[Guest]

I hope you're not tired of these. It's time to try six letters!

With apologies to Prof. Templeton for the plagierism:

I've put together a list of 26 common six letter words (except for X maybe, but I'm sure you'll get it), one for each letter of the alphabet. The letters in each word are not repeated and there are no plural words (no "books" for example) or any words that are six letters only by virtue of adding an s at the end. The list below shows you which letters every word shares with the other 25 words. The six-letter word that starts with A shares 2 letters in common with the six-letter word that starts with B, 3 letters with the word that starts with C, and 2 with the D word. Your job is to find out what the words are.

OK, I said I wasn't going to post one of these, because I'm prone to errors and typos. But I changed my mind, because I wanted to have a go at it. Ive checked and double-checked, but each time I found errors, so I can't guarantee I found them all. So please speak up if you see a problem.

[font="Courier New"]  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A . 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 2

B 2 . 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 0 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 6 3 2 2 1 1 2 0

C 3 2 . 0 1 3 2 1 1 1 0 2 2 4 2 1 2 3 2 4 2 6 3 1 3 1

D 2 1 0 . 3 0 1 3 2 0 3 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 3 1 3

E 2 1 1 3 . 1 2 1 2 3 3 4 4 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 2

F 2 2 3 0 1 . 2 1 1 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 3 1 3 3 2 2 1

G 2 1 2 1 2 2 . 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 3 1 2 5 1 3 2 2 2 2 4 2

H 3 1 1 3 1 1 2 . 3 0 2 0 0 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 2

I 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 3 . 3 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 3 1 2 2 1 2 2 3 1

J 1 3 1 0 3 2 3 0 3 . 1 3 3 2 3 0 1 2 3 2 1 1 0 1 2 0

K 2 0 0 3 3 0 2 2 2 1 . 2 2 2 1 3 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 3

L 2 3 2 2 4 2 1 0 1 3 2 . 6 2 2 1 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1

M 2 3 2 2 4 2 1 0 1 3 2 6 . 2 2 1 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1

N 2 1 4 1 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 . 3 2 0 2 1 2 2 4 1 2 1 3

O 1 1 2 1 3 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 2 3 . 1 0 2 1 2 1 2 2 3 3 1

P 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 3 1 0 3 1 1 2 1 . 1 1 1 1 4 1 2 2 1 3

Q 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 1 . 3 2 4 3 2 2 0 3 2

R 2 2 3 1 1 2 5 2 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 1 3 . 2 4 3 3 3 2 4 2

S 2 6 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 0 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 . 3 2 2 1 1 2 0

T 2 3 4 0 1 3 3 1 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 4 4 3 . 3 4 3 1 4 1

U 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 3 2 2 2 1 4 3 3 2 3 . 2 2 2 3 3

V 3 2 6 0 1 3 2 1 1 1 0 2 2 4 2 1 2 3 2 4 2 . 3 1 3 2

W 1 1 3 1 0 3 2 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 1 3 2 3 . 2 4 1

X 1 1 1 3 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 0 2 1 1 2 1 2 . 2 3

Y 1 2 3 1 1 2 4 2 3 2 0 1 1 1 3 1 3 4 2 4 3 3 4 2 . 1

Z 2 0 1 3 2 1 2 2 1 0 3 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 0 1 3 2 1 3 1 .[/font][/codebox]

[Guest]

Here is the list as long as (K,R) is 2 instead of 1.

A-ADVERB

B-BUSTLE

C-COVERT

D-DISMAY

E-ENIGMA

F-FLOWER

G-GROUND

H-HYBRID

I-INJURY

J-JUNGLE

K-KIDNAP*

L-LAMENT

M-MENTAL

N-NOVICE

O-OXYGEN

P-PHOBIA

Q-QUARTZ

R-ROTUND*

S-SUBTLE

T-TORQUE

U-UTOPIA

V-VECTOR

W-WORTHY

X-XYLOID

Y-YOGURT

Z-ZODIAC

[Guest]

Yes, Flinchum, K/R is 2. I can't believe I missed that every time I checked!

The puzzle is solved! Great work everyone. For the final list, see Flinchum's post above.

Although I was watching the proceedings, I was intentionally witholding feedback. I wanted to see if you all would accept answers as they were proposed and how long it would take to identify solution mistakes. There was only one this time, and PA corrected his "T" rather quickly.

My apologies for the errors. Aside from the counting errors: K/R = 2, C/Z = 2, I did a couple of things I shouldn't have done. Pitfalls that other makers of the puzzle have not fallen into.

- Ambiguity. A good puzzle should have only one solution. I goofed by using bustle/subtle, which could also be bluest/sublet

- International Spelling. I had originally discounted "yogurt" as a candidate, because it is also spelled "yoghurt". But I lost my original word list, and when I started over, that thought didn't occur to me again!

Thanks for playing!