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This puzzle is inspired by the What is a Word™ and What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and their spin-off What is a Number™ series.

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Pendulum word™.

Here is a list of examples:

Pendulum words™ Non-Pendulum words™
ankle wrist
arena stadium
big huge
caring ignoring
dark light
doctor dentist
duck bird
French German
hoax joke
multiply divide
never always
noise sound
random orderly
safe secure
time clock

In CSV format:

Pendulum Words™,Non-Pendulum Words™
ankle,wrist
arena,stadium
big,huge
caring,ignoring
dark,light
doctor,dentist
duck,bird
French,German
hoax,joke
multiply,divide
never,always
noise,sound
random,orderly
safe,secure
time,clock

What is the rule to tell whether a word is a Pendulum word™ or not? Why is it called a Pendulum word™?

Fun fact:

“Pendulum” is a Pendulum word™. (noticed by user Sunny).

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    $\begingroup$ I guessed the right answer from just reading the title :) I'll let someone else post though $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @xnor That’s very kind of you! $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
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    $\begingroup$ Related: What is a Bumpy Word™? $\endgroup$ Commented yesterday
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Another fun fact: "Non-Pendulum" is also a Pendulum Word™. $\endgroup$ Commented 7 hours ago

1 Answer 1

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It appears to me

Pendulum words have letters "oscillating" forward and backward in the alphabet.

In other words

for a word like "ankle", a < n > k < l > e where < and > refer to the letter's place in the alphabet. for "wrist", w > r > i < s < t, this does not oscillate.

And

Pendulum refers to the oscillation of a pendulum.

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    $\begingroup$ Notably, "pendulum" is pendulum. $\endgroup$ Commented 19 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$ @Sunny I have updated my post to include your observation that "pendulum" is pendulum. $\endgroup$ Commented 7 hours ago

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