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[Nova]

[kingchaos2]

[Amanalphion]

Going in sort of a different direction here (and I really hope this hasn't been posted before), but I noticed something about the list of prepositions: one of these things is not like the other. "Aside" is not really a preposition.

I won't go into the exact grammatical definition of a preposition, but a good simple test is to insert a word into "we need to get the stuff ____ the tubes", and if it makes sense, it's a preposition. "Aside" doesn't work. Granted, there are some exceptions; some words that don't fit that test are still prepositions (until, after), but I'm pretty confident that Aside is not a real preposition. Dictionary.com says it's either an adverb or a noun, and that's usually pretty accurate.

So maybe we need a word that sounds like Aside? I tried denied, applied, and a few others... I'll try some more later (you can use a rhyming dictionary to find words that sound like Aside, or anything else you want to try).

Another possibility: there are a few prepositions that aren't on the list. Maybe one of those is the key? Here's a more complete list of prepositions: (Ones that don't appear on the puzzle list are in bold)

about
above
across
after
against
along
alongside
amid
amidst
among
amongst
around
at
as
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
between
betwixt
beyond
by
down
during
except
for
from
in
inside
into
like
near
nearby
of
off
on
onto
out
outside
over
past
since
through
throughout
till
to
toward
towards
under
underneath
until
up
upon
upside
with
within
without

There may be even more than that. Perhaps we need to find a word that "sounds like" one of these? I don't know; I'll keep thinking.

Also, there are two prepositions (not counting aside) that are on the puzzle list but not on the more complete list I found: round and opposite. However, I am pretty sure that those are still prepositions.

My apologies if I've unknowingly said or done something stupid here. First time.

[pheoni]

http://www.testmagic.com/Knowledge_Base/lists/grammar/prepositions.htm

list of 110 prps... everyone on our list is on theirs.

[Amanalphion]

Well, I guess I had it wrong then. Though aside still doesn't seem like a preposition... Eh, whatever.

[AngriBuddhist]

I tried to search this but the amount of times that "rhyming" and "dictionary"
pop up are simply ridiculous. Sorry if it's been said before.

There is no possible way to make anything intelligible out of this list. These
are clues and definitely not the words you are looking for. It's like the
crossword puzzle that gives you a theme and you have to base your answers
around that.

Theme: Sounds Like.

Has anyone tried running these prepositions through a "rhyming dictionary"?

[Hornet]

i've been using www.rhymezone.com but i haven't gotten anything meaningful...

[SuperJerms]

New twists.

Sound (v.)

phonetics: transitive verb to pronounce a specific letter or sound, especially in a context in which it might be silent.
• You don't sound the "p" in "psychic."

nautical: nautical transitive and intransitive verb to measure the depth of water using a weighted line or sonar.

zoology: intransitive verb to dive suddenly and swiftly downward.

geography: a broad channel between two large bodies of water, or between an island and the mainland.


Like:

to enjoy
belonging to a group of things you prefer
similar to
typical of
resembling
having qualities of


sounds like:

"seems to be that x is/has quality of y..."
"x is homophonic to y"


we're doing alot with the second option. I wonder if we could use the first at all? Sounds like we're in for a long haul. Or, use a combo of the first two lists' alternate definitions for something like:

"a broad channel between two large bodies of water prefers x..."
"x dives suddenly and swiftly downward, similar to y"
"musical notes enjoy x"

[Elec]

I'm thinking that the individual prepositions don't have any meaning. There are 41 of them, so even if you did something like assign each one a letter, you've still probably got too many letters for the filename. The cancelling out matching pairs could be on the right track. I'm fairly convinced that SOUNDS LIKE and the prepositions go together, since they're both surrounded by dashes. That's probably the PMs' way of making sure we associate two obscure clues to get the answer. The problem is that it's sort of obtuse and we have no good frame of reference. This puzzle is either really devious or else far easier than we're making it.

The first thing I thought of was: first word, SOUNDS LIKE, which is definitely charades, but that could easily be a red herring and I don't get how charades would relate to prepositions. There's actually a few hits on the web about playing preposition charades where you pick a preposition and act it out, but god only knows how that might help us. I keep coming back to sounds like prepositions, but there are a lot of possibilities and none I've tried have worked. Prepositions are all directions or locations, so maybe that is helpful somehow. I also thought about completing a phrase, such as sounds like fun or sounds like a plan. I even thought about über-cheese such as sounds like...to be heard.

None of this is directly contributing to a solve, but it's kind of a brain dump to help me sort my thoughts and maybe trigger something others have been kicking around.

[Elec]

[pheoni]

sounds like between
preposition synonym for between

betwixt

and to add the chrades link into the fray...

bee twist

now just give me a link for 41 or 10 etc


And the sent grows fainter

[tsioc]

I had a thought, I hope I'm not trouting...

a preposition is a locator in space and time...

is it possible that we need to make new words out of the letter before, after, or next to the letters in each word? maybe offset by a specific amount, maybe by the amount of letters in each word... or by the amount of letters in "sounds like", or "rhyme", or whatever number we can get from the puzzle?

I wonder if there is a program I can use to automatically offset each letter by a certain number... you know... B=C, or B=G, etc...

has anyone tried this?

[jellyfish_green]

odd_charade
over_charades
between_impersonations

[tsioc]

I was referring to ROT... I'll try some variations...

[Dirtbag]

Ever since the start of this puzzle, I haven't been able to get out of my mind the fact that the words appear to be in no order. If you were looking to give a list of items for a puzzle and expect that the outcome would be the general name given to all of the items, wouldn't you list them in alphabetical order?

Just a thought that maybe the order of the list has something to do with the solve.