Greenwood Games: Word Blossom Puzzle

4 days ago
2 min read

Greenwood Games is a free, self-guided community game event along Greenwood Ave in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood. On July 25 from 1–6PM, participants pick up a playbook and spend the afternoon collecting clues, solving puzzles, and discovering locally made Washington games along the corridor from 65th to 80th.

Word Blossom is one of four puzzles inside the playbook. If you're playing today, two of the participating locations (Wing Dome & Chicken Supply) are hiding the letters that fill your flower's petals. If you're solving this after the fact, the full letter set is below.

How to play

Your playbook contains a flower with six petals and a letter in the center. The petals are blank until you visit the two locations listed on your page and copy in the letters you find there.

Once your flower is complete, the challenge begins: how many words of four letters or more can you make using the center letter in every word? A few rules to keep in mind:

The center letter must appear in every word
You can only use each petal letter once per word
Four letters minimum, no short cuts!
Proper nouns don't count

Write your words on the lines in your playbook. Can you find the special 7 letter word?

Locations:

Wing Dome

Chicken Supply

Your letters

Center letter: A

Petal letters: G, I, L, N, P, Y

Hints

Stuck? Here are a few nudges without giving too much away:

There is a 7-letter word that uses all the letters. Can you find it?
Look for words ending in -ING — the letter combination shows up more than once
-AIN, -AIL, and -AIN are worth exploring
Try working backward from longer words and see what shorter ones are hiding inside them

Some words to get you started

If you're really stuck, here are a few to confirm you're on the right track: PLAY, PLAN, NAIL, GAIN. There are many more waiting to be found.

Still stuck on the 7-letter word?

It's a common English word and very satisfying when it clicks. Think about what the theme of the day is...