Word Ways topical index: Letter-play
Ross Eckler, 2002
The following index attempts to classify various kinds of letterplay that have appeared in Word Ways. Be warned that any classification is idiosyncratic; it may be necessary to search a bit to find the topic in which one is interested. However, some clue where to look may be afforded by the list of major index headings:
Properties of words (lengths, letter-statistics, etc.)
Properties of letters (symmetries, ascenders-descenders, vowels-consonants, etc.)
Letter patterns in words (palindromes, etc.)
Distributions of letters in words (pair isograms like HAPPENCHANCE,
pyramid words like SLEEVELESS, SETTEE)
Letter fragments in words (bigrams, most identical letters in word, etc.)
Words inside words (charades, alternades, interlocks)
Restricted letter choices (lipograms, typewriter words, word dice)
Word geometry (word graphs, eodermdromes, word worms)
Alphabetically ordered letters in words; pangrams
Word scoring (gematria) A=1, B=2, ... Z=26
Insertions, deletions, substitutions (word ladders, word networks)
Transposals, transdeletions, substitute-letter transposals
Structured word groups (word squares, partially overlapping words, etc.)
List compression
Number names
Special word sets (presidents, states, chemical elements, etc.)Most relevant material has been included, but brief follow-ups of an article in Colloquy in the next issue or two of Word Ways are in general omitted. References are of the form xx-yyy, consisting of the last two digits of the year followed by the page. This index covers issues of Word Ways through February of 2002.
PROPERTIES OF WORDSLexicostatistics: letter frequencies 75-81 97-93 in crosswords 79-13
in long words 73-6 Poe's frequency list 87-45
words with rare letters JQXZ 72-162 79-91 82-84 86-4,42
High-frequency words 88-155 LOVE vs MONEY 79-50
How many words in English? 01-151
Theoretical maximum number of words without 3 consecutive consonants or vowels 00-106,191
Long words: 72-82,145,205 73-148 74-89 85-23 in OED 97-273 98-42,153
99-224 hyphenated 72-85 85-23 sampler (26-52 letters) 79-38
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis 71-116 72-22,82
82-234, 83-93,107 85-95 86-205 89-205 protein words 68-33 71-56
80-117 Ripley divination word 78-167 86-30PROPERTIES OF LETTERS
Symmetries: 77-174 85-44 horizontal symmetry CHECKBOOK 76-211 78-177,236
79-216 vertical symmetry IVY MOUTH WAX 76-211 79-109 95-234
pi curiosity 81-45 rotate 180 degrees OXO, ZOONOOZ 66-41 97-297
modifying letters to create symmetry 71-92 Kim's inversions 81-109
88-220 up-dn 81-46
Periodic table of alphabet 68-134
Ascenders and descenders 73-188 79-216 99-180 99-278 02-61
Letters as sets of lines and curves 01-143
Straight letters vs. curved letters 99-141,256
Letter-thickness 87-173
Vowels and consonants:
Vowel-rich words 69-136 70-214 73-154 77-223 78-125 86-22 87-214
94-41 97-148, 01-293 02-28
Consonant-rich words 69-133 72-26 75-146,154 76-243 80-172,207 83-106
84-168 87-75 97-304
Alternating vowels and consonants 90-161 95-67
Long words with vowel-consonant balance 02-63
Vowel-consonant patterns 68-138 70-213 71-227 seven-letter type collection 77-221 79-217
ten-letter type collection 00-236,271 Dutch examples 01-278
Words characterized by consonants TRuNCaTe,TuRNCoaT 78-42
84-76,80 86-113,217 type collection BiB,BaD,...ZeuS,aZoTe 87-222
Words characterized by vowels 87-156
Vowel rotation pAt,pEt,pIt,pOt,pUt 68-156 75-190 89-172 94-57 97-107 98-65 02-53
AEIOU words sEqUOIA,fAcEtIOUs,hOUsEmAId type collection 69-208 74-20 77-84
79-92 93-195 97-271 99-170 in Dutch 99-260 AEIOU in order 98-37,115 99-262
AEIOU in reverse order 01-313
double AEIOU words AUtOmObIlE InsUrAncE 70-147 72-17 80-88 81-90 85-154
99-262 00-23,251 01-60,112,296 02-28 triple AEIOU words 00-297
AEIOUY words 68-206 93-197 94-23 97-146,149 type collection 00-170,271
Longest univocalics 00-224 01-27
Monoconsonantal words BaoBaB,CoCCaCeae 79-55 86-216 biconsonantal 79-165
longest 00-224 01-27
Vowel patterns in two dimensions 76-253 and Golden Ratio 94-148
Dual words (interchange vowels and consonants) ELUCIDATED-DELICATUDE 01-158,196LETTER PATTERNS IN WORDS
Dictionary of patterns 71-227 75-243 Levine's dictionary 72-3
5-letter patterns type collection 71-113 79-217 selected ones 79-106
6-letter patterns type collection 71-227 72-5 79-217
8-letter-with-two-pairs patterns type collection 76-206 79-217
noncrashing isomorphic pairs CONCEPTUALISM-EXCEPTIONABLY 73-146
74-176,238 isomorphic pairs having other wordplay properties 01-90,309
Palindromes MALAYALAM:
Proposed nomenclature 95-217
How to construct 70-5 74-67 72-55,220 74-67 77-232 81-163 91-68,200 95-31 96-117
by machine 01-250 02-03,39 with AND 01-181
Tin-can palindrome generator 95-190
Type collection of two-word palindromes A-A; AS-A,O-GO; ADD-A,NO-ON,
L-EEL; AGOG-A,NOT-ON,TO-POT,A-PUPA;... 79-131
Palindromic years 96-105 97-300
Bigram-unit palindromes AN/Y M/OR/E T/OR/Y M/AN 97-222
Coined long palindromes 70-5,70 82-213 Dutch examples 79-202
Relation between palindromes and charade sentences 77-79
how to construct charade sentences 77-208
Q---Q palindromes 84-23 AAA,ABA,...AZA 82-208 all central letters,
A to Z 71-133 72-6 all central letters doubled 82-50 ABBA,ACCA,..
