If you look at the top of the "standings" page it explains how the scoring in done for the monthly badge. It has to with ranking total scores and average scores and being assigned a position value of from 1 to 500 (500 is the top score), these are then added together to arrive at a total rank. So from day 1 there will be high ranking scores for the month. You currently have 117 points from Average and 280 from Total Points making a total of 397. That many points currently rates you in position 321.

Ah, sorry, I thought undudelike was referring to the Mini-Game, which is why I mentioned the turnover hadn't gone as it perhaps should have.

Typo in a WW question. Spelling of 'written' in -

Communication (writen or spoken) intended to deceive - snake oil

Should it be - Communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive?

A cottage may have more than one tale to tell, but in this instance the word should be storey.

Actually, "story" is an acceptable US spelling for the level of a building.

Oh, I did not realise that! My apologies to all the Americans here.

The real error is that a cottage doesn't have to be small or have only one stor(e)y, lol.

The word referring to a "level" is spelled "storey" here in Canada too, but I still find it amusing that one of my friends, who is a librarian, married a man by the surname of "Storey" : )

Today, Nov.6, group 51-60, between 10 AM & 11 AM CDT, same 2 questions in WW, different answers. Confusing to say the least.

8. Artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes
The correct answer was pom-pom

10. Artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes
Your answer: antiaircraft

(A pom-pom in the USA is a decorative ball of "fluff". Pom-poms come in many colors, sizes & varieties. They are made from many different materials, including fabric, paper, plastic, etc. The most widely-recognized use is generally in cheerleading or by fans during spectator sports. Guess pom-pom must be a slang term for antiaircraft fire in the British or European fields of battle, as I seem to vaguely remember it from reading historical novels with many British pilot heroes. Of course, if British, then recognized all over the world because of the history of British colonization. except here in good old rebellious USA ;))

~~Tiny

Sorry, guess the HTML is disabled, that was supposed to be an emoticon wink.

~~Tiny

The sound made by anti-aircraft guns makes a noise "pom pom... pom pom... pom pom..." hence the name of the guns.

And also balls of fluff - best not to get confused between the two, one sort of pom-pom makes a nasty mess.

I recall the origins of the pom-pom gun as that it was those side by side guns used by all the naval forces in WWII b(ut more in the US Pacific fleet against dive bombers) the reciprical advance and reload of the double barreled gun fired flack shells that when they exploded in the sky looked like a pair of pom-poms. The artillery man would pull the trigger, and two shells were launched. I'm sure you've seen the guns in old movies where one guy is sitting in the middle manning the sights and a second gunner is cranking like crazy to bring the gun around to bear on a subsequent target. Pom-poms for the little side by side clouds of smoke left in the air when they fragmented.
And the sound was there too.

The first pom-pom guns were land artillery, used by the Boers against the British in the Second Boer War. Similar guns were then developed by Vickers for use against the Boers.

Tiny Detail: They were two DIFFERENT questions, correct? So I assume they each had a different set of possible answers as well. If so, then it is NOT confusing in the least. Now, if there was only ONE question out of 15 which read: "Artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes" and BOTH "pompoms" and "antiaircraft" were choices in the SAME question, then yes, that would be unfair.

As for HTML, no you can't use it (it says so over there on the left of the reply window). UBBC, however, IS enabled and there are a few emoticons you can use like this (there are more):


You can also do italic and underline, amongst other things.

In order to actually "see" the list of "enhancements" you can choose from, you need to click on "switch to full reply screen" before submitting anything. "Preview post" is a useful button as well.

Hope this helps.

Seems to be drawing quite a long bow.

3. Any long and arduous undertaking

Your answer: grind

grind means "hard monotonous routine work"

The correct answer was endurance contest

These seem rather close to me.

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

Spelling error:

15. An ice containing milk

Your answer: sherbert [should be SHERBET]

I know it's technically wrong, but my dictionary lists "sherbert" as an alternative spelling, though that might be because so many people get it wrong. I'm using Encarta ® World English Dictionary that comes with my Microsoft Works Word Processor.

