Bad? Bad can mean "good" in certain cultures, but it certainly doesn't mean both "separate" and "adhere" like cleave and clip do. The mystery three-letter word also means both "separate" and "adhere." Marilyn vos Savant, who writes the "Ask Marilyn" column in the Parade Magazine Sunday newspaper supplement, once had a feature about Janus words—that's where I came across "clip." As to the three-letter word, it was in a crossword puzzle where it was clued in its opposite meaning. Answer next week.