Synonym Circuit Expert Solution #271 - December 3, 2024

Hello and welcome back to another Synonym Circuit Solution Explained article. In today's post I'll be revealing the solution to Expert Puzzle #271 festive > free. This puzzle had a 22% win rate and the Global Record currently stands at 3 links, solved by BTSrl.

Expert Puzzle #271 festive > free

Solution (by BTSrl): festive > sunny > bright > clear > free

According to Merriam-Webster, festive only has one meaning: "indicative of or marked by high spirits or good humor." All the synonyms relate to this meaning, so I'll be looking for one of these that has at least one other meaning, to help me pivot away from a potential dead end. Of the options, laughing, merry, and sunny stick out to me as words that could lead me in some new directions. It's nice that festive and free are both adjectives, so I'll narrow it down to merry and sunny, as I expect laughing could lead me to mostly gerunds.

Sunny feels like the word with the most meanings, and upon clicking it I see some familiar festive synonyms, as well as bright, glowing, radiant, and other words sharing its meaning related to light and sunshine. I like that bright feels positive, much like free does, even if I don't quite see a path between the two yet. Regardless, I expect it to open up additional paths for me, so I choose it.

Bright has a lot of synonyms, which makes sense because it has many meanings: shining, cheerful, intelligent, promising, and more. Reading through this list, I notice clear, which shares bright's weather-related meaning "not stormy or cloudy." I feel like clear could be a synonym for free, largely because I think of the phrase "free and clear." I decide to try it, and success! It turns out free and clear actually share four meanings: two adjective forms ("not bound, confined, or detained by force" and "allowing passage without obstruction") and two verb forms ("to make passage through (something) possible by removing obstructions" and "to rid the surface of (as an area) from things in the way").

Congratulations to BTSrl for another fantastic solution!

Thanks so much for reading and for playing - if you have an Expert Puzzle you'd like the solution to, shoot me an email at synonymcircuit@gmail.com and I'll be sure to include it in a future blog post!