Golomb's Gambits: Words ending in "-ture"

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Published Summer 2020

The following puzzle first appeared in February 2001.

There are not many more than 100 English words ending in –ture, most ranging in length from six to 12 letters and from two to four syllables. Here are some questions about them.

  1. List all the pairs of rhyming two-syllable –ture words you can think of. My list has nine pairs and one triple, though the third member of culture/vulture/multure ("the fee paid to the mill for grinding your grain") is no longer in frequent use.

  2. Find three two-syllable –ture words that look like they should rhyme (so-called eye rhymes) but where in fact no two of them rhyme.

  3. List all the other two-syllable –ture words you can think of. (Besides the 24 words from problems 1 and 2, I have 15 more.)

Illustration of Solomon Golomb reads 'Scroll down for solution'

Golomb's answers

  1. capture/rapture
    cincture/tincture
    creature/feature
    culture/vulture/multure
    denture/venture
    fixture/mixture
    future/suture
    gesture/vesture
    juncture/puncture
    picture/stricture

  2. mature, nature, stature

  3. cloture, couture, fracture, jointure, lecture, moisture, nurture, pasture, posture, rapture, scripture, structure, texture, torture, voiture.

(Note that scripture does not rhyme with picture or stricture; that rupture does not rhyme with structure; and that lecture does not rhyme with texture; though popular song writers might find these near rhymes to be "close enough.")

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