Following on JMElston's point

3. Any long and arduous undertaking
Your answer: grind
grind means "hard monotonous routine work"
The correct answer was endurance contest

An endurance contest is a marathon and wasn't that one of the other possible answers? The multiple word questions usually have a single word reply and 'endurance contest' doesn't fit that norm. I cannot get back to check that since I navigated away and over to here. But somewhere I thought Marathon was mentioned. Was it and not endurance contest the possible answer?

5. Sough

The correct answer was: introduce into an environment


This one has me a bit puzzled. I am familiar with "sough" as a derivative of the Old English verb, "swogan" , meaning to moan or sigh (Merriam-Webster). I searched several dictionaries, and I could not locate the definition that was provided in the Word Wizard game.

From Datasegment.com:

sough - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

Sough \Sough\, n.
A sow. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]

Sough \Sough\, n. [Etymol. uncertain.]
A small drain; an adit. [Prov. Eng.] --W. M. Buchanan.
[1913 Webster]

Sough \Sough\ (?; 277), n. [Cf. Icel. s?gr (in comp.) a rushing
sound, or OE. swough, swogh, a sound, AS. swogan to rustle.
Cf. Surf, Swoon, v. i.]
1. The sound produced by soughing; a hollow murmur or
roaring.
[1913 Webster]

The whispering leaves or solemn sough of the forest.
--W. Howitt.
[1913 Webster]

2. Hence, a vague rumor or flying report. [Scot.]
[1913 Webster]

3. A cant or whining mode of speaking, especially in
preaching or praying. [Scot.] --Jamieson.
[1913 Webster]

Sough \Sough\, v. i.
To whistle or sigh, as the wind.
[1913 Webster]

sough - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

sough
v 1: make a murmuring sound; "the water was purling" [syn:
sough, purl]

This is one of those weird loops that only happens on the Internet. Quite often the guilty party is Princeton, whose dictionary seems to have many definition that are totally absurd - do they let undergraduates type in their own definitions?

Anyway, this one seems to be a Chinese whisper. I googled the definition Cyd quoted rather than the word and this is what I got:

"No definitions of introduce into an environment were found in English

Definitions of introduce into an environment on the Web in Chinese (Simplified):

* sough , sow: sow suspicion or beliefs"

There's a link on that page to an online Chinese/English dictionary and on that the 'sough' is clearly shown as a pronunciation of the word 'sow'.


Edited to remove Chinese characters that don't show up anyway.

flopsy,

My goodness; you are a true word detective! Now I can sleep, knowing that you have solved The Mystery of Sough.

Thank you for taking the time to investigate the "Chinese whisper".

Should I be on the lookout for Romanian screams or Hungarian giggles? I am just wondering if WW has been kicked up a linguistic notch or two.

Exactly. Our Points are derived from the previous month PLUS this month (NOV). Surely under the screen "scoreboard" in World Wizard, it shows last months plus this months numbers combined. Under "YOU" it shows a combination of Oct. and Nov. scores erroneously as this months score.

Whatever.

1. An man-made opening

Your answer: aperture

I really think that this should be "A man-made opening".

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

2. Usually stuffed and roasted

Your answer: breast of veal

15. Flavored with sour orange peel

Your answer: curacao

There are several of this type of incomplete definitions dealing with various meats, drinks or foods.

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

2. Tweet

Your answer: a week chirping sound as of a small bird

"Week" should be "weak". I think I've seen this before.

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

12. Majesty

Your answer: the state of being noble

the state of being noble is the definition for "ennoblement"

The correct answer was impressiveness in scale or proportion

A synonym of "majesty" is "grandeur" which has synonyms of "nobility" & "nobleness".

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

3. A woman's sleeveless undergarment

Your answer: teddies

This needs to be "teddy" or "undergarments".

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!

If "a large shawm" is a "bombardon" as Word Wizard just told me (grrr) please let me know how the connection is made. Definitions for "bombardon" always seem to relate to a brass tuba; definitions for "shawm" seem to relate to a woodwind instrument or a reeded (in some cases, double reed) instrument. A brass tuba & a woodwind are hardly the same class of instrument. Is there a problem here?

~~Tiny

A bombardon is also an early type of bassoon. That is where the large shawm reference comes from. See

http://www.yourdictionary.com/bombardon

among other definitions.

Happy Word Wizard Trivia!