Ring-Circle
| Solution: The first thing to notice is that the list of word pairs on the left are pairs of english words with one letter swapped (ex. "sorn-akit" becomes "sort-akin", "slape-chean" becomes "shape-clean"). After fixing the pairs, one finds that the words can be formed into a ring or circle of synonym pairs - the second word in each pair is a synonym of the first word of another pair. After putting the words in order, one ends up with a list like the one on the left below ("mold" connects to "shape", "clean" connects to "dust", etc). |
Once the words are in order, by using the numbers in parenthesis from each set to choose a letter from the following set, one spells out "SIXTIMESEIGHT" or 6 x 8, giving the solution "48". |