AZZA 92-162 vowelindromes MAM,MEM,MIM,MOM,MUM 93-164 94-57
3+ central letters repeated (palindddromes) 95-52 96-106,265
long palindromes A-Z 00-67,104
examples: 68-146 72-204 73-82,205 82-106 93-156 brand names 81-220
language names 81-169 Hawaii places 94-110 in OED supplement
77-107 78-210 83-106 87-75 Guinness records 78-173 81-186 new ones 00-153
Tautonyms BERIBERI:
survey 86-27
10-letter lists 73-81 82-241
3-way or 4-way tautonyms 68-142 73-147 92-23
in biology 83-103 96-146,253 97-27 avian tautonyms 97-151
examples: in OED supplement 77-107 83-106 87-75
Switch words IN-TERPRET-IN-G 68-11 69-59 72-6,205
Agamemnon words AGA-MEM-NON 80-104 87-176
Double double words AALL 01-141DISTRIBUTIONS OF LETTERS IN WORDS
Type collection (INTONATION, OPPRESSORS have letter distribution 12223)
74-205
Words characterized by their different letters:
letter banks 72-49,110 residual heterograms (remove duplicate letters) 01-36
Isograms DERMATOGLYPHICS:
Call them heterograms or haplograms 95-149 00-104
Long examples 74-33 85-67,140,243 A to Z 00-300, 01-59,112 subdermatoglyphic 91-18
uncopyrightable(s) 72-22 76-54 94-151
Bisograms GUNPOWDERY BLACKSMITH 77-42 98-209,272,290 99-92,200
3-by-3 heterogram word square (Games contest) 99-43 00-25
Crossword heterogram 00-130
Jotto problem DZONG CRWTH JUMPS FLAKY VIBEX 68-21 69-58 72-81
74-88 94-23 96-220 98-32
Generalized Jotto BLOWZY FRUMPS JADING KVETCH 77-44 91-24
96-161 97-28,107
Pair and trio isograms INTESTINES, DEEDED pair 68-201 71-136,142
72-7,25,205 83-156 93-156 95-149 99-302 01-266 02-27
trio 72-26,143 73-213 74-88,150 90-28
Geometrical words PREPOSTEROUSNESS: U/PP + N/OO + T/RR/EEE/SSSS
97-182,193,280 pyramid words (special case: W/EE/DDD) 70-109 72-26
80-213 82-125
Most different letters in word 74-11 77-43 in phrase 72-22 in n words
72-107,181 77-43 88-27LETTER FRAGMENTS IN WORDS
Isolated letters anywhere in a word:
4-multiples of same letter mAhArAjAh,BuBByBush... type collection
69-53 70-181 72-8,23 73-147 74-41,213 79-91 81-90 82-18,84 94-40
97-86
5+ multiples of same letter 70-252 72-8,26,73 79-91 83-24 87-110
best Webster examples 95-35 best 97-86
3 specified letters AcAciA,ArAB,CAnAl,..ZiZZ type collection of rare-
letter cases 72-162 79-91 82-84
4 specified letters 83-67 first Websterian hole is AFJJ 88-177
all orders of 3 or 4 different letters in a word ALFalfa,AlFaLfa,
aLfAlFa,ALFAlfa,alFALfa,alFaLfA 84-252
Bigrams, trigrams, tetragrams:
bigrams type collection 69-215 75-88,153 76-16 82-215 91-26 93-154
94-24 special cases XX 68-198 72-14 73-15 98-74 99-263 UU 88-178 96-15
hyphen-straddling bigrams 81-199 85-90 repeated bigrams type collection
ALkALoidAL 00-243
trigrams type-collection (part) 69-166,245 70-253 single-word trigrams
80-179 85-118 3 identical letters GODDESSSHIP 69-203 72-7 73-14
81-151,154 97-148 XXX example 69-62 01-294
tetragrams double bigrams rEMEMber 88-252 89-162 24 words with
all permutations of tetragram paRTIAl,cuRTAIn,pARTIcle... 84-125,176
permutations of alphabet-adjacent tetragrams liMNOPhile,comMONPlace
74-61 4 identical letters 81-157 4 out of 5 letters identical 98-113
longer grams long digrammatic strings grABBABle,ACACAtehnin... 82-72
suBBOOKKEEper 68-152 92-185
internal palindromes kNITTINg 72-23 00-270 01-265 type collection 74-24 86-213
87-99 square-free words (no internal palindromes) 83-252 palindromic straddles
blood DOnor 01-22
internal tautonyms eSCHSCHoltzia 72-23 78-221 94-171 type collection
80-39 double bigrams rEMEMber 88-252 89-162
Extended fragments:
alternating monotonies mAhArAjAh 68-31 71-77 72-23 79-91 87-110
90-27
cadences NoNINsTITuTIon,EffErvEscEncE 83-253
multiple doubled letters poSSeSSionleSS 75-176 multiple bigrams
70-176
two pairs of like letters dunmBBeLL type collection 73-17 77-246
83-156 87-213
Anchored fragments:
symmetrical letter patterns pRepARAtoRy,SciSSorS 02-12
initial-final type collection AreA,AdverB,ArC..ZizZ 71-195 72-40 longest ones A--A to
Z--Z 91-90 X—X 74-93 94-43
initial bigrams type collection AArdvark,ABack 75-89 77-107 79-39
final bigrams type collection bAA,jAB,sAC... 70-152 75-165 77-107 79-39 82-157
doubled endings EErineSS 68-17 79-241
tautonymic prefixes REREmember 78-147 83-107 85-155 86-29 87-75
89-241
heads 'n' tails words (Miami words) BEDauBED 68-249 69-186 70-48,107 92-242 93-54,
83 type collection, all central letters REDaRED,ERbER... 71-132,170
72-6 73-24
permuted ends IGNorING,CLAssiCAL 02-48
positional letters
one-letter type collection Above,pArty,shArk,cheAt,deltA...waltZ 78-107
two-letter type collection, A second position Badge,cABle,dAuBs,
sAhib...ZAyin,dAZed,mAiZe,wAltZ 78-226 doubled letters type
collection AAron,AgAin,AbeaM,AbomA...ijmAA..friZZ 79-56
J,Q,X,Z all positions type collection 90-146,229WORDS INSIDE WORDS
Survey of types, nomenclature 78-74,150
Words in words longest solid mechANOTHERapy 74-6 81-176 93-237 longest
disconnected 98-238 chANGELess,vauDEVILle 80-184 solid examples: dogs 75-49
Greek letters 71-169 animals 90-117
kangaroo words caLumnIES-LIES 68-245 73-254 74-60 76-111 78-23,150,171 96-77 98-57
generalized 95-176
remove embedded letter patterns CRIbbED, TOwawaY, TEamsmaN 98-128
Charades CHART-REUSE, WEE-KNIGHTS general discussion 75-41 88-41
full word and its components in single sentence 98-61
A-Z central letters bugAboo,catBoat… 78-124,191,232 79-52 80-28
rhopalic charade T-EM-PER-AMEN-TALLY 76-103.243 77-46,112 78-19,113,178
charade of two-letter words 75-104 reverse charade 97-117 one-syllable words 71-105
Greek-letter charade words 76-171 90-113,175
ana-gram-mar charade chains 90-248 roller coaster words 92-231
charade cubes puzzle 01-106 charade grid 96-25 charade network 94-215
Word Deletions reBELLed 79-229 91-121 longest deletable 75-112 alternate deletions of same
word 74-177,238 75-185 76-172 79-217 Russian dolls 01-217
Alternades TRIENNIALLY: TINILY, RENAL 73-123 76-104,175 00-163,306 half-alternades
(lends) 93-238 alphanades GILMNOPRSY: GLORY, IMPS 00-135
Interlocks LApWiNgS 93-219RESTRICTED LETTER CHOICES
Lipograms: theory 78-33, 98-49 Gadsby 77-131
Typewriter words 83-249 99-157,270 00-22,71,72 telephone-dial or keypad words 96-120
97-304 99-67,85 00-135,225 abstemious, prime, Fibonacci 99-8 00-135 five different
kinds of prime words 01-132,189
Roman numeral letters 99-59 chesswords 98-147 vitamin words 01-63,113
words on hand calculators 74-142 words based on calculator-number templates 01-16
piano words 74-116 78-38 solfege words 74-78 odd letters of alphabet 92-56,82
long words with no E 01-59
Half-alphabet splits H-M N-Z HAMAMELIDACEAE, NONSUPPORTS 72-26,227
Ambidextrous words AMBIDExtrous 01-295 02-57
Rearrange alphabet and split in half, form words from each half 79-235
Word Dice:
Roll dice, form a word--design dice to form as few words as
possible, or as many as possible 70-29 73-108 78-158
Arrange dice in row, take one letter from each--design dice to form
a word every time 78-158WORD GEOMETRY
Word graphs (place E,S,T on surface, spell out SETTEE by lines joining
E,S,T) 95-3,15 96-97,170 word molecules 94-113,172,238 eodermdromes
(at least one line must cross another) 80-131,141
Letters placed on triangular or hexagonal pavements, or in cannonball stacks 95-13,142
King's move and queen's move graphs 81-251 96-56,82,202 incompatible
king's move words PEARLY,PLAYER 94-74
Word worms (plotting words in 3 dimensions, with each letter a vector
in a unique direction, defined by the 26 outside faces of a 3x3x3 cube) 93-131
knotted word worms 01-3,189
n-letter words points in n-dimensional space (the alphabet cube) 90-96ALPHABETICALLY ORDERED LETTERS IN WORDS; PANGRAMS
Alphome (letters of a word arranged in order) 95-136 would different
alphabet order change history? 76-176,243
Alphabetical patterns (WQCQYCYW pattern for WRETCHED) 93-9 letters
crashing with alphabet ABiDE 71-96 72-133 82-180
rhopalic set a,oB,saC... 71-96
words having no alphabet crashes 69-15 79-91
many crashes on a shifted alphabet elOPeRS 72-140 79-92
All letter-rank orders in words CAN,YOU,DIG,FOR,THE,NUB 78-246
alphomic words FIRST (letters in alphabetic order) 71-114
73-41,172,238 80-187
words characterized by increasing-order subsequences (fEMiNiNity=
fillty,EMMN) 79-236
zigzag (to and fro) words TOWARD alternate up, down alphabet 80-79 89-175,239 01-224
frame words (list of words with column of first letters alphabetically
increasing, second column decreasing, third increasing...) 97-224
Scrambled alphabets:
maximizing number of words with letters in alphabetic order 74-73
every trigram is in a word QURsh,bURGH,thorougGHFare,patHFInder..
73-153 77-189 no trigram in a word 77-191 every sequence of 6
letters in scrambled alphabet can be placed in a word 82-93
maximizing length of alphabetic sequence IUAOEY.. Is,Up,AgO,bEY,...
88-145
Shiftwords OHM to PIN, COLD to FROG 79-243 82-48 88-119 90-59,109
93-154
shiftgrams (shiftword+transposal) 69-25, 79-218 80-22 96-35
collinear word sets GYHP-HUM-KID-LEA 84-233 91-114,178 92-143
equispaced collinear word sets WON-BED-GUT 87-241 91-115,178
halfway words 92-13
internal letter-shift F(9)O(9)X, F(1)E(1)D 93-180
antishift words (no common shift) INTERPRET to STATESMAN 90-110
nth letter shifted n spaces EMU FOX 79-50
Alphabetic adjacency 82-77
adjacent letters in order undeRSTUdy 87-176 99-101
adjacent, not in order STRUV 93-34,115,175
not adjacent, in order ABsConD 71-207
not adjacent, not in order FEeDBACk 69-57 71-10,71,144 72-22 74-10,
187 78-35,108 79-169,218 87-160,176
classification by alphabetic adjacency BLACK(3,2)=abc+kl 98-178
if no 1's=vicinals 83-175
if all 1's=non-vicinals TAPERINGLY 83-220 84-28 99-75
words starting ABC or XYZ 88-22 96-45 96-267
Alphabets filling the plane: spirals 69-67 00-03 Greek rug designs 80-182 Knight's tours
99-163 00-25
Alphabetic letter sequences nAB,CoDe,...feZ 79-174,218 84-209
Pangrams FJORD QUIZ VEX BALK GYP NTH CWMS survey 77-41 87-90
3330 examples 83-234 crossword 70-53 double pangram (13 four-letter
words) 71-239 72-52 78-245 beyond pangrams (6 five-letter words) 72-53
pangram word ladder 80-179 90-125 film festival 00-20,192,258 initialisms 00-293
Beth Book 00-294WORD SCORING (GEMATRIA) A=1,B=2...Z=26
Numerically-equivalent words ROT (18,15,20) = CO/O/T, FL/AN/KED; ROT (33,20) =
COBAL/T, FRI/ABLE; ROT (53) = PUP 01-287
Arbitrariness of scoring 88-83 type-collection of scores A,AA,BA,BAA..
94-235 95-91,151 96-156 gematric odd couples 97-261
Word weights and densities 72-226 74-117 79-216 95-253 98-202 alphabetic ruler 00-119
Word arithmetic 96-228
sumwords ABAFT+OCCUR=PEDAL 97-48; CAN to DO 77-47
absolute difference words VASE 22,1,19,5 to URN 21,18,14 70-231
71-139 75-163 79-216 97-37
cyclic difference words TAPES 20,27,42,57,71 to GOON 7,15,15,14
97-125
Word balance
numerical tautonyms BOT=40,TLE=40 70-10,244 71-185 97-204,290 98-11
numerical palindromes AL=13,KA=12,LI=12,ZE=31 96-242 97-66
CAM 3,1,13 89-51,177
average density words (13.5) 94-206 99-204 Ouroboros worms 93-131
complementary words EV/OL/VE, GLIB TORY 01-286, 02-70
centrally balanced beam words AXLE 1x3+24x1=27=12x1+5x3 69-37 98-11
other balance points 98-18
Casting out nines (product scoring of words) WORN 23x15x18x14 = 86940,
sum digits to 27, sum digits to 9 79-98
Symmetries of word scores (the vowel triangle) 01-292
Generalizations: word-score ratio (FIB = 31/17 = (2x2 + 3x3x3)/(6+9+2) used to approximate
pi 01-30,189 clockwords (score = minutes between hour and minute hands, as BED = 11
(12:12)) 01-65LETTER INSERTIONS, DELETIONS, SUBSTITUTIONS
Beheadments longest 73-198 79-154 81-219 82-155 83-96 84-85 in Pocket
Dictionary 80-159
successive LI-BE-RA-TING 79-154 81-243 98-62,142
single-letter prefixing 98-296
type collection, each letter of alphabet 73-199
Curtailments 69-57 76-63
Successive beheadments and curtailments 74-168 98-62
Deletions all one letter OminOus 91-188 successive deletions 73-210
79-154 90-136 Pocket Dictionary 82-17 type collection, position of
deletion in word90-190 terminal deletions 02-62
Insertions type collection, every alphabetic start letter areA,breAd...
aBle,biBle...zeZe 97-100
Word girder (letter substitution)TAPER,MOVES to TOPER,MAVIS 76-150
Letter-substitution ladders SIT-SAT-SAD-BAD-BED survey 98-89
specific ladders 68-26,239 74-63 79-45 80-122 89-223 90-23,91
91-45,74,174 92-212 93-48 97-133
10-letter 00-212, 9-letter 00-209, 8-letter 00-284, 7-letter 01-41, 6-letter 01-48
5-letter 01-120, 4-letter 01-125, summary 01-131
minimum-length ladder, all letters change TEA-TEN-TAN-PAN 73-160
76-212 79-154 88-103 95-197
stepwords (alternating letter-changes and transposals) 90-25
stepladders (change constant number of steps in alphabet)
LIME-MIME-MINE-NINE 89-180,239 91-115 Chinese stepladders 92-16
sliding ladders HerE, EveR, VasE,.. 99-135
letter-fragmentation ladders PAIR-PAIP-PALP… 00-136
strictly increasing alphomic word ladders ABBE-ABCE-ABEE…00-223 01-113,141
modular ladders CAT-rat-rot-ROB-lob-lot-LIT... 96-67 sequential snakes and ladders
CAR-BAR-BUR-BUT-CUT-CAT-CAR 00-96
word girder ladders HOME(hams,cone)CANS(cent,bans)BET... 90-50,109
all letters of alphabet used in ladder 80-179 90-125
alphabetic triliterals TAA,TAB,...TAX 72-120
type collection of word pairs differing in one letter Aid-Bid, peAk- peCk,... 69-70 78-109,110
UV 68-151
charitable words SEAT:EAT,SAT,SET,SEA hospitable words
RAP:TRAP,REAP,RAMP,RAPE 71-171 72-53,109 75-109
stingy words, hostile words 72-54 75-109
alphabetically progressive invariants: ORES to ARES,OBES,ORCS,ORED 01-212,307
Word networks 73-67,156 85-217 89-28,76,141 90-154 91-81 four seasons
network 98-187,272
garble groups BAD,BID,BAT,BIT,MAD,MID,MAT,MIT 68-165 70-144
73-72,74,158 79-217 92-102
most neighbors in a network 79-153 97-256
isolanos (words isolated in a network) 69-62 70-108 71-171 72-54
78-110 79-153 80-28 97-253
Insertion-Deletion Ladders EAR-HEAR-HEART-HEAT-EAT-EAST
network 87-168 90-131 91-19,45
Strings WAS-ASH-SHE-HEN-END 68-154 70-49 71-72 79-36,119
directed network 91-76,154,159,228 93-40 94-119
variable-overlap chains 92-177,231 93-125,153TRANSPOSALS, TRANSDELETIONS, SUBSTITUTE-LETTER TRANSPOSALS
Nomenclature: transpositions vs anagrams 02-64 general nomenclature 79-159
Properties of transposal dictionary 71-28 how transposable is a word? 78-198
Type collection of transposals: 4-letter 71-54,169 5-letter 70-24 6-letter 70-27 77-201
Transposition rings -EAT-ATE-TEA-, -DOLI-IDOL-LIDO-OLID- 71-161
82-147
Long well-mixed transposals 76-20,85 78-89 79-150 97-225
Long transposals 81-93 86-207,216 97-312
15+ letters 89-3,100 16 letters 81-60,88 88-26 18 letters 81-24 97-225
24 letters 83-217 near-misses 88-112
Multiple-transposal sets: AER AELS AELST 71-6 AER AEST AELST AERST
87-195 AEST 79-153 AEPRS 79-172 EILSV 81-106 AEGINRST 76-131,
216 77-21 79-214 81-153 88-149 89-217 92-215 93-217 94-3,87,89 97-98
98-33 AEILMORT AEILMORST 86-44 ACEINORST 81-137,149 83-93
86-214 87-83 89-131 AEILNORST 89-209 AEIMNORST 90-207
AEINRST 98-163 99-40,262 00-08 ADEINRST 99-264
Best Letters to create multiple transposals 99-118,125,128 99-
Special types of transposals
reversals DESSERTS STRESSED 78-21 80-121 97-299 long ones 81-94,
151 coinages 85-46 embedded reversals 97-115 circular embedded
reversals SORRY to ROSY 94-167 name it drow? 96-55 semordnilap 99-209 00-25
other synonyms 00-28
shiftwords EMANATE-MANATEE 74-176,238 75-47,112 79-153 98-110
double shift 75-173,233 78-216
swap terminal letters PART-TARP 97-62,302 99-253
shuffling COOLNESS-CONSOLES 71-161 99-309
metathesis SLAVE-SALVE 91-38,252 97-302
homonymic BEAR-BARE 90-237
Transdeletions RETAIL,ALTER,TALE
Transdeletion index (smallest number of letters to add to a word before
it can be transposed to another) 71-109
Word roots and branches 79-141
Transdeletion pyramids ALTER,RATE,TEA,AT,A 71-73 79-144,146 82-17
88-75 89-102 German example 86-113 15-letter examples 01-101 17-letter 01-233
Baltimore transdeletion STARE:RATS,SEAR,REST,EAST,TEAR 89-58 (see
also partial-overlap groups, which don't require the start word)
Alphabetic transadditions Area,Bare,raCe...raZe 69-64 71-115 72-105
80-102 82-23,110 84-37 97-172,318 01-206,265
Most transdeletable words SAP,PATE,SPATE,REPAST,PIASTER 81-103
WIRETAPS 84-72 NEUSTRIA 82-20
is a PICTURE worth 1000 words? 80-236
half-transdeletions PIRATE;ARE-PIT,RIP-EAT,RAP-TIE,TAP-IRE...
73-107 74-57,225 75-50,109,148,246 79-154 88-53 94-234
Specific examples PALINDROME(S) 89-151,221 94-40 97-91
OLYMPIC transadditions 76-153 84-100,142 92-166 AEINST+1 00-147,190
butterfly transadditions 00-188
Long transdeletions 89-102
Substitute-letter transposals tHursdy-sAturday, saTurn-uraNus
84-135 89-102 Games contest 85-220 rare-letter switch seXual-
sQueal 71-248 paratranspositions (adjacent alphabetic letter)
genitalS-tRiangle 78-29,238 networks 93-159STRUCTURED WORD GROUPS
Squares:
top down vs. bottom-up construction? 92-163 93-14,118,152,154 95-204
96-72,215 97-41,187
call for 10-squares help 93-227
removing trivial variations of squares 93-231
support of a square (number of words needed to have a 50-50 chance
of finding one) 92-67,157 93-5,82,83,183,213,245
relationship of squares to certain acrostics 74-166 75-20
small squares 75-67 83-231
commonest 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 squares 92-70 93-97 96-80 commonest
double squares 97-154
Examples of large squares:
6x6 squares 71-173 76-80 90-152
7x7 squares 75-195 88-15 90-152
8x8 squares 86-234 88-15,80 89-109 92-10,147 95-143 98-286
9x9 squares 80-195 81-121 89-109 91-199 97-13 modern ones 01-271
10x10 squares tautonymic 73-4,151.248 Ropes 81-13 88-91 90-40
Grant 85-195 90-195 93-152 95-205 02-08 Clarke 94-157 95-204 98-47
Rubin partials 77-54 88-158 89-36,211
large square spoofs 74-37 87-67 92-84
Special kinds of squares:
nested 83-110 94-28
6x6 square with diagonal 82-233 tic-tac-toe game squares 99-205
palindromic squares 69-115,227 76-199 93-30,32,48 see also: history
of SATOR square 79-195 80-11,17,97
reversible squares 81-210,213
squares using many different letters 70-173 72-105 74-227 77-173
78-36 using few different letters 79-154,216 using few vowels
or consonants (univocalic) 69-226 77-174 79-216
progressive squares (word strings) 68-154 69-224 87-47 94-28
letter-shift pair HER/EMU/RUT, ROB/OWE/BED 76-104
centrallly balanced squares 69-225
each word with same gematric sum 93-114 other gematria 92-52,173
square synthesized from common beginnings, endings 93-190
3x3 double square of anagrams TEA/ATE/EAT 93-236
3x3 nine different letters (tic-tac-toe) 99-205,262
10-square using first names and surnames 02-10
Generalizations of squares:
word squares using bigrams 95-78
word rectangles 01-234
transposal squares 69-58 79-240 02-68
Will's pennies (transpose letters from a particular row and a particular column) 93-90
Latin square anagramming AIO/HNS/TWM: MAN,SIT,HOW,NOT,HIM,WAS 99-195
Latin word squares (isogram squares in which letter ranks form a
Latin square) 72-48,172 73-50 90-226
inversion squares HOLD/ORAL/LARD/DLOH 90-143 00-57
compound squares At,To,bE/So,wE,iT/Me,An,bY = ATE,SET,MAY + toe, own,bib 81-74
word cubes, etc. 4x4x4 3x3x3x3 71-47 2x2x2x2x2 71-202 3x3x3x3 71-208
6x6x6 76-3 78-156 7x7x7 4x4x4x4 reversible 79-16 5x5x5 93-95,232
Word Packing in squares or rectangles 94-67,147 99-175,178 garble
groups (see Word Ladders) 68-165 70-144 73-72,74,158 79-217 92-102
Symmetric word groups:
partial-overlap groups ADO,BAR,BED,BOY,DRY,ORE,YEA 68-212 77-85
7 6-letter words 72-67 72-81 each pair of words has one letter
in common 72-67,81 13 4-letter words 72-78 21 5-letter words
75-250 set of words, any letter-pair in at most one word 86-146
card trick mnemonic BIBLE,ATLAS,GOOSE,THIGH 68-216 69-185
72-8 77-91 94-97 Ted Clarke variant 94-221
word progression ORAL,REAL,CARE,RICE,NICE,COIN,LION,LOAN
(ring of substitute-letter transposals) 68-215 month names 85-167
mutual single-crash groups HATED,HORNY,FITLY,FAUNS,WIRED,WOULD
78-230 99-3
mutual non-crashing groups YES,RYE,PRY,ASP,SPA,EAR 68-216
etaoinshrdlu 94-138
different letter-sets in different positions 72-107,174 73-72,74,159,
160 80-108 82-95,151 86-91,151 88-86
words formed from letters on vertices or faces of geometric forms 80-9 97-89
words formed from letters on tiles 80-124 83-32
rearranged tilings of pentominos, trominos 69-112,155 70-94 71-75
compound words KNITS-SLICK cross generates SLINK,SLITS,KNICK,
STICK 89-236 90-54LIST COMPRESSION
Unique abbreviations for words in a list 00-218
