Word Gender
These brain teasers rely on your ability to recognize groups of common attributes. For each of these puzzles you'll need to figure out why the words or letters are grouped as they are. Sometimes you will be asked to pick the odd-one-out or to place a new word into the correct group.
The following ten words can be divided into two groups of five words. The words within each group will share a common characteristic. What are the two groups? Which words belong in those groups?
dam late lice linger per son stern tent under use
Answer
The two groups are: words that can be prefixed with "ma" to form a new word, words that can be prefixed with "pa" to form a new word.
Group 1: dam, lice, linger, son, under (madam, malice, malinger, mason, maunder)
Group 2: late, per, stern, tent, use (palate, paper, pastern, patent, pause)
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Comments
boodler   
Nov 23, 2005
| Very good; got me.  |
choptlivva 
Nov 23, 2005
| Whew.... that was hard!!! And I tried quite a few ways of associating them. 
(Should have re-read the title!!) LOL Good one!!! |
schatzy228
Nov 23, 2005
| son, dont linger under the dam, as there are lice
be stern , per use a tent, and dont be late
 |
christine77 
Nov 24, 2005
| Yea, I can pretty much say I was lost!! I tried though  Nice teaser |
jman0116
Nov 26, 2005
| stumped me completely... but very unique |
rkaaland
Nov 27, 2005
| I just don't think in this way- good practice as maybe someday I will!!!  |
redraptor50
Nov 30, 2005
| Good one, got me |
kimberlykay
Dec 10, 2005
| There is NO way I would have ever gotten that one...good thing I gave up when I did. I think we all could have used a hint.
I loved it though!
Great Job!!!  |
Brainy_1
Dec 11, 2005
| I got a few of them. Good teaser tho! Keep up the good work!  |
paul726
Dec 14, 2005
| Didn't get it, even with the good clue in the title! |
Babe
Mar 04, 2012
| I am clueless as I did not know what you wanted us to do. |
wordmama
Mar 04, 2012
| Can you explain maunder and pastern, please? |
mepapa
Mar 04, 2012
| Yes,plead do explain those two words. |
auntiesis
Mar 04, 2012
| Sorry, not my cup of tea.  |
bradon182001
Mar 04, 2012
| Interesting teaser. Kept me busy for quite a while. Thanks for posting. |
lukasiwicz
Mar 04, 2012
| You could look the words up, but I'll save you the trouble. Maunder -- to wander aimlessly, either in speaking or walking; pastern -- the part of a horse's anatomy between the fetlock and the hoof. |
eamon
Mar 04, 2012
| I got onto the MA & PA trail directly but I had to look up the meanings of maunder and pastern to sort those out. Not bad at all. |
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