PinPoint #901: Mail, Assignment, Hang Up & More

Connecting the Dots

PinPoint #901 begins with Mail, a clue broad enough to send the solving process in several directions. It could suggest letters, delivery, a mailbox, a courier, or even a message. At this stage, the field is wide open.

The second clue, Assignment, starts cutting through the noise. An assignment can be a task, a duty, a commission, or a post—a position or role given to someone. That possibility is much more specific than the opening clue, but it still needs support.

The First Major Lock

Then comes Hang Up. This clue can point toward putting something up for display, such as posting a notice. Now the same word begins operating in more than one grammatical and practical sense:

• The mail is the post.
• An assignment or position is a post.
• To hang something up for others to see is to post it.

This is the puzzle's first real aha! moment. The clues are not describing one object. They are testing different meanings and uses of one compact word.

Two Confirmation Clues

Fence Pole makes the physical meaning unmistakable: a vertical support is a fence post. That reinforces the pattern rather than opening a new path.

The final clue, After/subsequent (as a prefix), delivers the decisive confirmation. The prefix post- means after or later, as in postwar or postgraduate. At that point, every clue has a clean connection.

How the Answer Emerges

The route is tactical: start with the broadest meaning, use Assignment to identify a promising word, and let Hang Up test whether that word can work as a verb. Once Fence Pole and After/subsequent arrive, the alternatives collapse.

The final answer is Different definitions of “post”. Its strength comes from range: postal delivery, a job or station, displaying something, a structural pole, and the prefix meaning “after.” The clues look unrelated until the word's different definitions bring them into one tight pattern.