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It amuses me that the word CANOES has been there in VOLCANOES all along. And URCHIN is barely hiding in the word LURCHING. And ASPIRIN is right there in ASPIRING. SISTER is in RESISTER. AKIN is in TAKING. HANGERS is in EXCHANGERS. And DEVELOPING has always been thinking about ELOPING.

These words have always been there. Although I've been looking at them my whole life, I've only just noticed them recently. They were hidden in plain sight!

Maybe you've noticed them before. Let's test your powers of observation on some others.

Example:

Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 5-letter word to complete all the words:
    HO_____S
    INC_____
    REC_____


--------------------------------------


Answer:  LINES

because it completes all the words:

    HOLINESS
    INCLINES
    RECLINES


See how many of the 10 below you can solve.

Super helpful clue: The fill-in word is semantically and etymologically unrelated to the containing words. (Well, almost always.)

1.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        MAN____
        FOR____
        DIN____


2.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        MA____G
        BA____G
        TA____G


3.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 6-letter word to complete all the words:
        P______
        FI______
        SHO______


4.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        SA____
        MU____
        DES____


5.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        P____
        MO____
        KE____NE


6.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 6-letter word to complete all the words:
        P______G
        B______G
        ______G


7.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 6-letter word to complete all the words:
        AC______G
        SE______G
        EX______G


8.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        CO____E
        MA____E
        STA____E


9.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        SE____NT
        RU____NT
        CON____NT


10.  Fill in the blanks below with a well-known 4-letter word to complete all the words:
        LEF____G
        RIGH____G
        BA____GS

If you missed the A side, here it is.


Epilogue:

Well, that was over quickly! It was all a blur of posting, editing, and reposting, but from what I could tell, @El-Guest had solved 8 out of the 10 at the same time that @geekahedron was working out how to post his complete solution. It seems that @geekahedron solved all 10 on his own. While technically @El-Guest may have posted the assembled solution first, I'm sure he would be understanding if I credit the answer to the new guy.

Here are more fun facts about these words:


In the example, LINES is also contained in UGLINESS (but UG_____S would have been too easy to recognize)

4. TINY is also contained in SCRUTINY

5. ROSE is also contained in PROSECUTE, MICROSECOND, HETEROSEXUAL, and PROSELYTIZE

8. GNAT is also contained in SIGNATURE

9. DIME is also contained in IMPEDIMENT

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Why did someone down vote this? Sequels are perfectly legitimate, along with this puzzle $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 8, 2019 at 0:03

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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  1. GOES

  2. SKIN

  3. RESIDE

  4. TINY

  5. ROSE

  6. RAISIN

  7. CRETIN

  8. GNAT

  9. DIME

  10. TWIN

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    $\begingroup$ Hi, welcome to puzzling SE! You can hide your answers by adding >! in front of your answers. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 8, 2019 at 0:26
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, after I saw the other posts I was trying to figure out how to do that! $\endgroup$
    – geekahedron
    May 8, 2019 at 0:29
  • $\begingroup$ Aside from such, well done! Please check out the tour of our SE site. If you got the answers from the other users, be sure to credit them as such by putting @(user) or from (user) like El-Guest did $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 8, 2019 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks again. And no, I did the whole thing in one go; the other comments didn't show up until I submitted my answer. $\endgroup$
    – geekahedron
    May 8, 2019 at 0:34
  • $\begingroup$ Ah I see. This is a common problem in SE. It's not any particular user's fault, but rather that some (such as you or Gareth) prefer to answer a complete part while others (such as myself or El-Gues) prefer to "show our steps" along the way. I'll actually probably discuss this more in meta, but there's no real proof (unfortunately) whether you or El-Guest answered first. Since El-Guest was the first to post an answer with more solutions, it'll most likely be given to him. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 8, 2019 at 0:40
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  1. GOES (mangoes, forgoes, dingoes)

  2. (from North)

    SKIN (masking, basking, tasking)

  3. (from geekahedron)

    RESIDE (preside, fireside, shoreside)

  4. (from North)

    TINY (satiny, mutiny, destiny)

  5. ROSE (prose, morose, kerosene)

  6. RAISIN (praising, braising, raising)

  7. CRETIN (excreting, accenting, secreting)

  8. GNAT (stagnate, magnate, cognate)

  9. DIME (rudiment, sediment, condiment)

  10. TWIN (leftwing, rightwing, batwings)

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Oh damn, the new puzzler just beat us both XD $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 8, 2019 at 0:25
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Solution for #2:

Word: Skin
MASKING
BASKING
TASKING

Solution for #4:

TINY

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