What do the following words have in common?

PACT
PRIDE
PASTE
BROOD
MUSTARD

Answer:

Each word is a homophone for a past tense verb:

PACT - PACKED
PRIDE - PRIED
PASTE - PACED
BROOD - BREWED
MUSTARD - MUSTERED 

Credit: LA Times Crossword
 March 29, 2015
Merl Reagle
A TENSE SITUATION