Solution: ████████
Answer: REDACTED
Written by Olga Vinogradova
This is a word search with some letters replaced by some black boxes (█). Each █ is intersected with an appropriately thematic word synonymous with "redacted" or equivalent. Reading the black box letters top to bottom and left to right gives the cluephrase COMPRESS VERTICAL. A table with all words is shown here.
| Missing Letter | Word |
|---|---|
| C | OBS█URE |
| O | CENS█R |
| M | █ASSAGE |
| P | ADA█T |
| R | ST█IKE |
| E | LAUND█R |
| S | CRO█S |
| S | ERA█E |
| V | RE█ISE |
| E | R█PLACE |
| R | SC█UB |
| T | DELE█E |
| I | REWR█TE |
| C | S█RATCH |
| A | CH█NGE |
| L | B█ACK |
The cluephrase is telling us we need to squish the grid vertically. To do that, we must first remove (or... redact) all the found words that got us the cluephrase. This gives a new grid shaped 12x12.
In the new word search there are two sets of words we have to find. In one set each of the 8 words is synonymous with "answer" or equivalent. The second set consists of 8 words five letters long and beginning with A-H. There is exactly one intersection per word between the two sets.
| Set 1 | Set 2 | Intersection |
|---|---|---|
| ANSWER | ARROW | R |
| GUESS | BABEL | E |
| ENDING | CONDO | D |
| FINAL | DWARF | A |
| CORRECT | EPOCH | C |
| SUBMIT | FIGHT | T |
| ULTIMATE | GENRE | E |
| DENOUEMENT | HOWDY | D |
Ordering intersected letters
by alphabetical order of the five letter words spells the final answer:
REDACTED.
