Entertainment / Literature / Riddle: A universal form of literature in which a puzzling question or a conundrum is presented to the reader. The reader is often challenged to solve this enigma, which requires ingenuity in discovering the hidden meaning. A riddle may involve puns, symbolism, synecdoche, personification (especially prosopopoeia), or unusual imagery. For instance, a Norse riddle asks, 'Tell me what I am. Thirty white horses round a red hill. First they champ. Then they stamp. Now they stand still.' The answer is the speaker's teeth, these thirty white horses circle the 'red hill' of the tongue, they champ and stamp while the riddler speaks, but stand still at the end of his riddle. Another famous example is the riddle of the sphinx from Sophocles' Oedipus Trilogy. The sphinx asks Oedipus, 'What goes on four feet, on two feet, and then three. But the more feet it goes on, the weaker is he?' The answer is a human being, which crawls as an infant, walks erect on two feet as an adult, and totters on a staff (the third leg) in old age. (from Old English roedel, from roedan meaning 'to give council' or 'to read')
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Riddle Adjective Synonyms: conundrum, puzzle, enigma, poser, question, mystery, problem, brain-teaser or brain-twister
Riddle Verb Synonyms: perforate, pepper, puncture, pierce, honeycomb
Riddle Noun Synonyms: sieve, colander or cullender, strainer, grating, screen, sifter, filter
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Entertainment / Literature / Mashal: (plural meshalim) In the Hebrew tradition, a mashal is a broad, general term including almost any type of figurative language from short riddles to long, extended allegories. It denotes 'mysterious sp MORE