Interleaf words in a list to minimize total number of letters: ONETWOTHREE = THRWONEE
01-157,228,231,265,266 compression of large alphabetized word list 94-219
Compression of text 82-119,153,210 vowelless, consonantless text 89-176
use first two letters of word only 90-111 I wou2 like 2 sug4… compression 95-172
rebus text examples 74-59 76-75 91-111,151 98-56 00-234
Word shrinkage Fort = effort, FiG = effigy 01-220
Polyphonic ciphers: encoding several letters with a single symbol
theory 81-116 86-215 87-83 readable ciphers 72-214 75-55 78-117
telephone cipher (ABC=2. DEF=3,…WXY=9) 70-170 75-227 78-215 95-221 97-304NUMBER-NAME WORDS
Self-referential number names:
Number of letters: ONE=3, TWO=3, THREE=5... 68-207 70-47 71-180
convergence to four 72-80 in other languages 75-37
alphamagic squares 5,22,18/28,15,2/12,8,25 = 45 to 4,9,8/11,7,3/6,5,10 = 21 87-56 91-70
square or triangular number names 95-212 square root names 97-55
variant: if number name even, add its number of letters; if number name odd, subtract its
number of letters 00-208
Score of number name: ONE=34, TWO=58.. 81-167 85-217 95-210
convergence to -240-216-228-288-255- ring 95-187,209
rearrange alphabet, maximize self-referential numbers 89-238 90-20
scores of selected letters add to number name fivE,NinEteen 00-298 01-16
Scrabble score of number name: AEILNORSTU=1, DG=2, BCMP=3, FHVWY=4,
K=5, JX=8, ZQ=10
convergence 02-61 Scrabble equivalent sums 02-61 Scrabble-tile scoring: 91-174,236 92-83
Telephone dial scoring: ABC=2, DEF=3,..98-147
Maximize self-referential numbers, any scoring system 90-12,93 92-59 93-204
Gematric equations a=o+n+e, b=t+w+o... 91-222
Einschwein's swindle to make 13 self-referential 91-165
Self-referential sums ONE+SEVEN=8 letters 94-236 95-172 96-111,267 97-34
Self-descriptive sentences 71-240 72-171 84-242 85-219 89-46 92-3,74,
159 reflexicons 92-131 crossword 87-73
Base 10: pi codes 99-250 00-36
Base 27: ACE in base 27: 27x27x1 + 27x3 + 5 = 762 93-67,207 94-59
doubly-true alphametics 98-230
Base 26: pi messsages 99-243 00-190
Packing the integers: in rectangles 90-235 99-176,178 00-24 other figures (triangles) 97-55
crossword grids 93-25,54 95-116 98-309 01-183 02-27
queen's move graphing, king's move graphing 94-74 95-4 96-160,172,234
cannonball packing 95-142
Number-names embedded in words: numbers embedded in text 68-109
83-244 86-169 georgE LEVENbach 81-45 in words 83-178 87-88
in numbers fOrty-NinE 94-243 in order in words THREoninE,
threONinE, threoNINE 98-147,223
Roman numerals: convergence 90-178 palindromic dates 92-44
romantic numbers (contain Roman numeral) 92-51 romanomagic
square 92-51 type-collection of chronograms (eXpLetIVe=44) 91-182
Alphabetization of number names (starting with EIGHT) does alphabetic
list crash with natural list? 81-18,167
Number-name transpositions: ONE+TWELVE=TWO+ELEVEN 70-169 81-167
transpositions of number names 75-216 transadditions of number
names 77-22,37,82 87-35,82 00-299 01-26,255 02-28 many number-names in word
(EXTENSION contains ONE,SIX,TEN) 69-13 87-82 01-255
Which letters lead in cumulative cardinal list? O at end of ONE,TWO;
E at end of ONE,TWO,THREE,... 81-215 00-52 first-appearance bigrams 01-61
Picture worth 1000 words: 72-47 79-233 89-214 90-26
All numbers are interesting: 98-243 99-25,290 cardinals vs ordinals 99-287 5-9 relationships
99-292 00-62,105
Number-name records (longest, largest number of different letters,
largest number of linguistic units, etc.) 74-56 81-166,215 83-117
Synonyms of zero 98-314 00-135SPECIAL WORD SETS
Presidents:
palindromes containing surnames 96-263
transadditions and transdeletions of surnames 98-185,272
in crossword 76-77 93-81,182,210 94-63 in word-search 94-123,147
252 king's move 94-121 96-161
frequency of in Social Security records 76-187
transpositions of presidential names 77-3,84 78-20 81-153 82-83,155
Reagan 84-101 "Daniel" Quayle 89-90,182 Wilson 84-112 Clinton
96-83 Spiro Agnew 90-189 91-29
"Ronald Wilson Reagan" lipogram interview 82-131
president/vice president forms 72-182 76-242
anguish languish list of presidents SHIMMY GARTER 92-171
presidential logology quiz 93-37
