

These two couldn’t be more different with NOH taking no hooks at either end, but HON taking 3 front hooks and 5 back hooks:

CHON, PHON, THON, HOND, HONE, HONG, HONK, HONS

There are 5 words of 4 letters that can be made from HONDA

HAND   SHAND, HANDS and HANDY

HOND   An obsolete word for hand

ODAH   A room in a harem. ODAHS

NOAH   Australian slang for a shark. NOAHS

DONA   A Spanish lady. DONAH and DONAS

You might notice that DONAH is an anagram of HONDA, but HONDA certainly gets played more frequently

Mentioning whether words take an S has reminded me that last week I pluralised a word that did not take an S. I was playing against someone who had a FREE CHALLENGE card, but I got away with it. Our system of FREE CHALLENGE and IMMUNITY cards is a great way to help when players from different grades are matched against each other. Make sure you use them if you have them!

Here are some high scoring 3 letter words you might mistakenly put an S after. None of them take that letter, but some of them take other letters

AZO, HUH, IFF, JAI, JEU, JUN, KAM, OXO, QUA, RHY, WHA, WHO

Answers to A Grade Challenge

HAGDONS    Seabirds also called Greater Shearwaters

SANDHOG   A worker who works in sand

DAHOONS    Perennial shrubs of the holly family

HADRONS   Types of subatomic particle

HOUDANS   Types of domestic fowl

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick