Scrabble Challenge #13: Can You Find the Best Halloween Bingo Play, Plus a 765-Point Killer?

Halloween is just a few days away, and since I've been churning out the creepy Bingo of the Days for everyone the past few weeks, it seems fitting to do a puzzle based on them.

Too bad today isn't Friday the 13th! That will have to wait until 2017.

The Challenge

Take a look at the following ten racks.

Now, aiming for a bingo play, use the board below and try to use up your full rack for each set of letters, spelling out one of the following Halloween-related words that was featured as a Bingo of the Day word. Which ones can you find? Which ones are impossible? What's the best one?

BURKITEn pl.-S  a burker (one that murders by suffocation)

CARRIONn pl. -S  dead and putrefying flesh

COLOSSUSn pl. COLOSSUSES or COLOSSIa gigantic statue (e.g. a sacrificial Wicker Man)

CREMAINSn/pl  the ashes of a cremated body

CUCURBITn pl. -S  a gourd (e.g. a pumpkin)

GUISARDn pl. -S  a masker (you know… someone who wears a mask)

HEXEREIn pl. -S  witchcraft

MIMESISn pl. -MESISES or -MESES  mimicry  MIMETICadj  (think The Thing)

REAPHOOKn pl. -S  an implement used in reaping (think Children of the Corn)

REVENANTn pl. -S  one that returns (e.g. a zombie)

This one's going to take some time, since you're essentially taking ten turns to come up with the best Halloween worthy bingo play. If it's too much for you, I have another rack for you to solve. Use the following rack of letters and find the play worth 765 points. Yes, that's 765.

The word relates in some manner to a few of the defined words above. Can you find out what and where it is? And what it means? Just imagine if you could snag this play in a real game. It would definitely make you the winner, and possibly even give you your highest score ever in Scrabble!

SPOILER ALERT: Comments below may reveal solutions.

** Click here to see the answers!

Last Week's Solution

And here's the answer for last week's Scrabble Challenge #12:

Q: Unscramble the following jumbles to spell out a seven-letter bingo word that is listed in the OSPD4 as a derivative: CHMRYRI, ZEDYDLA, CITRXEO, BESOWLA, YHRLISL, WOAYDME, GCAENIR, GZCYTIO, YLPHITI, DGESIAV.

A: In order, with the root words in parentheses: MYRRHIC (MYRRH), DAZEDLY (DAZE), XEROTIC (XEROSIS), SOWABLE (SOW), SHRILLY (SHRILL), MEADOWY (MEADOW), ANERGIC (ANERGY), ZYGOTIC (ZYGOTE), PITHILY (PITHY), VISAGED (VISAGE).

Bonus: There are a few additional bingos to be found in the ten puzzles. There's one word that's a noun in both the OSPD4 and CSW12, and another that's a noun in just the CSW12.

A: The word playable in both dictionaries is EXCITOR, which just means an exciter (one that excites). The one found in only the CSW12 is GRECIAN (a step).