Complete the 4x4 grid below, with four-letter English (too common or not) words, in both directions.

           +---+---+---+---+
           |   | Z | O |   |
           +---+---+---+---+
           |   |   | X | O |
           +---+---+---+---+
           |   |   |   | Z |
           +---+---+---+---+
           | Z |   |   |   |
           +---+---+---+---+

No proper nouns allowed.

(In reply to A (less than valid) solution by jduval)

I must know what authority you are using to define what is a word and what is not. I will take this time to note that this is the single most infuriating thing about perplexus; problem wordings are often not thought out, misleading, and/or just plain wrong.

Take _ZO_, for example. It is the best place from which to start this puzzle due to the dearth of 'english' words that will fit that space.

1) azon - An acronym for AZimuth ONly, one of the first smart bombs ever developed. Not an english word.

2) dzos - False pluralization of dzo, a male hybrid between a yak and cow. Not an english word.

3) izod - A test for determining tensile strength in plastics. Also a clothing company. Not an english word.

A good measure of what can and cannot be considered a word is SOWPODS, an comglomeration wordlist put together from two official Scrabble wordlists - the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary and the Official Scrabble Words. OSW contains many archaic terms and dzo is one. OSPD lists azon, yet it is a tenuous stretch to call this acronym a word.

I would certainly enjoy some clarification on this problem.

Posted by Charley on 2005-06-17 03:18:48