One Word, Three Pairs
Read the puzzle
Three panels each show two words with a blank box between them: FIRE ? SHOP, HOME ? OUT, and NET ? BOOK. One word fills every gap, joining with the word on its left to make one compound word and with the word on its right to make another. What is the word?
One word fits all three gaps. What is it?
You do it at school and at the office.
WORK
Firework, workshop, homework, workout, network, workbook.
How to solve it
Each gap needs a word that works twice: as the end of a compound with the left word and as the start of a compound with the right word.
Step one: start with the pair that has the fewest options. HOME ? OUT is a good choice, because few words follow HOME. Candidates include HOMEWORK, HOMESICK, HOMEMADE and HOMEWARD. Of those, only WORK also starts a word with OUT: WORKOUT.
Step two: test WORK on the other panels. FIRE + WORK = FIREWORK, and WORK + SHOP = WORKSHOP. NET + WORK = NETWORK, and WORK + BOOK = WORKBOOK.
All six compounds are real words, so the answer is WORK.
The usual trap is a word that fits one panel perfectly. WOOD fits the first panel (FIREWOOD, WOODSHOP) and MAN starts well (FIREMAN), but HOMEWOOD and WOODOUT are not everyday words, and MANSHOP is not a word at all. A word that fits only one panel is not the answer.
Takeaway: list candidates for the tightest pair, then check each one against every gap before settling.
