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The 'menopausal' 10-letter game

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mkenuk:
I would like to nominate this game as the most difficult of all time.

1. There was only one rosette awarded - surely a new record.
2. Fewer than half of those taking part (130 from 273) found the seedword.
3. Five of the 'common' words 'pleonasm', 'neoplasm', 'alumnae', 'lumpen' and 'mausolea' were played by fewer than 30 of the 273 participants.

Personally, I enjoy games like this, demanding though they are.
Although I'm not convinced that any of the five words I have mentioned are really common, I did find three of them and missed two.
I don't think I've seen the word pleonasm since university* when we had to go through all those weird and wonderfully unpronouncable figures of speech: synecdoche, litotes, oxymoron and all the rest.

*I graduated in 1967!

Dragonman:
I agree, a demanding and challenging game.

NEOPLASM and PLEONASM both eluded me, if I ever even heard of them before.

Every days a schoolday.

Jacki:
I too enjoy challenging games however when I spend my time trying to find those elusive common words that end up being anything but common it does both irk and educate me.
Live and learn. I do think that mausolea, neoplasm and pleonasm are certainly not common.

mkenuk:
re mausolea and alumnae - most of the Latin plurals that used to be common in Chi - sterna, recta and termini, for example, have been reclassified; possibly the only reason mausolea and alumnae have survived so long is that they have never appeared in a game before now and so their 'commonness' has never been queried.

As for lumpen, is this word ever used except in the collocation 'lumpen proletariat', which is often written as a single word -lumpenproletariat?

neoplasm, like distal and statin, which have been under discussion recently, is probably familiar to those with a medical background, but I don't think that is grounds enough for making it common.

And  pleonasm;  if I hadn't seen it with my very eyes, I would never have believed it could be classed as common.

Dragonman:


'' And  pleonasm;  if I hadn't seen it with my very eyes, I would never have believed it could be classed as common.''

Very clever, made me laugh.   :)

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