Usually, a word meld requires changing one common English word into another, using steps that change any single letter and yield another common word.

In this word meld, your task is to change the word "PASSER" into the word "SPARSE." However, for this problem, each step consists of switching the position of any two adjacent letters (without regard, obviously, for whether they form a word or not).

P A S S E R
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
S P A R S E

How can you do this in five moves?

(Not less than five)

(In reply to could it be by Gert)

The last step, going from SPASER to SPARSE, is not a swap of two adjacent letters, but rather, a swap of one letter with an adjacent pair of letters.

Posted by Charlie on 2003-08-16 11:59:26