Answer to Puzzle Contest (from the winner):

"A possible answer is:

astute

All the words have three letters which appear consecutively in the alphabet.
first (rst)
defense (def)
coughing (ghi)
nopal (nop)
hijinks (hij)
astute (stu)

Clearly, many other words can be created using the pattern."

Winner: Kevin Lombardo

Contest Statistics: Newsletter sent to 312692 subscribers, 17 answers submitted, 15 answers correct, 88.24% accuracy. Chance of a correct answer winning: 6.67%.