Using each letter only once, how many meaningful English words can be formed from the letters E, O, P and R?

Introduction / Context:
This question checks your vocabulary and ability to mentally permute letters to form real English words. Such problems are a mix of verbal skill and simple combinatorics, often appearing in banking and aptitude exams. You are required not just to count letter arrangements but to filter them for meaningful words. This encourages you to recall common words and recognise familiar patterns quickly under time pressure.

Given Data / Assumptions:
We are given four letters: E, O, P and R. Each letter must be used exactly once in forming a word. We must find all different meaningful English words that can be formed using these four letters. The options suggest that there might be zero, one, two, three or more than three such words. We assume standard everyday English vocabulary that a typical exam taker would know, not obscure abbreviations or technical codes.

Concept / Approach:
First mentally list or imagine all possible four letter permutations of the given letters. Then, from that set of permutations, identify which ones correspond to commonly accepted English words. Standard words should appear in dictionaries and in normal usage. We ignore rare acronyms or very technical terms that are unlikely to be expected in a general aptitude exam. The key is to systematically visualise typical word patterns like consonant vowel consonant vowel and related structures.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Start by trying to put a consonant at the beginning to see if any familiar word emerges. Using R first, one arrangement is R O P E which spells ROPE, a very common English noun. Using P first, one arrangement is P O R E which spells PORE, another common English word meaning a tiny opening. Other permutations like O P E R, E P O R, O R E P, and so on do not form standard everyday words. Some sequences may look like abbreviations or rare terms, but they are not expected answers in a general reasoning test. Thus the two clearly meaningful words are ROPE and PORE.

Verification / Alternative check:
To double check, you can systematically count all 4 factorial permutations of the letters, which gives 24 possible sequences. Then you quickly scan each arrangement to see whether it looks like a valid English word. In practice, only ROPE and PORE stand out as very common dictionary words. You might recognise REPO as a short form for repurchase agreement, but that is an abbreviation rather than a standard word expected here. Since no other arrangement clearly qualifies as a normal English word, it is safe to confirm that there are exactly two words. This matches what we already reasoned informally.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
None and One are wrong because we have explicitly identified at least two valid words, ROPE and PORE. Three and More than three are incorrect because, after checking all permutations, no additional everyday words appear beyond those two. The exam is not expecting arcane abbreviations or slang terms. Therefore any option suggesting fewer than two or more than two meaningful words does not match the actual possibilities. Only the count of two fits the logic of the problem.

Common Pitfalls:
One pitfall is to stop after spotting only ROPE and assume that there is only one word, without searching further. Another mistake is to count non standard combinations as words simply because they resemble abbreviations seen in news or finance. Some students also ignore vowel placement rules and waste time on patterns that seldom form real English words. To avoid these issues, always take a systematic approach: try different starting consonants, look for familiar word endings like E or ER, and cross check quickly. With practice your mind will automatically recognise valid words among scrambled letters.

Final Answer:
Exactly two meaningful English words, ROPE and PORE, can be formed using the letters E, O, P and R, so the correct count is Two.