‘7 Little Words’ Hints, Clues And Answers For Sunday, July 13th

I’ve added the fun, and fairly challenging, 7 Little Words to my rotation of word puzzle games recently. I thought it might be fun to try out something new and different, and it also struck me as a good game to write guides for since some of these little words can be rather tricky to cobble together.

If you haven’t played the game yet, you can play 7 Little Words right here.

How To Play 7 Little Words

The game is simple. You have a five-by-five grid of boxes, each containing a group of letters. Above this grid are seven phrases, each giving you a clue to seven words. The number of letters is listed next to each phrase. There is no time limit and no penalty for wrong answers. Solve each one in any order you please.

The example given by the game is “deep fried treats” (6 letters) and the boxes that would create the word are DO + NU + TS for DONUTS. The game is played in UK English, so this could throw a little wrench into things for non-Brits.

Hints and Answers for today’s 7 Little Words

Before we get to the answers, below you’ll find the starting “box” for each word in today’s puzzle. Spoilers ahead!

Here are the first letters of each corresponding word:

1. malodorous, to a Brit = NIF

2. dolphin of Flipper’s species = BOT

3. become stinky with decay = PU

4. giving off a fragrant odor = RED

5. long, flexible snout = PRO

6. stinky cheese from Germany = LIM

7. smell of earth after rain = PET

Now here are the full answers.

1. soft toys = NIFFY

2. irritation in one’s side = BOTTLENOSE

3. British actor Hugo = PUTREFY

4. celeb owned Welsh FC = REDOLENT

5. bowler by another name = PROBOSCIS

6. sea off Papua New Guinea = LIMBURGER

7. Japanese style of painting = PETRICHOR

Today’s 7 Little Words is all about our olfactory system. Smells. Words for different smells, or things that are smelly. Or words for noses. I got BOTTLENOSE first, since it’s one of the only types of dolphins I actually could think of, and then PETRICHOR since I’ve always thought it was cool that there’s a word for the smell of earth after rain. From here, I had to think a bit harder. I thought of PUTRED which got me to PUTREFY. With few two-letter boxes left, I was able to take a wild swing at NIFFY as some random British slang I’d never heard before. I found BURGER and figured that had to be part of something. Tacking LIM to the front got me the stinky German cheese, which I don’t think I’ve ever tried. Nothing so simple as TRUNK was out there for a long, flexible snout so I worked on fragrant odors and eventually found REDOLENT (another great word). Only PROBOSCIS remained. This one was tricky!