SOLVED - Test Puzzle 1 - Get Better At Solving Puzzles

[Suspence]

In line with the "How to get better at solving puzzles" thread, and the idea of walking someone through the solving process, I built a pretty elementary puzzle that should lead to a one word answer.

As you look at it, post your thought process and anything you notice that could be helpful.

Executed (6)
Mend (3)
Amazement (3)
Lease (4)
Bottom (4)
Exposed (5)
Reduce (5)
Help (3)

Morphed (7)
Vomit (4)
Cognizant (5)
Disavow (6)
Serious (6)
Yelped (6)
Blossom (6)
Bitter (5)
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[ralphmerridew]

Well, the first step is to try to answer the clues:
Executed (6) KILLED ?
Mend (3) FIX
Amazement (3) AWE
Lease (4) RENT
Bottom (4) SEAT ?
Exposed (5) PRONE ?
Reduce (5)
Help (3) AID

Morphed (7) CHANGED
Vomit (4) PUKE
Cognizant (5) AWARE
Disavow (6) ABJURE
Serious (6) INTENT
Yelped (6)
Blossom (6)
Bitter (5)

I also notice that the clues in the second part are longer than those in the first; possibly something is added to each answer in the first part to get one in the second. (awe -> aware)

[Death Mage]

I had similiar thoughts, and similiar answers. I had figured out "Blossom (6)" as Flower. But Ralph's observation of words on the bottom are added from the top lead me to "Reduce (5)" being Lower. And "Executed (6)" to Hanged.
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[ralphmerridew]

My name is "ralphmerridew", lowercase. If you must abbreviate it, "rm".

With Death Mage having confirmed that idea, I went back over it, to see if I could find any more answers by add/removing letters from an answer.

Executed (6) / Morphed (7): (C)hanged
Mend (3) / Vomit (4): fix? / puke? barf?
Amazement (3) / Cognizant (5): aw(AR)e
Lease (4) / Disavow (6): re(SE)nt or r(ES)ent
Bottom (4) / Serious (6): seat? / intent?
Exposed (5) / Yelped (6): prone? / ???
Reduce (5) / Blossom (6): (F)lower
Help (3) / Bitter (5): a(CR)id

C _ AR SE/ES __ _ F CR

[Thok]

Since there isn't any rule about using outside help, I start using an online thesaurus to start looking for synonyms for the longer words, and looking for ones that give the smaller words.

Executed (6) HANGED
Mend (3) SEW
Amazement (3) AWE
Lease (4)
Bottom (4) SEAT
Exposed (5) BARED
Reduce (5) LOWER
Help (3) AID

Morphed (7) CHANGED (C)
Vomit (4) SPEW (P)
Cognizant (5) AWARE (AR)
Disavow (6)
Serious (6) SEDATE (DE)
Yelped (6) BARKED (K)
Blossom (6) FLOWER (F)
Bitter (5) ACRID (CR)

I've also put the added letters in place, so we can try to say something about them. From hear on I have spoilered my thoughts (since I end up solving the puzzle.) When you read a spoiler, try to think about what the implications

Thought 1: What might those letters mean?
Groups this short might be symbols for chemical elements, although DE isn't an element.

Thought 2: Given thought 1, anything special about those letters?
A quick look at the periodic table notes that the remaining 6 symbols (other than DE and the one I don't know) have largest periodic number 24. That's curious. Is there anything else that's roughly 20-something big and can naturally be numbers?

Thought 3: Let's try to actually do something.
So lets do the substitution of element->periodic number->letter of the alphabet. So, C->Carbon->6->F. Note that if this pans out SEAT->SEDATE is wrong. But we can fix that later. We get the start of an 8 letter word: FOR**SIX.

Thought 4: Trying to finish it off
Can you think of an 8 letter word that works? I'd suggest FORTYSIX as an answer. I sort of eyeballed it, but there aren't that many words that work, and there's a big six there.

Thought 4a: One last push: is there anything else to do with the answer from 4?
Given the answer and the chemistry stuff, one might look at the element that goes with 46. It's Palladium. This feels vaguely appropriate (there's general Paladin type connection that goes with this forum. That goes with knowing your user base.) This thought could be a red herring though. A good puzzle competition will give you an indication of if you need to do this step.

Thought 5: Doublechecking
We expect the missing letters for the last pairs to be and CA, MN. Try to find them

Thought 6: Answer to doublechecking
Using the online thesaurus, I get rent->recant for CA, and sole->solemn for MN. This is much easier knowing the missing letters. Also, removed letters are always consecutive, which is more check.

[Suspence]

Nicely solved and explained. There was an additional hint that no one caught, or at least mentioned in their thought process.

Working on a new puzzle now, perhaps we can do the same with it.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[ralphmerridew]

You mean the "elementary puzzle" in the intro?

[Suspence]

Yes, that's it.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.