The term in the blank _____ : FICTION :: GRIND : BMDIY is

Concept

In a fixed-shift letter code, every letter is moved by the same number of alphabet positions. If a backward shift produces the code, the original word is recovered by applying the equal forward shift.

Alphabet positions are treated cyclically: moving before A continues from Z, and moving after Z continues from A.

Application

1. Assign A = 1, B = 2, ..., Z = 26 and compare each letter of GRIND with the corresponding letter of BMDIY.

2. G becomes B, R becomes M, I becomes D, N becomes I, and D becomes Y. Each change is a backward shift of 5 positions, with D wrapping around to Y.

3. The same rule must transform the missing word into FICTION. Reverse the rule by shifting every letter of FICTION forward by 5 positions.

4. F → K, I → N, C → H, T → Y, I → N, O → T, and N → S. Therefore the missing word is KNHYNTS.

Cross-check and contrast

Shifting KNHYNTS backward by 5 gives FICTION letter by letter, confirming the rule.

• LOIZOUT requires a backward shift of 6 positions to produce FICTION, so it follows a different fixed shift.

• IMGXMSR does not use one uniform shift to produce FICTION: its first letter differs by 3 positions and the remaining letters differ by 4.

• Exactly one listed code follows the 5-position rule; therefore neither the multiple-match response nor the no-match response describes the result.