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

Each word below can be expanded into a new one by inserting two, three, or four letters. That expanded word can be expanded yet again into another new word by inserting two, three, or four more letters. The letter pairs, trios, and quartets 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

LED       L _ _ _ _D       L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ D,

and the letter choices AMB and AST were listed, the answer words would be

LED       LASTED         LAMBASTED     (lASTed - lAMBasted) -

the letters AST being inserted in LED forming LASTED, and the letters AMB being inserted in LASTED forming LAMBASTED.

Puzzle 1
1. FAR         F _ _ _ _ _ R         F _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R
2. TRY        T _ _ _ Y               T _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Y
3. BAN        B_ _ _ N               B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N
4. SON        S _ _ _ _ _ N         S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N
5. PIN          P _ _ _ N               P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N
6. AGE        A _ _ _ E               A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

DA       EA   ECTI      EL       IN   MPOR
NCIE   LA   ORCE    TALI   TO   VANT

Answers:

1. faNCIEr - fINancier
2. tEAry - teMPORary
3. baTOn - batTALIon
4. sECTIon - sELection
5. pLAin - pORCElain
6. aDAge - adVANTage 

Puzzle 2
1. PER             P _ _ _ _ R              P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ R
2. POE             P _ _ _ _ E              P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E
3. MAE           M _ _ _ _ E             M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E
4. STRING      S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G     S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G
5. COATED    C _ _ _ _ _ _ D         C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _D

ABOR   AND   EAM   GAR   HIL
LL         OLL    RIN     RON   UNC

Answers:

1. pANDer - pHILander
2. poUNCe - pRONounce
3. maRINe - marGARine
4. strOLLing - stEAMrolling
5. coLLated - collABORated