The Drinking Dancing Chameleon Online Quiz | Brain Teasers

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Let's start with a simple example. I'll give you the following word pairs: B O O - O U T P AN - N E T D U E - E L D The capital letters spell out "ONE". If you correctly replace these capital letters, you get "TWO": B O T - T U T P A W - W E T D U O - O L D Likewise you could replace the C in "A R C - C A T" by an E to get the first letter of the word "ELEPHANTS". Of course the question asks for another letter. To offer a better readability, all the words in which you need to replace one letter, have been capitalized. Note: all words obtained by substituting the correct letters, are valid words according to the Scrabble dictionary. Now the question: replace the C in "S A C - C I S" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: B

The common letters form the first nine questions will spell out "CHAMELEON" top to bottom. Each and every letter in the word "CHAMELEON" will have to be replaced by another letter. I'll mention in the question (as a running example) how the C can be replaced by an E, the H by an L, the A by an E, the M by a P, the first E by an H, the L by an A, the second E by an N, the O by a T and the N by an S - so that one CHAMELEON hides multiple ELEPHANTS. Yes we can!

When you don't take into account the last sentence of the question, there would be the following solutions: B - D - L - P - T - W - X
So the resulting words could be .SAB - BIS, SAD - DIS, SAL - LIS, SAP - PIS, SAT - TIS, SAW - WIS or SAX - XIS.

The words BIS, SAD, SAP, SAT, and SAW need no explanation.

DIS is a verb. To dis is to show disrespect, in the way the French knights did to king Arthur and his companions according to "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

SAL is salt, especially in the pharmacological sense.

LIS is short for a fleur-de-lys, the heraldic symbol for France.

PIS is of course the plural of pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet. Likewise XIS is the plural of xi, the 14th letter in the Greek alphabet.

TIS is the plural of ti, the seventh note in the musical scale (do -re - mi - fa - so - la - ti)

To WIS is an archaic verb for to know. It is related to the German verb Wissen.

SAX can either be short for saxophone or a special kind of an axe.

SAB is short for saboteur, someone intent on preventing an activity - as indicated in the clue.
So as first letter we need the B.

By the way, CIS is a musical note - the C sharp. And the SAC from the question is not a handbag, but an anatomical structure (in a plant or animal) in the shape of a bag.

2. Another example shows how I could go from SEA to AIR. Look at the following word pairs: Y E S - S I T L E E - E L L B A A - A I M and replace by Y E A - A I T L E I - I L L B A R - R I M In the example of the CHAMELEON hiding ELEPHANTS, the task would consist of "P A H - H A Y" to be replaced by "P A L - L A Y". Now the question: replace the H in "Y E H - H I D" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: A

There seems to be only one valid solution: the letter A, resulting in YEA - AID.

If we were to have HIDE as part of the question (in stead of HID), there could also be a T or a W as solution.

For those wondering: the interjections YEH and YEA (both equalling YEAH) are indeed acceptable Scrabble words, even if they are not frequently used in business relations. I don't think it would be polite to use the words YEH or YEA (or even YEAH) to your boss, to your teacher or to a customer.

3. You might need one more elaborate example. Let's turn "HE" into "IS". I'd give you the following word pairs: R A H - H O N H A E - E O N and you'd have to come up with R A I - I O N H A S - S O N. Likewise, the A of "CHAMELEON" would become an E using the word pair "S E A - A R E". Now your question: which letter would replace the A in "P I A - A L E F" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one?

Answer: C

First of all, let's explain the question words - for they are not frequently used in English.

PIA can be defined as the innermost of the meninges (membranes covering the brain) or as an Indian herb with an edible root.

ALEF is another spelling for ALEPH, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And now for the possible solutions: there are not many four-letter words ending on -LEF. The only option is CLEF, a musical key.

So we need the C, as it gives us the word pair PIC - CLEF. PIC is slang for a picture, photograph or movie, and Scrabble allows the use of slang words.

4. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the M by a P in the word pairing "T O M - M A N". You'd have to come up with the solution "T O P - P A N". Your question is something else: replace the M in the word pair "L A M - M A T" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: C

LAM is not a frequent word. It is used in the expression "on the lam", which means "on the run for something or someone" (most often the police).

Now which letters could replace the M to obtain another valid word pair?
Try one of the following: B - C - G - P - R - S - T - V - W.

We get LAB-BAT, LAC-CAT, LAG-GAT, LAP-PAT, LAR-RAT, LAS-SAT, LAT-TAT, LAV-VAT or LAW-WAT.

Many of these words are familiar. Let's explain the others.

GAT is either a narrow inlet of water, or slang for a gun. LAR can be a Roman house deity, a species of monkey or a dialect form of boy. TAT is mainly used in the idiom TIT FOR TAT: something in exchange for something else. LAV is informal for lavatory, a toilet. A WAT is a Buddhist temple. And LAC is a resin used to protect surfaces and to give them a shiny appearance.

So once again you need the C.

5. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the E by an H in the word pairing "I C E - E A T". You would need the word pair "I C H - H A T". Now the real question: replace the E in both words "S H E - E A V E" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: H

First of all, EAVE is an architectural term for an overhanging part of the roof.

In the word SHE, you can replace the E only by the letter H or the letter Y to obtain a valid word. But whereas HAVE is very common, there is no valid scrabble word YAVE.

So as fifth letter in the solution we need the letter H.

6. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the L by an A in the word pairing "A W L - L Y E". This leads to the word pair "A W A - A Y E". Your question is to replace the L by another letter in the word pair "A L L - L I N" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: A

The word LIN in the question is a rather unusual verb, meaning to cease. But I don't imagine anyone shouting out "Lin fire".

What can we use to replace the second L in ALL and the first letter in LIN to obtain a new valid word pair? Viable letters are A - B - P - T.

So we can have these word pairs: ALA-AIN, ALB-BIN, ALP-PIN, or ALT-TIN.

BIN, ALP, PIN and TIN are quite common words that need no explanation.

ALT is a music term for the higher octave or a note in the higher octave.
ALB is a liturgical garment, resembling a white coat.
ALA is a wing or a winglike structure (in plants or animals).
And AIN is the Scottish for OWN for example "It is in my ain purse".

So here we need to fill in the letter A.

7. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the E by an N in the word pairing "P I E - E T H". The result would be "P I N - N T H", where NTH means position number N in a mathematical series. And here is your question: replace the E by another letter in the word pair "S E E - E T H" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: N

ETH in the question is a variant of EDH, the letter still used in Icelandic to indicate the TH sound. The Icelandic alphabet depicts this letter as a crossed minuscule D. English also had use for the ETH, but only in the Old English version (such as in the poem "Beowulf").

One is of course tempted to replace the E in ETH by another vowel, to avoid a word of three consonants and no vowels at all. But this would not give a correct solution: besides ETH, the only other three-letter word that ends in TH is the mathematical term NTH - to indicate a certain position in a series, namely the position occupied by the element which would have the cardinal number N.

And if we replace the second E in the word SEE by a letter N, we get a SEN - the small coin worth either one hundredth of a Japanese yen, one hundredth of an Indonesian rupiah, one hundredth of a Brunei dollar, one hundredth of a Cambodian riel or one hundredth of a Malaysian ringgit. You would need several hundreds of sens to buy a bowl of rice, so the sen has been discontinued.

8. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the O by a T in the word pairing "N O O - O a r". The result is "N O T - T A R". And now your question: replace the O by another letter in the word pair "C O O - O A T" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: T

COO in the question is a verb. It means to make the sound of a dove (literally) or to murmur in an amorous way (in a more figurative sense).

Which letter would make sense here? Let's try these ones out: B - G - L -P - R - S - T - W.
This gives us COB-BAT, COG-GAT, COL-LAT, COP-PAT, COR-RAT, COS-SAT, COT-TAT or COW-WAT.

COB, BAT, COG, COP, PAT, RAT, SAT, COW are quite self-explanatory. None of these words means a house or a bed.

GAT is mostly used as American slang for GUN. COL is a low mountain pass. LAT is short for the muscle known as latissimus dorsi, at the back. COR could be an exclamation of surprise, or a Hebrew unit of dry weight. COS is synonym for romaine lettuce. TAT is used in the idiom TIT FOR TAT, something in exchange for some other thing. WAT is a Buddhist temple, especially in countries as Thailand and Cambodia.

And the COT is either a small house (or cottage) or a narrow bed (or perhaps the covering of such bed).

So here we need the letter T.

9. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the N by an S in the word pairing "B U N - N O W". The replacing pair would then be "B U S - S O W". Your question is to replace the letter N by another letter in the following word pair: "D O N - N A V E" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one.

Answer: E

The NAVE from the question is the central part of a church.

What could we use to replace the N and still get a valid word pair?
C - E - G - L - R - S - W come into mind.
These give DOC-CAVE, DOE-EAVE, DOG-GAVE, DOL-LAVE, DOR-RAVE and DOW-WAVE.

DOC, CAVE, DOE, DOG, GAVE, RAVE, SAVE, WAVE don't need explaining.

DOL is a unit of pain intensity. Quite surprising that someone has invented a unit for such a subjective, unmeasurable quantity.

To LAVE is to wash. Compare the French laver.

DOR is a European dung beetle. It can also refer to the sound these insects produce.

DOW is a very rarely used verb. The Free dictionary does not give a definition. Collins dictionary accepts the word as an archaic verb meaning to be worth.

So the only architectural term left is EAVE, meaning the overhanging part of a roof.

You need to fill in here the letter E.

10. I'll reiterate the different word pairs form the previous questions here: S A C - C I S Y E H - H I D P I A - A L E F L A M - M A T S H E - E A V E A L L - L I N S E E - E T H C O O - O A T D O N - N A V E You can clearly read out the original nine letter word "CHAMELEON". Replacing the common letters as indicated in the previous questions, also gives a nine letter word from top to bottom. Which is this word we're looking for?

Answer: Bacchante

A BACCHANTE is a person from Greek myth, a follower of the Greek god Dionysus (known by the Romans as Bacchus - the Romans have adopted the ancient Greek name for this deity).

Bacchus was the god of wine and used to make his entrance followed by a troop of scantily clad women, inebriated and energetically dancing. That's why the title of this quiz may have pointed you in the correct direction: a BACCHANTE has been drinking excessively and is seen dancing energetically.

Source: Author JanIQ

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor spanishliz before going online.
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The Drinking Dancing Chameleon Quiz

You'll get 9 word pairs in which the last letter of the first word is also the first letter of the last word. Replace this common letter by another letter having the same effect. The correct solution will give you (9 for 10) a word top to bottom.

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