I saw something wrong in the MM set I took yesterday.

The word given was "glipzide", but it should be glipizide, an an oral antidiabetic drug.

The following is the top result delivered for a Google search for Glipzide. The "...common misspelling of..." confirms the error in Mind Melt. But as we often see here, the dictionary that is used as a source, many times accepts the errors as fact.

Glipzide
This page also includes information on how it works, potential side effects, and general dosing guidelines. Glipzide is a common misspelling of glipizide.
http://diabetes.emedtv.com/glipizide/glipzide.html

neonatal mortality is related to deathrate

Should death rate be two words instead of one?

Birthrate is commonly one word, so I guess a point can be made for "deathrate".

yobo is related to assaulter

You said: assailant

yobo means "a cruel and brutal fellow"
assaulter means "someone who attacks"

lapidator is related to assailant

You said: assaulter

lapidator means "an attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill)"
assailant means "someone who attacks"

When both left column words have the same meaning (according to the FT dictionary) there is not much one can do but take a wild guess. I guessed incorrectly, obviously.

seer is related to intellectual

You said: professional

seer means "a person with unusual powers of foresight"
intellectual means "a person who uses the mind creatively"

bibliothec is related to professional

You said: intellectual

bibliothec means "a professional person trained in library science and engaged in library services"
professional means "a person engaged in one of the learned professions"

Not one 30 so far in this set!

That one got me, too.

I object to "whittle away" being related to "damage". Whittle away has to do with cutting or carving something; in other words, it involves *creating* something, not *damaging* it.

One also talks about the sea whittling away at the coastline, which can be seen as causing erosional damage. These definitions are not by any means always the primary definitions for words.

Also, bear in mind that although you may be creating wonderful sculptures, you're technically damaging the wood to get those shapes!

Word of the Hour! Small world, eh?

I thought this was a difficult pairing today (I had it correct before, but changed back and forth.)

The opposite of lock is disengage

You said: disjoin

lock means "keep engaged"
disengage means "release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles"
The opposite of bring together is disjoin

You said: disengage

bring together means "cause to become joined or linked"
disjoin means "make disjoint, separated, or disconnected"

In the same set, in the relationships section I had:

albizzia means "any of numerous trees of the genus Albizia"

supposed to match with

saman means "large ornamental tropical American tree with bipinnate leaves and globose clusters of flowers with crimson stamens and sweet-pulp seed pods eaten by cattle"

and

albizia means "any of numerous trees of the genus Albizia"

supposed to match with

siris tree means "large spreading Old World tree having large leaves and globose clusters of greenish-yellow flowers and long seed pods that clatter in the wind"

Note the extra z in the first example - I believe the spelling with one z is correct.
Was it just bad luck that I ended up with both in one set?!

It certainly was an unlucky cvoincidence. Since the selection program would have read the two variant spellings as being two different words in the source dictionary (which has a lot of misspellings!), it would not have noticed the problem. Each relationship works, but it was nasty having to guess how they matched.

When two pairs this similar are noted, is it possible to edit the dictionary and remove one of them?

The dictionary is not part of the site, so all that can be done is filter it. Terry has done this to remove whole classes of entries that are not appropriate for use, but it would be very time-consuming indeed to filter each word or entry that seemed less than ideal. The quirkiness of the dictionary is part of the charm, as well as part of the frustration, of Mind Melt.

Had to take a wild guess on this one:

trepidation is related to apprehension



You said: apprehensiveness

trepidation means "a feeling of alarm or dread"
apprehension means "fearful expectation or anticipation"

pall is related to apprehensiveness



You said: apprehension

pall means "a sudden numbing dread"
apprehensiveness means "fearful expectation or anticipation"

"face the music is accept the unpleasant consequences of one''s actions"

There's a double quote in "one's".

Been there...said that.
The source dictionary is full of them. You will never see an apostrophe where it should be; it's always double quotes. I've never seen this anywhere else.

Ohhhhh... Wait, why? Something wrong with the single quotes?

irridentist means "an advocate of irredentism"

No dictionary spells it with a third i, including online references, should be 'irredentist' as stated in its own definition.

While I'm here I'll paste in today's challenge

"•Score at least 30 questions correct in today's Mind Melt - using any mode"

Unless there's a special trick I don't know of I don't think you can score more than 30 in Mind Melt so possible a redundant 'at least' there.

There is little point in noting the errors in the dictionary, as it is not on FT, but is accessed for the game.

The wording for that Daily challenge has been discussed on the Daily challenges thread. The text is the same for everyone who gets the challenge, but the number varies depending on the past performance of that particular player. And on the difficulty level at which it is being issued. So if you usually score highly, you will occasionally be asked to score at least 30 correct - I just smile and go do it.

Ah, that makes sense about the 'at least' as only some get the 30. I have seen a good number of typos and misspells reported here though so not sure now what can and can't be fixed as the majority of mind melt is from the dictionary, unless the definitions are not, but won't mention any more in that case if I spot them (which is very rare).

These 3 all appeared in the right-hand column for Part 3 of set 25 today:
artistic production
fine art
work of art

to match up with diptych, magnum opus, and printmaking (although not necessarily in that order).

I would match artistic production with printmaking, as they both seemto refer to a process; fine art with magnum opus, as both imply an excellence of quality; work of art with diptych as they are left. But i might be wrong.