Saturday, October 04, 2003

 
[Eugene, 10:48 AM]
Here's a puzzle -- find three letters out of which you can make the most three-letter words, using each letter exactly once. (Each word must be spelled differently; multiple meanings of the same spelling, such as the different meanings of BAR, don't count.) Out of A, B, and C, for instance, you can only make one (CAB). The words must follow the Scrabble rules: They must be writable in all lower case, which excludes initialisms (such as ABC), place names, and abbreviations that must be followed by a period or must include an apostrophe. Naturally, the maximum number of words you can make out of three letters is six.

     The best answer I've found is T, A, and E -- EAT, ATE, TEA, ETA (the name of a Greek letter), and TAE ("to" in Scottish dialect, but a legit Scrabble word).