LinkedIn Pinpoint #497 Answer — September 9, 2025

🎯 Pinpoint 497 Answer & Full Analysis — September 9, 2025

This was a brilliant Pinpoint puzzle that required some lateral thinking. The clues were incredibly diverse, ranging from transportation and currency to formal wear and astronomy. The connecting thread wasn't immediately obvious until I started thinking about the different meanings of a single word. The final clue, with its specific exclusion of "Manx Cats," was a masterstroke that confirmed the entire pattern. The answer is Things with tails.

🧩 Step-by-Step Solving Process

When I saw Airplanes, I thought about travel or machines. The 'tail' of an airplane is a specific part, so I kept that in mind as a potential connection.

Then came Coins. This was a great clue. The two sides of a coin are called 'heads' and 'tails.' This suggested the connecting word might be 'tail,' but in a different sense than the airplane's tail.

Morning coats solidified the pattern. This type of formal jacket is famous for its long back, which is referred to as 'tails.' Now I had three different types of 'tails.'

Comets fit the theme perfectly. Comets are celestial bodies known for the long, glowing 'tail' of gas and dust that streams behind them.

Finally, Cats (but not Manx Cats) was the ultimate confirmation. Cats have tails, and the specific exclusion of the Manx cat—a breed famous for being tailless—left no doubt that the theme was Things with tails.

🏆 Answer: Pinpoint 497

Things with tails

📋 Words & How They Fit

💡 Lessons Learned From Pinpoint 497

• The connecting word can have multiple meanings: The puzzle cleverly used different senses of the word 'tail'—anatomical, sartorial, aeronautical, numismatic, and astronomical.
• Exclusion can be the strongest clue: Specifically mentioning "but not Manx Cats" was a huge hint that the defining feature was the very thing Manx cats lack.
• Think metaphorically and literally: The theme included both literal tails (cats, airplanes) and metaphorical or named tails (coins, coats).
• The theme can be a single shared feature: The answer wasn't a category of objects, but a single property that all the objects share.

❓ FAQ

Q1: Why is the back of a coin called "tails"? A: The practice dates back to Roman coins, which often had the head of an emperor on one side (obverse) and a different image, like a ship's stern (which has a tail-like rudder), on the other (reverse). The term 'tails' became a simple opposite for 'heads.'

Q2: What is a Manx cat? A: The Manx cat is a breed of domestic cat originating from the Isle of Man that is famous for having a naturally occurring mutation that shortens or eliminates the tail.

Q3: What is the purpose of an airplane's tail? A: The tail, or empennage, provides stability during flight. It includes the vertical stabilizer (fin) to prevent yawing side-to-side and the horizontal stabilizer to prevent pitching up-and-down.