Other Names:
isogrammatic name MELVIN SCHWARTZKOPF 91-144,215 92-178 93-153
96-233 97-140
transpose given name to surname GARY GRAY 81-110 86-109 90-28
95-250 96-15,37 97-28 98-199,270 99-263
name forms a palindrome MARY BYRAM 70-176 73-250 81-110 85-153 96-167
six or more consecutive consonants in surname 94-241 95-149
synonymic names SYLVIA WOODS 96-201
rhyming names 97-55,213
name with unique initials FRANCIS XAVIER O'BRIEN 68-240 70-19,109
last surnames in alphabetical list 74-60,180 75-88 80-140 93-214
surnames homonymic with alphabet EFF,AITCH 86-156 92-24
Vowel mates ArlO gUthrIE,mAry Of GuIsE 69-174
long surname 70-108
kangaroo name UMA thUrMAn 01-139
color surnames 72-199 yellow 81-110
one-word anagrams of names SAL MINEO = SEMOLINA 00-91
first names: transposal pairs ALICE-CELIA 71-67 75-34 77-102 78-39
unisex names 85-49 internally capitalized 72-204 two or more
make a word PatIna,PatRon 92-176,249 01-213,266 starting with X 77-218
Fred the Furrier ad 95-208 transaddition pyramids DI-IDA-DINA... 92-109,240, 93-112
popular male names (1870-1950) 99-304
middle names dIVANs, drunKENness 01-237,282
sliding word ladders of names BraD RosA OtiS…99-286
curtail names, change sex Norma-n, Fran-k 00-39
State names:
all states are interesting 80-76,152,211,228
state nicknames75-147 82-182
flora containing statenames 80-247
renaming states so that A-L,M,N,O-Z have equal group sizes 78-234
transposals of state names 70-222 92-38 97-148
transadditions of state names 98-66,115
letter-patterns of state names 77-248
palindromes containing state names 96-264 99-38
abbreviating statenames without ambiguity 95-96,150,211
forms incorporating state names 71-232 76-157
directed networks of state names maINe-iNDiana-north dAKota… 89-48 99-258
embedding states and capitals in sentences 70-54,84,149
state names transposed to personal names NEW JERSEY=J R SWEENEY 70-39
state two-letter postal codes: crossword 76-6 patterns on pavements
82-52 words out of postal codes CaCoGaLaCtIa,MALARIA 76-91
86-183 4x4 overlap square of postal codes NMNV/MSCA/NCOK/VAKY 89-179
8x8 square of postal codes 90-53 longest overlapping chain
COHINMNCTNY 76-241 AlbaNY 86-233 Jack AL 81-174 alternades MnIaNvDe 90-52
parallel state squares CA AL NE/AL DE OK/NE OK ME: CAN,ALE,ADO,LEK,NOM,EKE
92-243 postal abbreviation "logic" 00-56 01-302
State capitals transposed to words 01-259 02-29 transadded, transdeleted to words 02-33
Other place names:
chain of cities named for states Wyoming RI,Rhode Island TX, Texas
VT... 70-220 99-153
junior cities Kansas City KS; illegitimate cities Nevada City CA
96-264 97-52,129 town names match county and state 71-163 75-87 75-153
commonest town names 01-97
town clusters with N,E,S,W 87-177 90-180
town names on state lines 84-86
where is a person from? 83-151 86-96,185 87-230 88-85 97-200
Connecticut 88-73 Michigan 81-24
towns with no letters in common with their states 81-246
long isogram towns 85-67 96-211 98-70
towns named for chemical elements 70-132 97-112 for presidents
70-132 79-218 for Greek letters 70-209 astronomical 70-133
reversed placenames 98-282
GLENELG 95-140 other palindromes 70-132 73-176,209 74-16 79-217
tautonymic names 70-132 73-176 73-209 74-16
first and last placenames AAAT'S BAY, ZZYZX SPRINGS 70-181 74-17
88-84 96-22 place names starting with Z 88-60
long placenames 00-230
Street names: in Washington DC 97-23 Hooey Street 84-240 86-151
97-28 type-collection of street names 68-230 70-81,91 86-213
multiword street names in Britain 98-145 palindromic 97-29
Chemical Elements:
chemical words FeY=IRONY 71-51,116,169
words out of chemical symbols CoAgULaTe 74-198 76-42 79-217
in a crossword 86-240 SErICoN 95-94,149,210 96-82,160
new element nomenclature 87-19 97-148 98-77
transposals and transadditions of elements 77-27 78-12.138 79-92
95-122 01-112
elemental extractions CHoIr = CHI,or 95-176
old names of chemical elements 71-2
symbols in order, forming words HHeLiBe… eli, lib,.. 02-42
symbols in order, transposed to words HHeLiBe… heh,elhi,hile,bile,… 02-42
molecular transposals AgF = FAG 01-214 double square of symbols 01-216