Work through the levels. Reveal the Spangram only when you’re truly ready.
Today’s clue: “It's like talking to a brick wall”
A gentle direction — no specifics.
Closer — the category is coming into focus.
Near-direct — only read if you’re stuck.
Direction only.
Getting closer.
Near-direct.
5 theme words — lengths in random order
Spaces not counted in total
All theme words — shuffled
These words fit the theme on the surface, but aren’t part of today’s solution. Knowing them ahead of time can save you minutes of searching.
A common synonym for stubbornness, but not one of today’s theme words.
Describes someone unyielding; many solvers will expect it given the clue.
Means persistent and stubborn, a natural guess for the theme.
a textbook decoy
Difficulty sits at 4.5 because the idiom clue makes the theme of stubbornness obvious, but the grid hides false friends like ADAMANT that require careful elimination. Placing STUBBORN acted as the key unlock—once that familiar word landed, the other four adjectives converged rapidly since they all clearly orbit the same concept. The spangram NOTBUDGING is easy to spot after a few words are found, because the letters stretch across the whole board and the compound structure becomes visible. What makes this set trickier than it first appears is the inclusion of HEADSTRONG and WILLFUL, which are less direct synonyms and might be overlooked in a first pass.
The clue 'It's like talking to a brick wall' is a classic idiom for trying to reason with someone who completely refuses to listen or change their mind. The puzzle directly translates that image into a collection of adjectives that describe such a person. The spangram NOTBUDGING is the punchline—it literally names the action the brick wall takes (or doesn't take). So every answer word you find reinforces the feeling of that fruitless one-way conversation.
Tracy Bennett selected five adjectives that each capture a different shade of stubbornness, avoiding any noun forms to keep the category purely descriptive. FIRM is calm resolve, HEADSTRONG leans impulsive, OBSTINATE is the classic unreasonableness, STUBBORN is the everyday term, and WILLFUL emphasizes deliberate defiance. The set forms a tight, cohesive nest without overlapping in meaning too broadly. The spangram NOTBUDGING then stands as the physical embodiment—like a brick wall—that the clue has been pointing to all along.
