State of Play Trivia Quiz

Answer: waking

The US postal code for the state of Washington is WA.

Thinking of words for monarchs, I don't quickly come up with any that start with WA, so it seems likely that we need a 4-letter word for monarch to give a word that means rousing from slumber. Fortunately, the first that springs to mind is king, and that works. (If you didn't start with a king, you could sequentially rule out queen, grand duke, prince, emperor, khan, kaiser, etc.)

WA + king = waking

Answer: flinch

The US postal code for Florida is FL.

There are lots of words that are related to recoil, but a limited number of non-metric distances, none of which start with FL. This suggests we need a 4-letter unit which can follow FL to produce our answer. Since this is a Brain Teaser and not an examination on international units of measurement, the reference is probably to the imperial system. Running through imperial units of distance, we consider flmile, flyard, flfoot, flhand, fllink, and (finally) flinch. Not only is the last one possible to pronounce, it is a word meaning to recoil from a source of pain.

FL + inch = flinch

Answer: galore

The US postal code for Georgia is GA.

GA + four letters will mean either an abundance or traditional wisdom. An abundance might be lots, but galots does not mean traditional wisdom, so let's try again. Traditional wisdom can be called folklore - or just lore, which is the breakthrough we need. If there are prizes galore to be won in a competition, that means there are a lot of them, or an abundance. So our four-letter word is lore, and the six-letter answer is galore.

GA + lore = galore

Answer: Azores

The US postal code for Arizona is AZ.

We need either a kind of mineral or an Atlantic island group that starts with AZ. Azurite is a mineral, and the Azores are an island group. Since azurite has seven letters, we can rule it out. Azores has the right number of letters, and an ore is a mineral-bearing rock. Since the clue refers to minerals, we need to use the plural, ores.

AZ + ores = Azores

Answer: malady

The US postal code for Massachusetts is MA.

The answer will be a six-letter word starting with MA which means either a female or an illness (or possibly one who suffers an illness). Madam or Madame are terms used to address females, but don't work because madam is too short and dame is not related to illness (although interestingly it is also a word used to describe a woman). Maybe we need to find a four-letter word used to describe a female, to follow the MA. Magirl, malass, mabird - these are not words. Madame is a word, but not related to illness. Lady, however, works, as malady is a synonym of illness.

MA + lady = malady

Answer: allow

The US postal code for Alabama is AL.

The two clues are let and down. Considering possible synonyms for both words, we can match allow (to permit or let something happen) and low (a position further down than some other point of reference).

AL + low = allow

Answer: copies

The US postal code for Colorado is CO.

While a cobbler is a fruit pastry beginning with CO, bbler is not a word. However, a pie is a type of pastry, often made with fruit. Since the clue uses the plural, we need pies, and copies is a word. Someone who makes duplicates of an original item copies it exactly.

CO + pies = copies

Answer: scales

The US postal code for South Carolina is SC.

The other two parts of the clue are beers and something revealing weight. Types of beer include pilsner, lager, stout, ale - we can stop there. The clue is plural, so add ales to SC and get scales, a devise used to measure weight.

SC + ales = scales

Answer: cocoon

The US postal code for Colorado is CO.

Starting with the deciphering some of the terms, a chrysalis is the hard outer covering that protects the pupal stage of a butterfly. A related word is cocoon, the silk casing that some of them spin around themselves inside the chrysalis, and which nearly all moths produce instead of a chrysalis to protect themselves during the process of pupation. This is promising, since it starts with CO and has the right number of letters. But is coon a word? Indeed, it is, a shortened form of raccoon, a North American mammal distinguished by the black mask across its face (and its ringed tail and extremely dexterous front paws, but the clue didn't mention them).

CO + coon = cocoon

Answer: Coin

This question, retained from the adopted quiz despite feeling like a bit of a cheat, is slightly different from the rest, as the second word is also a two-letter US Postal code.

The US postal code for Colorado is CO, and that for Indiana is IN. Of course, in is a two-letter word, but hints towards it that do not include those two letters at all get quite cumbersome!

CO + IN = coin