Question

In a game, a "word" is any combination of at least five letters of the English alphabet (the word does not have to have a meaning). A "sentence" in this game consists of exactly six such words, and it must satisfy all of the following rules:
1. The six words are written from left to right on a single line, in strictly increasing alphabetical order.
2. The sentence may start with any word. Each successive word is obtained from the word right before it by applying exactly ONE of three operations: deleting one letter, adding one letter, or replacing one letter with another letter.
3. At most three of the six words can begin with the same letter.
4. Apart from the first word, every word must be formed using an operation different from the one used to form the word immediately before it (so the same operation can never be used twice in a row).

If the first word in a sentence is "illicit" and the fourth word is "licit", then the third word can be

• A. Implicit
• B. Explicit
• C. Enlist
• D. Elicit

Hint:

Since each step is exactly one add, delete, or replace move, ask which candidate word turns into "licit" by changing just a single letter.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The key fact to use here is that the fourth word, "licit", must be produced from the third word using exactly one add, delete, or replace move, since that is how every word in this game is built from the one before it. So instead of worrying about the first word "illicit" for this particular check, we only need to ask, for each candidate: does removing, adding, or swapping just ONE letter turn this word into "licit"?

1. Implicit: has three extra letters ("i", "m", "p") at the front compared with "licit". Removing three letters is three operations, not one, so this option fails.
2. Explicit: also has three extra letters ("e", "x", "p") at the front compared with "licit". Same problem: three deletions needed, not one, so this option fails.
3. Enlist: has two extra letters at the front ("e", "n") and its fifth letter "s" would still need to become "c" to spell "licit". That is at least three separate changes, so this option fails.
4. Elicit: has exactly one extra letter, "e", sitting at the very front, and the remaining five letters "l-i-c-i-t" already spell "licit" exactly. Removing just that one leading "e" gives "licit" directly. This is a single delete operation, so this option works.

The remaining candidate, "Inlist", has the same problem as "Enlist": two extra letters up front plus an "s" that must become "c", which again needs more than one move, so it is also not usable.

Let's summarize:

• The check that matters is "one operation from candidate to licit", not the full four-word chain.
• Words with more than one extra or wrong letter compared with "licit" always need more than one move.
• "Elicit" needs only its leading "e" removed to become "licit" exactly.

So the third word that correctly leads into the fourth word "licit" is "Elicit".