Oddly Enough - hint for last one

Which word in each series is the odd one out, and why? You may find different answers from mine for perfectly good reasons. Some are straightforward, others a little sneaky and some a bit fiendish.

-1. phlegm, cribbage, delivery, penchant, hearing
-2. sale, crew, present, time, love (hint: they came two by two)
-3. bonnet, gangster, cover, scrap
-4. lion, wolf, goat, bull
-5. O, H, E, C, N
-6. Greece, France, Austria, China, Nigeria
-7. issue, evolve, age, out, egress
-8. route, write, towed, squire, troupe
-9. green, yellow, orange, purple, pink
-10. sapphire, diamond, ruby, topaz, emerald
-11. Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Georgia
-12. copper, iron, tin, bronze, lead
-13. Peter, Mike, Charlie, Oscar
-14. first, cost, dusty, abet, flux
-15. bow, arrow, wind, tear, lead
-16. siege, muster, murder, trample, skulk
-17. day, planet, wood, temple, fox
-18. bound, fix, dust, left, pain
-19. won, ate, but, for, too
-20. tone, ram, who, salt, pow

13. Peter - not a NATO phonetic letter

A great start! It should be Papa.

15. arrow - can only be pronounced one way, the rest have more than one pronunciation and meaning.

Absolutely!

1. phLEGm, cRIBbage, deLIVERy, penchant, hEARing
penchant doesn't contain a part of the body

Sharp eyes, Sondi!

19. ate (add t to others for a word)
wont, butt, fort, toot

12. bronze - the only alloy, others are elements found in the periodic chart

4. lion - it's part of wildlife??

9 - pink - pink is a tint ,not a color ?

manxman, that's right but my answer sounds better.

michele

curly, wolves are also wild. Try again.

niteowl, try again.

19. won, ate, but, for, too

One, Eight, but, Four, Two

Sounds good, Koala!

try again

8. squire

route, write, towed, squire, troupe
homonyms: root, right, toed, XXXXXX, troop

16. IN: a murder of crows, a muster of peacocks, a siege of herons, a skulk of fox(es) - groups of animals.
OUT: a trample of flower beds.

3. scrap - only word which is not a synonym for hood

All three correct!

Sondi - a trample of flower beds?

7. issue - add 'r' as first letter to the others to get new words

9. yellow is only primary color

2 could be sale on the basis that all the others can be both verb and noun, although at an easier level present is the only one with more than one syllable.

5. E is the only character not found in the periodic table.

CCB, Redz and Cue

Lex, both of those answers are valid, but not mine. But believe me, I'm not trying to mix you up.

4. wolf, the rest are astrological signs

You're a star, Fil!

10. Diamond 'cos the others are all minerals??

They're all gems, just like you.

10. Topaz - All the rest are precious gemstones.

Correct! Topaz is a semi-precious gem.

20. tone, ram, who, salt, pow

tone is not a familiar acronym

14. dusty - the letters of the other words are in alphabetical order

6. Austria - all the others start with a consonant?

Struggled to find any other geopolitical delineation (yes even looked up membership of G20, NATO, UN etc but came up with nothing).

Cue and CCb, well done!

CaptainD, I applaud your efforts. You might want to consider thinking more... colorfully.

Haha very sneaky.

It's France because... Tricolor. The other countries' flags all have 2 colours, France's of course has 3.

18. "pain" is the only one containing a descender

Me? Sneaky? Great solve!

Rog, that works, but I could have used rain instead of pain. I suggest a new beginning.

11. Pennsylvania because it is a commonwealth, or Ohio because it does not contain or end in a.

Hhmm. Either that's a bijou hint or I'm flogging a dead parrot. So:

18. "pain" 'cos all the others start with ascenders

...and while we're in the land of no-hope,

11. Ohio, being the only one with a non-rectangular State flag

18 - left. all others become new words if the first letter is changed to m ?

17. day, planet, wood, temple, fox

Doris Day, Natalie Wood, Shirley Temple, Megan Fox

Rog got #11 with the swallowtail pennant! Niteowl ran with the bijou hint and got #18. Cue got #17 and spoiled my chance to give the hint "...and don't call me Shirley".

2. crew - all others are anagrams of critters
seal, serpent, mite, vole

And that's a wrap! Well done, michele!

Great thread, Pandora!

Glad you enjoyed it.