Get Your Motor Running
Have a try at finding the words in the letter combinations below:
A P I L N O S
E H I L L O O
A C I L N 0 S
There are only 3 words, so have a go at the quiz before you move on.
Just before I give you the answers to those we’ll have a quick look at the 7 letter words you might play if your rack was PETROL with a blank. I will put the blank letter in lower case:
PROLaTE Having flattened sides due to lengthwise elongation
dROPLET A tiny drop
PRETOLd Past tense of the verb PRETELL, to tell beforehand
POiTREL A piece of armour for the breast of a horse
POLiTER Being more considerate of others
PREmOLT Preceding a molt. Can also be spelled PREMOULT
PETROLs Supplies with petrol. Needs LL when used as a verb – PETROLLED
REPLOTs Plots again
PLOtTER (Scottish) Dabble in liquid. A verb, so PLOTTERED is good
PLOuTER Another spelling of the Scottish for dabbling in liquid
POuLTER A dealer in dead fowls and wild game
PLOwTER Yet another variation of the dabbling in liquid
PROTyLE A hypothetical source of chemical elements
That is all on petrol. This blog is mostly about words starting with oil. If you had spotted that the three words in the opening puzzle all had the letters OIL in them you would have been a long way towards solving them all. They are:
OILPANS The American word for sumps
OILHOLE A hole through which oil is injected
OILCANS This has an anagram. ALNICOS. Only spelled this way, not alnicoes
OILPANS and OILCANS both came up in practice, but I was surprised at just how hard they were for me to see. The normal feeling is to try to start with the P and the C rather than the letter O. Although there are plenty of examples to the contrary, if you have 6 letters worth 1 point each and 1 higher point letter the most common place to put that letter is at the start of the word. For example, words such as BUTTONS, CLUTTER, FORESTS, MISTIER, POSTERS, VAULTER or WITTIER. Have another look at the list for PETROL and you will see that 11 of the 13 words start with the letter P.
However I have wandered away from the theme of my blog. Because I found it so difficult to unscramble OILCANS and OILPANS, I decided to have a look at some other OIL words:
OILBIRD A nocturnal bird of South America and Trinidad
OILCAMP A living area for workers at an oil well
OILCLOTH A fabric, usually cotton, waterproofed with oil or resin
OILCUPS Closed cups for supplying lubricants. Has an anagram of UPCOILS
OILERIES Plural of OILERY. Look out to hook a B for BOILERIES
OILFIELD An area of mineral oil production
OILFIRED Using oil as fuel
OILGASES The plural of OILGAS. Also makes GOLIASES and SOILAGES
OILIEST Hooks make NOILIEST, ROILIEST & SOILIEST. An anagram is IOLITES
OILINESS The state of being oily. ELISIONS, ISOLINES and LIONISES
OILLETS An archaic word for an eyelet. Also makes STELLIO and TOLLIES
OILNUTS The North American butternut. Also makes ULTIONS
OILPAPER Paper which has been oiled to make it waterproof
OILSEED A kind of rape, the seeds of which contain oil
OILSKIN A waterproof fabric
OILSTONE A stone for sharpening tools. Also makes LOONIEST.
OILTIGHT Having the ability to exclude oil
OILWAYS Channels for the passage of oil
I hope I have been able to give you the good oil this time!
Happy Scrabbling
Patrick