Casting a Fresh Eye on Retina
The inspiration for this theme comes from Liz Fagerlund who mentioned a word she had played at the Nationals last week. It was a very good find because it was an odd group of letters and it was a 7 letter word ending –EYE. I wondered how many bingos ended with those 3 letters and it turns out there are 12 words of 7 letters and 7 words of 8 letters that end in –EYE. So that is your quiz for this blog. How many of those 19 words can you find? As usual the answers are at the bottom of the page.
I thought I would do a RETINA list, but as it is one of the basic word lists most of you will be very familiar with that. Some of the 8 letter words with RETINA are less well known and worthy of study, but that is a very big list. To give you something manageable I have chosen 8 letter RETINA words that don’t have any other anagrams. ATABRINE/RABATINE might be useful to know, but the fact that there are two words with those letters means they won’t be on today's list:
AERATING Putting air into
NAARTJIE A small sweet orange like a mandarin (Also NAARTJE, NARTJIE)
NARTJIES
AERATION Exposure to air
ANTIRAPE Concerned with rape prevention
INAURATE To cover with gold
ANTIWEAR Designed to reduce wear
ATRAZINE A weed killer
BACTERIN A vaccine derived from dead bacteria
ACENTRIC Being without a centre
ARENITIC Like arenite, a rock made of sandy grains.
CLARINET A musical instrument
TRANCIER More TRANCEY, referring to a hypnotic like effect
INTERACT Combine together
ANURETIC The inability to urinate
NAVICERT A document allowing passage through a naval blockade
XERANTIC Relating to XERANSIS, a drying up
INDARTED Darted in
ANTHERID The male reproductive organ of some plants
DAINTIER More dainty
DIPTERAN Two winged insects like gnats and mosquitos
NITRATED Applied nitrates (as fertiliser)
INERTIAE A plural of INERTIA, the tendency to resist acceleration
ANTIMERE One of two halves of bilaterally symmetrical animals
APERIENT A laxative medication
RETAINER One who retains
FAINTIER More FAINTY, which is somewhat faint
INFLATER One that inflates (also INFLATOR)
RETAKING The act of taking again
RETAXING The act of taxing again
ANTIHERO A villain. A principal character who lacks noble qualities
PERIANTH An outer covering of a flower
HAURIENT A heraldic term meaning depicted with the head up (also HAURIANT)
TARWHINE An Australian fish
INERTIAL Tending to resist acceleration
TRIENNIA The plural of TRIENNIUM, a period of three years
PAINTIER More PAINTY, covered in paint
TRIAZINE A nitrogen compound used in herbicides
JAUNTIER More JAUNTY, briskly self-assured
KNITWEAR Knitted clothing
INTERNAL An inner attribute. INTERNALS is OK, even if it doesn’t look right!
RATTLINE Any of the small lines making up the rigging of a sailing ship
INTERVAL A time between periods or events
INTERLAY To place between
TRAINMEN Railroad employees
RUMINATE To ponder
WARIMENT Wariness
TYRAMINE A colourless crystalline substance found in cheese
INERRANT Free from error
INTRANET A network of computers, such as within a company
ATROPINE A medicine made from deadly nightshade (also ATROPIN, ATROPIA)
ANTERIOR In front
TENTORIA Plural of TENTORIUM. Protective brain & spinal cord membrane
NOTARIZE Testify officially
TRIPTANE A powerful aviation fuel
PAINTURE The art of painting
EXPIRANT Someone who is expiring
RETIRANT Someone who is retiring (also RETIREE)
VERATRIN A poisonous mixture of alkaloids
INTERWAR Between wars
TINWARES Articles made of tinplate
TAINTURE Defilement
VAUNTIER From VAUNTY, VAUNTIE or VAWNTIE, meaning boastful
VAWNTIER
There are some normal words in there with all the interesting odd ones, but don’t overlook the ones you already knew the meaning of. For example, I think NITRATED is a particularly difficult one to spot when you get those letters in front of you.
Before I give you the 7 and 8 letter EYE words I will give you another 7 words that I didn’t ask you to find. They are 7 letter words that end in EYES.
BIGEYES Marine fishes with large eyes
BUGEYES Small boats (No I wouldn’t have guessed the meaning either)
MAMEYES Tropical plants
MUDEYES The larvae of dragonfly, sometimes used as fishbait
REDEYES Railroad danger signals
RIBEYES Choice cuts of beefsteak
WAXEYES Small New Zealand birds
The reason that I didn’t include these in your challenge is because there is an unusual one in there. MAMEYES is one of the plurals of MAMEY, so MAMEYE is not correct. the other plural is the more normal MAMEYS. Yes, it seems a bit weird to me too.
Anyway here are the 12 words of 7 letters:
BUCKEYE the American horse chestnut
COCKEYE A squinting eye
DEADEYE A rounded wooden block used in making shrouds and stays
FISHEYE A suspicious stare
FROGEYE A plant disease
GOLDEYE A freshwater fish
MOONEYE A freshwater fish of the shad family
OVEREYE To survey
PINKEYE An inflammation of the eye
SHUTEYE A period of sleep
SOCKEYE A salmon. (And also an excellent find by Liz)
WALLEYE An eye in which the iris is pale or whitish
And here are the 7 words of 8 letters:
AFTEREYE To gaze after
BIRDSEYE A kind of primrose
BULLSEYE The centre of the target
GREENEYE An Atlantic fish with pale green eyes
POPESEYE Popeseye steak is thinly sliced rump steak
TIGEREYE A gemstone. A golden brown striped form of quartz
WATCHEYE An eye in which the iris is pale or whitish. (Same as WALLEYE)
Next time you go to a restaurant I dare you to ask for popeseye steak and see what reaction you get!
Cheers
Patrick