You may have noticed that there's an ANT in CANTELOPE, a DIME in CONDIMENT, and a ROPE in EUROPEAN. In each case, the shorter word is formed by slicing off letters at the beginning and end of the longer word, without changing the order of the remaining letters.
In a game that James Thurber called "Ghost", one player proposes a "string" of one letter; the next player adds a letter to the beginning or end of the string; play proceeds from one player to the next. The idea is that the letters of the string are a partial spelling of an English word, which the players are gradually filling out. However, this word is never stated explicitly, and, at least in the early stages, there may be many words that can be represented by the string of letters.
In fact, when a player adds a letter to the string, he should have in mind an English word whose spelling includes this string. Alternatively, the player can maliciously add a letter that forms a string that is contained in no word, or for which a containing word is very difficult to determine. In that case, the player is trying to lay a trap for the next player.
The catch is that, after a player has extended the string, the next player, who would ordinarily have to extend the string yet further, may instead choose to end the game by challenging the previous player. The previous player must name an English word containing the string, and if he cannot, he loses. But if he can name a word, then the challenger loses.
Thus, one key to winning this game is to construct strings whose parent word is hard to work out. This will often lead to the next player making a mistaken challenge, or to the next player accepting the string, but being unable to deduce the correct word, and simply adding a plausible but mistaken letter.
This puzzle is related to those word games. We list short strings of letters, challenging you to determine a valid English word that contains these letters in this order. For instance, the clue "ONSO" could be answered with "MONSOON" or "SPONSOR" or "CONSOMME".
The clues are grouped by length, and you may be surprised to find that the shorter clues are often the hardest. Some of these clues were presented by Peter Winkler in an article in Word Ways.
Two letter challenges:
BG BV CM DQ FC FW GC GD GJ GZ HH
HK HQ IJ KC KG KJ LJ LQ MD MQ PJ
TJ TK TV UH UQ VV WW XF XG XN XQ
XS ZB ZK ZM ZP ZV ZW
Three letter challenges:
AFY AIE AIQ AKN AKT AMT ANW AOH AOT APK
ATG AWG BEK BFR BOF BOJ BPL BPO BTF CAQ
CEC CEK CHG CTY CYH CYO CZE DDB DDM DEK
DEQ DHP DSC DSK DTE DWR DYB DYG DYM EGW
EKD EOI ETD EWG EZA FEG FEK FSA FSI FTB
FTT GEC GEF GGN GGP GHG GNP GNT GOC GSK
HCR HDI HDU HLR HMM HPL HPR HSH HSK HTC
HTG HTM HYN IAI IAU IDP IEI IFA IJI IMF
IOA IOE IOI IOV IPK IUT IXF IZU KAC KBL
KCL KEB KSG KSK KSU KTR KUS KYC KYR LAL
LCL LDB LDT LEK LEQ LFL LIH LKH LML LNO
LPF LPL LSC LTC LTP LYD LYF LYV MBB MBN
MBP MCH MEU MKH MND MNL MPF MPG MPM MPP
MSK MSM MSP MSU MVE MWI NDD NDJ NDK NGN
NKG NKM NNK NSW NYH NYP OAB OAU OAV OEQ
OEU OHO OHY OIE OKC OUA OUQ OWU OYH OYO
OYR PEV PIF PIU PFR PPH PSF PSM PSP PTC
PYC PYW RDP RDV RFD RJU RLH RMC RMP RNH
RPM RSB RTG RYD SDR SHH SIQ SKR SPB SSK
SUO SYW TBL THC THT TIK TIW TMU TOZ TYD
UAH UDB UDU UEO UFA UMD UXU VEF VEP VEW
VYH VYS WAW WFE WKW WND WNM WNP WNU WSB
WSM WSW XAD XIB XOP XTB XYE XYM XYS YAG
YEB YFR YHA YNG YOE YRD YSC YSL YSY YUN
YZY ZEF
Four letter challenges:
AIRV CEBE DEZV DROB ECIB ELEL EPHY ERYO EWHA EYSE
FELE FODI FRAR GHAG GUAG HEMU HHOO HIPE HNIQ HTEE
KADA LECU LESL LLJO LSEL IKEA ITCA LYLY MBBE MECA
MEON MYRO NELT NEUV NIKE OELA OFOL OFTO ONIG OOMM
OORK OMUC OWAD OWNO OYEU PIOC PLEL PONR RAOR RESK
ROOR RTHQ SAGN SPBE SPES THAC TYPU UBBU UERK UGUG
ZIPA
A few more:
ACHACH TANTAN
I give up, show me the solution.