Because you like puzzles, but you see clearly... or do you?

Question

$$\rm md\to thk\to in.$$

Because thoughts are grey, but not sad.

$$\rm we\to gt \to if.$$

Because your best mate deserves a present, but you are not friends.

$$\rm cy\to se\to \:?$$

Because the town is large, but not the population.

What word is the question mark?

This is not my intended anagram puzzle — I did not save my progress, and it all got deleted. Here is to make up for that. — Mr Pie, Aug 28, 2018 at 13:44
nice puzzle, too bad the anagram puzzle got lost though, i love those.. — Shahriar Mahmud Sajid, Aug 29, 2018 at 5:24

Mohirl · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-28 13:47:58Z

16

The answer is

it

Because

in each case, the last word can be placed inside the other two to form words relevant to the clues

md→thk→in. Because thoughts are grey, but not sad.

mind think

we→gt→if. Because your best mate deserves a present, but you are not friends.

wife, gift

cy→se→?

city, site

answered Aug 28, 2018 at 13:45

Mohirl

5,0161 gold badge15 silver badges26 bronze badges

1

$\begingroup$ Haha! Just happened to see it at the right time. The first one just jumped out at me for some reason, and the rest fell into place then. Added more detail on the answers $\endgroup$
– Mohirl
Aug 28, 2018 at 13:51
3

$\begingroup$ +1 After seeing this answer, I can't seem to thk->in of anythg->in else $\endgroup$
– Vivek Parekh
Aug 28, 2018 at 14:23
3

$\begingroup$ @user477343, is this the correct answer or should we keep searching? $\endgroup$
– El-Guest
Aug 28, 2018 at 15:05
1

$\begingroup$ @user477343 If it's the correct answer, make sure to mark it with the green checkmark. $\endgroup$
– Solomon Ucko
Aug 28, 2018 at 20:24
2

$\begingroup$ I think we're quite used to recongizing words by their fisrt and last letter which is why you may not have even noticed the intetnional typos in this sentence. "city" is also the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the question. Even though it's ostensibly the same puzzle and the same "search space", I think if you were to come up with a puzzle which reverses the schema so that the outside letters have to match (and be guessed at the end) it would be significantly more difficult. $\endgroup$
– dspyz
Aug 28, 2018 at 22:03

| Show 11 more comments

1 Answer 1