Short

[cinelli]

If AB, BC, CD and DE are common English words, what familiar word is DCABE?

Cinelli

[UncleEbenezer]

No idea. Is it somewhere you live?

(best clue is that 2-letter words are generally one consonant one vowel, and the order DCABE suggests the vowels are CAE).

[XFool]

NIGHT?

[UncleEbenezer]

NIGHT?

Your reading of the problem must differ from mine.

While "in" and "hi" qualify, you appear also to be claiming "gh" and "nt" as common English words!

[XFool]

NIGHT?

Your reading of the problem must differ from mine.

While "in" and "hi" qualify, you appear also to be claiming "gh" and "nt" as common English words!

You're right! Too many 'degrees of freedom', I forgot to apply that restriction.

[jfgw]

Spoiler

AB = US
BC = SO
CD = OH
DE = HE
DCABE = HOUSE



Julian F. G. W.

Edit: I have just seen UncleEbenezer's post.

[UncleEbenezer]

Spoiler

Edit: I have just seen UncleEbenezer's post.

Damn, I was kind-of hoping you'd've found an entirely different solution.

[cinelli]

Well solved both. I did wonder whether there were other solutions but yours matches mine, so apparently not.

Cinelli