Okay, so I was doing this crossword puzzle the other day, just chilling on the couch, you know? Trying to wind down.
Stuck on a Clue
Most of it was going pretty smoothly, filling in words here and there. Then I hit this one clue: “highly excited”. Seemed simple enough at first glance, right? But my mind just went blank. I stared at the empty squares, trying to figure out how many letters it was supposed to be.
I started thinking of words. Like, “thrilled”? Too long. “Happy”? Too short, and not quite “highly” excited. “Eager”? Maybe, but it didn’t feel quite right for the vibe of the puzzle. I tapped my pen, looked out the window, hoping the answer would just pop into my head.
Looking for Hints
After a few minutes of getting nowhere, I started checking the crossing words. Sometimes that helps shake something loose. I had a couple of letters filled in, something like _ A _ _ C. Okay, five letters. That narrowed it down a bit.
What five-letter word means “highly excited” and fits _ A _ _ C? I wracked my brain. “Frantic”? No, that didn’t fit the ‘A’. I was getting a bit frustrated, tapping my pen harder now. It’s funny how these little word puzzles can get under your skin.
I almost gave up and looked up the answer online. But I hate doing that, feels like cheating myself. So, I took a break, made a cup of tea, and came back to it.
The Breakthrough
Staring at _ A _ _ C again. Highly excited… almost crazily excited? Then it clicked. MANIC! M-A-N-I-C. It fit perfectly! And it totally means highly excited, sometimes a bit too much.
It felt good to finally slot that one in. Funny thing is, I later saw online that there are actually quite a few answers people use for “highly excited” in crosswords. Stuff like:
- AGOG (4 letters)
- HYPED (5 letters, another good one!)
- MANIC (5 letters – my answer!)
- FEVERISH (8 letters)
- DELIRIOUS (9 letters, wow that’s long!)
So, yeah, ‘MANIC’ was the one for my puzzle. Just goes to show, sometimes you just need to step away and let your brain work it out in the background. Or maybe just get lucky with the crossing letters!
