The puzzle consists of definitions to words that can make 3 separate word ladders -- the definitions have been put into a single set and alphabetized.
The longest ladder is missing 4 rungs -- those rungs are the four 4-letter answers to this puzzle. The other two ladders are complete, and their letter changes form two 7-letter words, which are the remaining two answers to this puzzle.
| STAY | Command to a dog (or perhaps to a shirt collar) |
| STAR | NO CLUE |
| SOAR | Glide in, or rise into, the sky |
| ROAR | Sound at the start of an MGM movie |
| ROAM | Be itinerant |
| ROOM | Space, such as for a leg or elbow |
| LOOM | NO CLUE |
| LOOP | Computer code that gets iterated |
| COOP | Place for chickens |
| COMP | Freebie at a casino or theater |
| CAMP | NO CLUE |
| DAMP | Like a freshly wrung washcloth |
| DAMA | Caballero's counterpart |
| DATA | "Big" information to be processed, crunched, mined, or analyzed |
| EATA | Pita (rhyming Middle Eastern restaurant located in Grand Central Terminal) |
| ETTA | Bluesy chanteuse James |
| ETNA | NO CLUE |
| EDNA | First name of Springfield Elemetary teacher voiced by Marcia Wallace |
| WIMP | Weak or cowardly type | |
| WISP | S | Light tendril of smoke or cloud |
| WISH | H | It's made before throwing a coin or blowing a candle |
| WISE | E | Potato chip brand with part of an owl in its logo |
| WILE | L | Roadrunner's foil's first name |
| WILL | L | It proverbially signifies the existence of a way |
| WALL | A | Structure that surrounds a plant cell |
| CALL | C | Match a poker bet |
| BALK | Pitcher's pre-throw faux pas | |
| BARK | R | It can be worse than a bite |
| BORK | O | Rejected Supreme Court nominee whose name has become a verb for such political action |
| BORA | A | When repeated, an island near Tahiti |
| DORA | D | Cartoon explorer |
| DORM | M | Campus housing |
| DARM | A | German for "intestine" or "bowel" |
| PARM | P | Chicken (shorthand reference to an Italian dish, as often heard on The Sopranos) |
The answers to this puzzle are: STAR, LOOM, CAMP, ETNA, SHELLAC, ROADMAP