FILL 'ER UP III
Credit: GAMES Magazine
June 1998
Stephen Sniderman

Each word below can be expanded into a new one by inserting two or three letters. That expanded word can be expanded yet again into another new word by inserting two or three more letters. The letter pairs and trios are shown below, and each one will be used only once. They may be inserted anywhere in the shorter words, but the letters stay together and in the same order.

For example, given the clue

PINE     P _ _ _ _ _ E     P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

and the letter choices ORC and UP were listed, the answer words would be

PINE     PORCINE       PORCUPINE  (pORCine - porcUPine)

the letters ORC being inserted in PINE forming PORCINE, and the letters UP being inserted in PORCINE forming PORCUPINE.

Puzzle 1
1. MET        M_ _ _ T             M _ _ _ _ _ _ T
2. SEED      S _ _ _ _ T           S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ D
3. MATE     M _ _ _ _ E          M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E
4. CHAR     C _ _ _ _ _ R       C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R

AC      AN    AT      INI
RCH   RTE   PAR   UR

Answers:

1. meANt - meRCHant
2. seATed - sePARated
3. matURe - mINIature
4. chaRTEr - charACter

Puzzle 2
1. HER        H _ _ _ _R           H _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R
2. PRY         P _ _ _ _ Y          P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Y
3. RAN        R _ _ _ _ N          R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N
4. CENT      C _ _ _ _ _ T        C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ T
5. REST       R _ _ _ _ _ T        R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ T

AN      ALT    DIA    MIS    NIE
ONV   PEC    RBI    TIO     TRO  

Answers:

1. hANGer - haRBInger
2. pALTry - palMIStry
3. raTIOn - raDIAtion
4. cONVent - conveNIEnt
5. resPECt - reTROspect