In the game of Letter Cubes, a different letter of the alphabet is on each face of each of the 4 cubes so that 24 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, including J, occur. Words are formed by rearranging and turning the cubes so that the top letters spell a common 4-letter word. The 14 words below have been made using the cubes.

CAVE
CLEF
DUPE
FARE
FLUB
GREW
HAZY
KITH
LOIN
POEM
RASP
SMUG
TIRE
VARY

Can you recover the 6 letters on each?

(puzzle originally from www.allstarpuzzles.com)

V and Y appear on the same cubes as S and P (from VARY and RASP)
K and H appear on the same cubes as R and E (from KITH and TIRE)
H and Z appear on the same cubes as R and V (from HAZY and VARY)
G and W appear on the same cubes as T and I (from GREW and TIRE)
F and E appear on the same cubes as V and Y (from FARE and VARY)

But V and E can't appear on the same cube (from CAVE), so F and V share a cube while E and Y share a cube. Then, since Y can't share a cube with H (from HAZY), both E and Y must share a cube with K (see second line above) while R shares a cube with H. Then, as P can't appear on the same cube as E, and from the first line above, taking E, Y and K together, E, Y and K appear with S, while V shares a cube with P. And since E goes with Y, F must go along with V (and its attendant P), per the fifth line above

So far we have
HR
EYKS
FVP
And none of these can be combined as each has at least one letter in the same word as a letter in any of the other lines.

From DUPE and POEM, O and M appear on the same cubes as D and U. But M and U can't share a cube (from SMUG) so M shares with D and O shares with U.

From CLEF and FLUB, C and E appear on the same cubes as B and U, but E is already tied to Y, K and S, and O us already tied to U. Since, because of DUPE, E can't appear on the same cube as U, E (and Y, K and S) must be on the same cube as B, while C is tied to U (together with O).

So now we have
BEYKS and
COU

From FARE and CLEF, C (with its previously determined O and U) and L appear on the same two cubes as A and R (with its previously determined H). As C can't appear on the same cube as A (from CAVE), C, O and U share with R and H, while A shares with L.

So far we have
COURH
BEYKS
FVP
MD

A and L will fit only on one of the last two, but from CLEF, L can't share a cube with F, so the last line must be
MDAL

One or the other of M and D share words with each of the other lines, so these are four separate cubes.

A and L will fit only on one of the last two, but from CLEF, L can't share a cube with F, so the last line must be
MDAL

SMUG has all its letters accounted for except G, which must go on the cube with F, V and P.

TIRE's R and E have already been placed. Its I can't go with L (from LOIN) and so must go with F, V and P, while T goes with M, D, A and L.

So far it's
COURH
BEYKS
FVPI
MDALT

SMUG can fit only by putting G with FVPI, and then GREW forces W with MDALT. The LOIN puts the N with BEYKS and HAZY puts the Z with FVPIG, leaving COURH as the only one with room to hold the J.

Summary:
COURHJ
BEYKSN
FVPIGZ
MDALTW

Posted by Charlie on 2003-06-17 16:56:24