Krazy Krossword

[Quaid]

Draw a 4 by 5 grid. Black out the first two cells in row one, and black out the last two cells in row 4.

Fill in the remaining 16 cells using the 16 letters below, so that each row and each column of the completed grid contains a common word.

Each of the four pairs in red must appear as shown (i.e, two adjacent letters, ordered left-to-right).

NL

VI

NT

AM

Each of the four pairs in blue must appear as shown (i.e., two stacked letters, ordered top-to-bottom).

L
E


I
A


D
O


A
T


This is a variant on a puzzle from a Page-A-Day calendar of brain teasers.

 

[Quaid]

x x d a m
v i o l a
i n l e t
a n t x x

Well played.

"inlet" is the key; only word with "nl".

I did not know that.

I assumed that no short, common words start with NL, NT, and IA, and then my gut told me that ANT was in there someplace. I went from there.

 

[Quaid]

I meant "only 5letter word"

That's right. I did not know that INLET is the only 5-letter word with NL, using the givens. That key would certainly help unlock the puzzle.

You must be a Mensan!