Mix & Match ‡‡‡
by Max & Mitch Ninelette
The goal of this Mix & Match puzzle is to reconstitute a set of nine 9-letter words that have each had various n-grams removed. Below are two separate puzzles. Each includes a table to fill out and a set of either unigrams or trigrams with which to fill it up. Using each n-gram once, fill the blanks in the table to form various nine-letter words. When you are done, three additional words will be revealed in the vertical direction for each puzzle.
| PHR | _ | _ | _ | NGS |
| POS | _ | _ | _ | SED |
| POL | _ | _ | _ | RPH |
| ETH | _ | _ | _ | ITY |
| WOO | _ | _ | _ | UCK |
| MET | _ | _ | _ | OID |
| BOA | _ | _ | _ | ADS |
| BAB | _ | _ | _ | ERY |
| WHI | _ | _ | _ | ING |
| A | L | O |
| C | M | O |
| C | N | R |
| D | N | S |
| E | N | S |
| E | N | S |
| H | O | T |
| I | O | Y |
| I | O | Y |
| ___ | ___ | LLY |
| ___ | ___ | TIC |
| ___ | ___ | ING |
| ___ | ___ | NGS |
| ___ | ___ | EDS |
| ___ | ___ | TED |
| ___ | ___ | IES |
| ___ | ___ | RSA |
| ___ | ___ | ING |
| ANA | NIT |
| APP | ORA |
| EED | PES |
| EVE | PRE |
| EXC | RAR |
| INA | REM |
| INF | TIN |
| KLI | TRU |
| NCA | VIC |
If you think you’ve figured out all the answers—that’s 24 nine-letter words!—submit your solution to the editors of SpecGram by August 21st, 2025. Solutions and solvers will be announced in the next issue.
