Question

If it is possible to make a meaningful word with the third, the fifth, the sixth and the eleventh letters of the word MERCHANDISE, using each letter only once, which of the following will be the third letter of that word? If no such word can be formed, give 'X' as answer and if more than one such word can be formed, mark ‘T’ as answer.

• A. H
• B. E
• C. R
• D. T

Hint:

Write the indexed letters explicitly, then check for multiple valid anagrams; choose “T” if more than one meaningful word exists.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Positions in MERCHANDISE: M(1) E(2) R(3) C(4) H(5) A(6) N(7) D(8) I(9) S(10) E(11). Letters available: \(\{R,H,A,E\}\). Possible meaningful words include HARE, HEAR, and RHEA. Their third letters are \(R, A,\) and \(E\) respectively more than one possibility. Hence we must mark \(\boxed{\text{T}}\). 

Answer 2

The word is built from the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 11th letters of MERCHANDISE. Numbering the letters: M(1), E(2), R(3), C(4), H(5), A(6), N(7), D(8), I(9), S(10), E(11). So the four letters available are \( R, H, A, E \), and we must check, for each option, whether a genuine English word can be built from exactly these four letters with that option sitting in the third place.

1. Option A (H): Testing rearrangements of \(R, H, A, E\) with H in the third slot gives strings such as "REHA", "AEHR" and "EAHR" — none of these is a recognised English word, so H cannot be the fixed third letter.
2. Option B (E): Placing E third gives "RHEA", which is a real word (a large flightless bird), so E is achievable as a third letter.
3. Option C (R): Placing R third gives "HARE", also a real word, so R is achievable as a third letter too.
4. Option D (T): T is not even one of the four available letters \(\{R,H,A,E\}\), so it can never itself be a letter of the word; it is only used here as the special marker for "more than one word possible".

Since the same four letters can validly form more than one meaningful word — RHEA (third letter E), HARE (third letter R), and also HEAR (third letter A) — the third letter is not fixed, so as instructed we must mark the special code for multiple possible words.

Hence, the correct answer is T.