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A small introduction:
This could have been a "What is a ??? Word™" question, but I decided to give it a little twist. The first part is simply about finding out what makes the short words Tonal (although I decided later that "Notable" might be an even better description, so wherever you read "Tonal" you may also read "Notable"). The poem will help you as you go along.

Complete all tonal words below,
List their options in a row.
Numbers for letters is what you need,
They indicate what you should read.
Just take these, strike out the rest,
Now you have fulfilled your quest.

enter image description here

N.B.: All tonal words can be found in this English dictionary.

P.S.: Here is a text version of the picture above:

TONAL -> LUNATIC  
LEACH -> SARCASM  
HEAP  -> SASHIMI  
ROLL  -> PLATEAU  
VERY  -> COMPLEX  
RISKY -> COMPLEX  
HOST  -> THOUGHT  
READ  -> ATTEMPT  
MEND  -> REVISIT  
ARROW -> FORTIFY  
LIGHT -> WONDERS  
GO    -> DYNASTY  
LOVE  -> OUTDRAW  
RACE  -> PONTIFF  
OLD   -> COUTURE  
OWN   -> ANALYZE  
LONG  -> VOUCHER  
ROOM  -> ENCRYPT  
STRAY -> HUNDRED  
LASH  -> SPECIES  
RANK  -> SANDBOX  
ROUND -> NOTABLE

Hint:

Finding out what makes the shorter words tonal/notable is key.

Hint 2:

The tonal/notable property is related to the fact that these words are incomplete.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does each pair gives a single word or a part of word? You can choose not to answer. $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Feb 1, 2017 at 10:13
  • $\begingroup$ @Techidiot: The pairs don't necessarily lead to single words. $\endgroup$
    – Levieux
    Feb 1, 2017 at 10:39
  • $\begingroup$ To be clear, are the short words Tonal Words and the longer 7-letter ones Notable Words? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Feb 4, 2017 at 14:39
  • $\begingroup$ No, the short words are both Tonal and Notable. I called them "Tonal" first but then decided that "Notable" might be a better description, but I didn't want to change the title, because I thought it might be confusing. I'll edit the post a bit. $\endgroup$
    – Levieux
    Feb 4, 2017 at 14:58
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ I'd like to say that this is indeed much better constructed than the "What is a ??? Word™" series, and in particular I liked the initial confirmation. $\endgroup$
    – Sp3000
    Feb 6, 2017 at 14:59

2 Answers 2

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tonal - there is only ATONAL = A so i pick only 1st from word below = L
leach - there is only BLEACH = B so i pick only 2nd from word below = A
…
LASTLET(TE)(RS)(OF)(WOR)(DS)(TW)(OF)(OURE)(LE)(VE)(NT)(HR)(EE)(ANDO)(NE)

"last letters of words two four eleven three and one"

Honestly i think i made some new words and forgot some. My english is not that good, but u got an idea. Basically u have for example word ROUND - so u try to find A-round, B-round, C-round, etc, but u choose only existing ones - like AROUND and GROUND, that's A and G = 1st and 7th letter in word below = (N and E)

and for answer:

sarcasM
plateaU
wonderS
sashimI
lunatiC
- > MUSIC

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  • $\begingroup$ You've inserted an extra letter and you're missing FLONG, but that looks mostly right. Almost there :) $\endgroup$
    – Sp3000
    Feb 6, 2017 at 14:57
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The answer is

Music

And the method is

Create a list of words out of the given first words by way of prepending a musical note (A-G), then use the prepended notes to select letters out of the second word.

This yields the message

"Last Letter of words two, four, eleven, three, and one" which yields the answer.

My work is as follows, uglified.



 Atonal                        L
 Bleach                        A
 Cheap                         S
 Droll                         T

 Every                         L
 Frisky                        E
 Ghost                         T
 Bread (Dread)                 T/E
 Amend                         R

 Barrow (Carrow)               O/F
 Alight (Blight) (Flight)      W/O/R
 Ago (Ego)                     D/S

 Clove (Glove)                 T/W
 Brace (Grace)                 O/F
 Bold (Cold) (Fold) (Gold)     O/U/R/E
 Down (Gown)                   L/E
 Along (Flong)                 V/E
 Broom (Groom)                 N/T
 Astray  (Estray)              H/R
 Clash (Flash)                 E/E
 Brank? (Crank) (Drank) (Frank)A/N/D/O
 Around (Ground)               N/E

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