What word goes in the box with the question mark?
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1 Answer
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2
The word is
AXIS.
Because:
Each of these is an anagram of a number plus a single extra letter:
FORUM=FOUR+M
WAVELET=TWELVE+A
EXIGENTS=SIXTEEN+G
ENVIES=SEVEN+I
ETCHER=THREE+C
It turns out that
there's only one way to fill in the remaining numbers from 1 to 16 to create a magic square (that is, a square where all the rows, columns, and diagonals sum to the same number). That solution is:
05 13 04 12
16 08 01 09
02 10 15 07
11 03 14 06
And the only word that is an anagram of SIX plus an extra letter is AXIS.
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5$\begingroup$ You literally just pipped me to this! Got most of the way through my write-up... Well done. A good solve to a good puzzle :) (EDIT: You may want to point out explicitly how you jump from your 2nd to your 3rd spoiler, thanks to the spelled-out word...) $\endgroup$– StivSep 21, 2021 at 20:19
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$\begingroup$ I wonder what words go into the other boxes... $\endgroup$– StefSep 22, 2021 at 13:36