Being a marsupial, the female kangaroo carries her young in her pouch. Kangaroo words do the same thing: Within their letters they conceal a smaller word that means the same as the fully grown word. Buried inside a catacomb is a tomb. Look inside myself, and you'll find me.

The smaller synonym I call a joey, the name of a kangaroo's offspring. Lederer's law mandates that the letters of the joey must appear in the right order, but not entirely adjacent. That is, like a kangaroo novice, each joey word must take at least one hop. Although we find a story in history, art in a cartoon, actual in factual, rim in perimeter, is in exist, toxic in intoxicate, joy in enjoyment, late in belated, blot in blotch, and nth in umpteenth, they are not true kangaroos because all the letters in each joey are adjacent.

Uncover the 50 miniature synonyms tucked away in each of the kangaroo words that are about to hop across your screen. Then, for a prize, bound right up to two special challenges.

1. appropriate 2. astound 3. barren 4. bedraggled 5. blossom 6. clue 7. complemented 8. curtail 9. destruction 10. devilishly 11. discourteous 12. displeasure 13. entwined 14. equitable 15. evacuate 16. exhilaration 17. exorcise

18. expurgated 19. fabrication 20. fatigue 21. healthier 22. himself 23. incapability 24. indolent 25. instructor 26. irritated 27. joviality 28. latest 29. market 30. matches 31. nestled 32. nourished 33. obligated 34. pinioned

35. postured 36. prosecute 37. quiescent 38. rapscallion 39. regulates 40. respite 41. salvage 42. satiated 43. scion 44. slithered 45. stockings 46. strives 47. supervisor 48. transgression 49. trustworthy 50. variegated

Here's a special challenge. The first person to e-mail Richard Lederer at rlederer@tiac.net with the correct answers will receive a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books and Music.

1. A rare joey is one that has more than one mother. Joined and confederated both carry one in their pouches. Lighted and illuminated both give birth to lit.
Enter here two more joeys and, for each, identify at least three multiple mothers.
joey
mother
mother
mother
joey
mother
mother
mother

2. Reversing the concept, we discover several kangaroo words are those that conceal multiple joeys. Open up a container and you get a can and a tin. Enter here a kangaroo word and its two synonymous joeys.
mother
joey
joey

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Winners of last two contests:
In the Feb.24-March 8 Verbivore, "Poli-Tickle Speeches," I asked readers to send me their original presidential anagrams. The winner was Hal Pollard, who came up with "William Howard Taft -- I, fat Will, toward ham." (I'd have preferred "I, fat Will, draw to ham.")

In the March 8-22 Verbivore, "Suppository Questions," I asked readers to send me their original presidential palindromes. The winner was Becky Allison. Her palindrome requires the following explanatory background:

A sentry refused President John Adams entry to inspect a fort. The reason was that the president had no ID to show the guard. The following headline appeared in the tabloid press: "RE: I.D. LOST ADAMS IS MAD AT SOLDIER."

Congratulations to Hal and Becky!