LINKUP puzzle #9, November 5, 2026

The word grouping puzzle from that Thursday had 16 words in four groups of four, from the easy yellow group to the tricky purple one. Here are the groups.

The four groups

• Yellow: Features along a coast
  BAY, COVE, SPIT, CAPE
• Green: Garments worn over the shoulders
  SHAWL, STOLE, CLOAK, MANTLE
• Blue: Words about the tides
  EBB, NEAP, SLACK, FLOOD
• Purple: Famous Marks
  TWAIN, SPITZ, ANTONY, ZUCKERBERG

One thing to notice in this grid: start with the yellow group (features along a coast) because it is the easiest, and leave purple (famous marks) for last. The longest tile is ZUCKERBERG, with 10 letters.

Notes on the words, with sources

• Meaning of BAY (noun): (geography) A body of water (especially the sea) contained by a concave shoreline.
• Origin of BAY: From French baie, from Late Latin baia, probably ultimately from Iberian or Basque badia.
• Meaning of COVE (noun): (now uncommon) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.
• Origin of COVE: From Middle English cove, from Old English cofa (“chamber; den”), from Proto-West Germanic *kobō, from Proto-Germanic *kubô.
• Meaning of SPIT (noun): A thin metal or wooden rod on which meat is skewered for cooking, often over a fire.

Sources: Wiktionary: bay (revision 95431256, read 2026-11-06); Wiktionary: cove (revision 93686934, read 2026-11-06); Wiktionary: spit (revision 93777431, read 2026-11-06). Text from Wiktionary and Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, edited by their contributors.