See more discussion of the puzzles from the United States’ 2021 Puzzle Grand Prix on this post. Note there are some construction details and potential spoilers on that post so view it after you solve.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab mode to shift between letter entry, line drawing, and shape entry — for word list marking — modes)

Author/Opus: This is the 355th puzzle from our managing editor Serkan Yürekli.

Rules: Place a letter into each empty cell so that each outlined area has exactly one bold word from the given list. Cells that contain the same letter cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge or corner. Each outlined area must contain the word from the first letter to the last letter such that consecutive letters within an outlined area are orthogonally adjacent. (In other words, for each region it must be possible to draw a path that starts at the first letter and ends at the last letter, going through each other cell exactly once.) Gray cells indicate the position of the first letter in that region.

Difficulty: 4 stars (estimate based off competition points; timing standards not available from our usual testers)

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other Word puzzles.