To Whom Does the Chameleon Talk? Quiz

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 a N - 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 letters in the words to be replaced, 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 I C - C O Y" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. Need a clue? A family member may eat something

Answer: s

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: S - T
So the resulting words could be SIS - SOY or SIT - TOY.
The clue refers to a family member (thus a SIS - the other words don't fit) and something to eat (SOY).

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 "N O H - H A S T" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. One of the resulting words is an alternate spelling for a form of theatre

Answer: o

What could be the solution (if you don't use the clue in the last sentence)? Let's list them alphabetically: B - G - M - O - W
Resulting word pairs could thus be NOB - BAST, NOG - GAST, NOM - MAST, NOO - OAST or NOW - WAST.
But only NOO is an alternative spelling for NOH, a kind of Japanese theatre.
NOB is an informal term for the head, BAST is a strong plant fibre such as hemp or flax. NOG is a sweet drink associated with Christmas (eggnog), GAST is an ancient word for scare or to scare (confer the present word ghastly). NOM is a rarely used word to express eating pleasure. The MAST is the pole where one can hoist or lower a flag, a pennant or a sail. OAST is a large room used to dry hops, tobacco or malt. WAST and HAST are ancient conjugations of popular verbs: "thou hast" means "you have", and "thou wast" means "you were".

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 "A W A - A I T" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one? Clue: one resulting word can be used by a cobbler.

Answer: l

Without heeding the clue, we could come up with following letters: L - N.
Resulting word pairs could thus be AWL - LIT or AWN - NIT.
An AWL is a pointed tool to make holes in wood or in leather (as a cobbler would use). An AWN is the tip of a bristle in a grass. NIT is the egg of a tick or a louse, and you may have to resort to nit-picking (literally!) if you or your children are infected with lice.
By the way: AWA is a poetic contraction of AWAY. AIT is a dialect form for islet or small island.

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 "R E M - M O N" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. Clue: one of the resulting words is a bow of respect.

Answer: i

First of all here are the possible solutions when discarding the clue: C - D - E - I - S - T
This leads up to the following word pairs: REC - CON, RED - DON, REE - EON, REI - ION, RES - SON or RET - TON.
The REI is a bow of respect. It was also (before the introduction of the Euro) a Portuguese coin of small value.
Most of the words from the original pairing or from the possible answers are well known. I dare say no one needs a definition of CON, RED, DON, ION, SON or TON.
REC is short for recreation (and not for record, as one could be tempted to think). REE is a word previously used in Scotland for a walled tract of land for grazing animals, such as sheep or cattle. Although these tract of lands still exist, the word REE has become obsolete. EON is a long period of time. RES is an object, especially in the legal vocabulary - such as a RES NULLIUS, a thing that doesn't belong to anyone. To RET is a verb almost restricted to the agriculture of flax or hemp. It means soaking or moistening the harvested plants to facilitate the separation of the useful fibres from the waste. REM is a measure for absorbed radiation, and MON is a Scottish equivalent of MAN.

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 the word pair "T I E - E A R" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. Hint: one of the resulting words is a Roman deity.

Answer: l

Interesting info:
Let's review the options without paying attention to the clue. You could come up with the following:
C - L - P - T.
This means the following word pairs qualify at first sight: TIC - CAR, TIL - LAR, TIP - PAR and TIT - TAR. But only the word LAR appears in the Roman pantheon: it was one of the deities to protect the household. Most of the other words used in the question and answer pairs are well known. Some people may need the explanation that a tit is (among other meanings) a small songbird. TIL is commonly known as short for until, but it is also an Indian variety of sesame.

6. In the running example of a "CHAMELEON" hiding "ELEPHANTS", we would now have the task of replacing the L by a H in the word pairing " b a L - L a p". This leads to the word pair "b a H - H a p". Your question is to replace the L by another letter in the word pair "R O T L - L A K Y" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. Clue: although any of these words is rather unusual, there is only one valid option.

Answer: o

Did the words in the question confuse you? ROTL is a unit of weight, mostly used in Islamic countries. LAKY may be uncommon, but the meaning is quite clear : anything related to lakes. Oddly enough, when LAKY is used to indicate a colour, it is a reddish hue - I would rather expect some type of blue.
The only other letters that can replace the L in LAKY are the C (CAKY) and the O (OAKY). But in ROTL the L cannot be replaced by a C, thus the only valid option is an O.
This gives us the following word pair: ROTO - OAKY. Oaky is resembling oak, and roto is short for rotogravure - a printing technique using an etched cylinder.

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 capitalized E by another letter in the word pair "S U E - E A T" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. IMPORTANT CLUE: think of the Middle East for both the resulting words. Both words are relatively uncommon outside the indicated region. In theory there are two valid options, but in this question I want the spelling that uses the letter that comes later in the alphabet.

Answer: q

If you ignore the clue, you could propose the following solutions: B - K - M - P - Q
So the resulting words could be SUB - BAT, SUK - KAT, SUM - MAT, SUP - PAT or SUQ - QAT.
Neither SUB, BAT, SUM, MAT, SUP (short for having supper) or PAT are typically related to the Middle East. So you can discard the B, the M and the P.
But then there still is a curious obstacle: SUK and SUQ are both alternative spellings for SOUK, the typical bazaar in the Middle East. QAT and KAT are two spelling systems for the drug (also known as KHAT) chewed in some countries of the Middle East.
So which is the correct answer? Well: the last sentence in the clue makes clear you need the Q (the seventeenth letter in the alphabet) rather than the K (the eleventh letter in the alphabet).

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 "M E N O - O R B" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. No clue for this one, as there is only one single valid option.

Answer: u

Three letter words ending on two consonants are almost bound to start with a vowel. So the second word should start with a vowel. Only ARB and URB are valid words, so you need not look into the options E or I. But replacing the O at the end of MENO by an A is impossible too. So that leaves only the U, resulting in the word pair MENU - URB. As for the meaning of these words: MENO is a musical term meaning less (for instance meno piano means less softly). An ORB is a round object such as a ball or a globe. MENU is the list with available food and drink items. And URB is short for urban area (most frequently in an informal setting).

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: "G U N - N A M" so that you get two new valid words of which the first one ends with the initial of the last one. Clue: one of the resulting words is an ingredient in the kitchen.

Answer: y

First of all, which letters make two valid words when replacing the N? Here they are: L- T - Y.
The corresponding word pairs are thus GUL - LAM, GUT - TAM and GUY - YAM.
GUL is a geometric motif, especially in Oriental rugs. LAM is a rather unusual synonym for escape, especially associated with escaping prisoners: "the murderer is on the lam". GUT is a part of the intestines, while TAM is a type of hat (the full name is the tam-'o-shanter, a Scottish beret).
So the kitchen ingredient has to be the YAM - a starchy tuber. The plant is not related to the sweet potato, but the appearance of the tuber is quite similar to a potato or a sweet potato. Surely you won't cook the GUY that you find in your kitchen...

10. I'll reiterate the different word pairs form the previous questions here: S I C - C O Y N O H - H A S T A W A - A I T R E M - M O N T I E - E A R R O T L - L A K Y S U E - E A T M E N O - O R B G U N - N A M 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: soliloquy

A soliloquy is a text spoken out to oneself. In theatre productions, movies and TV series the soliloquy can be used to clarify the situation to the audience. Some famous examples of soliloquies include "To be or not to be" from Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", or the summary of the previous episodes given by the character Ren� Artois in the BBC comedy series " 'Allo 'Allo!".

Source: Author JanIQ

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Fifiona81 before going online.
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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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