My girlfriend came across a couple of these visual word puzzles and asked me if I could figure them out. Normally I’m pretty good at this stuff but these two have me stumped. I figure the Doper braintrust can improve on my weak effort. Here’s the two puzzles as described to me:
C
O
U
G
H
P**LOT**
PS - Anyone know what these types of puzzles are called?
I think the second one may be “the plot thickens.” Ask your girlfriend if the letters get progressively thicker.
ETA I think the first one is “cough drop.”
I think these are called rebuses.
Here are a couple that I remember. Mine are a bit simpler.
2222day
bridge
troubled water
momanon
paid
I'm
worked
Agreed - also called dingbats, at least in the UK.
I think the answers are: Tuesday (took me a while to get that one, it only really works with American pronunciation!), Bridge Over Troubled Water, Man In The Moon, I’m Underpaid And Overworked.
They’re also called pictogram puzzles.
They’re really a hybrid of rebuses and pictograms (since they include aspects of both, but aren’t really one or the other) presented in puzzle form. I don’t think they’ve ever been given a distinct name.
Ahem:
Your answer is certainly correct, but I convinced myself that momanon was: Family before strangers, and then thought, “That one was pretty weak.”
This sounds exactly like the newspaper feature “Say what you see”, which is what I’d call them. It was generally printed near the bridge column, word search, etc. I haven’t read a newspaper in quite a while though.
Dead Cat,
How is that word pronounced in the UK?
The first vowel sound is like “yew”, not “ooh”. So roughly speaking, “choose-day”. If you talk proper like, the T is enunciated more clearly before the “yew” sound, “tyewsday”.