CISRA Puzzle Competition 2008 - Solutions

This is the archive of the 2008 Puzzle Competition. Please visit the current competition site for information about the latest Puzzle Competition.

D.3 Stressed Out

The only words of importance here are the ones circled in purple. First, identify the syllable in each word in the list which is accented or stressed when spoken:

as-sort-ed
de-ca-dent
es-sen-tia-lly
ding-hy
gliss-and-o
mis-tak-en
forth-co-ming
scho-last-ic
cho-le-ste-rol
in-ter-po-late

A message is revealed:

sort descending and take fourth-last letter

Some people may interpret which syllables are stressed slightly differently, but it should still be possible to figure out the message once you realise that the method should produce a sensible sentence.

If we sort the words in descending order and take the fourth-last letter of each in turn, we get:

 scholastic
   mistaken
interpolate
  glissando
forthcoming
essentially
     dinghy
   decadent
cholesterol
   assorted

The answer can be read from the fourth-last letters: SALAMANDER.