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Construct the longest chain you can by appending a new word based on the properties of its predecessor:

  1. Same pronunciation but different spelling to the predecessor.
  2. An anagram of its predecessor.

  • You may choose which rule to apply first, but thereafter you must alternate: you may not apply the same rule twice in a row. If a word applies both rules simultaneously, you may choose which to use for the alteration requirement.

  • Use a consistent accent, dialect and phonetic notation.

  • You may not use the same spelling more than once, even with a different pronunciation.

  • No proper nouns, please.

Example

  1. RATE /ɹeɪt/
  2. TEAR /ˈtɪə/ (anagram of "rate")
  3. TIER /ˈtɪə/ (homophone of "tear")
  4. RITE /ɹaɪt/ (anagram of "tier")
  5. RIGHT /ɹaɪt/ (homophone of "rite")
  6. GIRTH /ɡɜːθ/ (anagram of "right")

What's the longest chain that can be constructed using English words?

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    $\begingroup$ Please define "English word". What dictionary/wordlist is acceptable? For example, what loanwords are allowed? What slang? This prevents arguing over whether a solution is cheating. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jun 14 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ @bobble, use the same dictionary you get your pronunciations from. $\endgroup$
    – Toby Speight
    Commented Jun 14 at 18:42
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    $\begingroup$ @TobySpeight That's not an answer. If a word is in, say, Merriam-Webster, but not dictionary.com, is it allowed? $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jun 14 at 19:52
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, if that's the dictionary you're using (consistently, for all your words). $\endgroup$
    – Toby Speight
    Commented Jun 14 at 20:00
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    $\begingroup$ @TobySpeight what's to stop someone bringing their own Dictionary which lets them win? $\endgroup$
    – PuzzlingFerret
    Commented Jun 14 at 20:09

1 Answer 1

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To start off with, I've managed to get a chain of 10

1. ASTIR
2. STAIR
3. STARE
4. TEARS
5. TIERS
6. TIRES
7. TYERS
8. TREYS
9. TRAYS
10. STRAY

This could possibly be extended to 12 if we allow the word

STRAE (an old Scottish word for STRAW).

The list could then extend as

11. STRAE
12. TARES

An alternative extension to 12 could be as follows

If we consider an American-English pronunciation, we could have SATYR as a homophone for SADDER to get
10. SATYR
11. SADDER
12. DREADS

We could also extend above, if we allow

ASTER as rhyming with ASTIR (although the former has more emphasis on the first syllable and the latter, the second).

This could result in a (perhaps dubious) chain of length 14

1. RATES
2. ASTER
3. ASTIR
4. STAIR
5. STARE
6. TEARS
7. TIERS
8. TIRES
9. TYERS
10. TREYS
11. TRAYS
12. STRAY (SATYR)
13. STRAE (SADDER)
14. TARES (DREADS)

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    $\begingroup$ Did a computer-aided search with the norvig dictionary and the concatenation of every homophone dictionary I could find. The best I'm seeing is a more dubious version of this same list, so I'm inclined to say this is a winner. $\endgroup$
    – kagami
    Commented Jun 15 at 0:30

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