Solutions: Lewis Carroll's Doublet
Solutions to the "doublet" puzzles proposed by Lewis Carroll.
In last week's puzzle page, we gave you six of Lewis Carroll's "Doublet" puzzles, in which one word is changed to another, one letter at a time, making valid words with each step. Here are solutions to the six challenges from the article. Note that there may be other equally-minimal solutions. If you find a better solution, send it to us!
cold to warm
COLD (1) cord (2) word (3) ward WARM
four to five
FOUR (1) foul (2) fool (3) foot (4) fort (5) fore (6) fire FIVE
wheat to bread
WHEAT (1) cheat (2) cheap (3) cheep (4) creep (5) creed (6) breed BREAD
black to white
BLACK (1) blank (2) blink (3) clink (4) chink (5) chine (6) whine WHITE
river to shore
RIVER (1) rover (2) cover (3) coves (4) cores (5) corns (6) coins (7) chins (8) shins (9) shine (10) shone SHORE
winter to summer
WINTER (1) winner (2) wanner (3) wander (4) warder (5) harder (6) harper (7) hamper (8) damper (9) damped (10) dammed (11) dimmed (12) dimmer (13) simmer SUMMER
Source: Lewis Carroll, via "The 25 Best Brain Teasers of All Time" by Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.
