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In the Caesar cipher a word is encoded by rotating the letters in the alphabet a given number of times, $N<26$. A word is the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be uttered in isolation with objective or practical meaning.

Question. What is the longest word with a sence that is obtained after the rotation function rotN()?

For example, if the is the original word then rot19(the)=max is a new word with a sense. The word's length is 3.

4-letters word: rot23(frog)=cold.

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    $\begingroup$ What counts as a word, exactly? (And I assume N can't be a multiple of 26?) $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Sep 10, 2020 at 5:09
  • $\begingroup$ Word can be noun, verb... Yes, $N<26$. I updated the question. $\endgroup$
    – Nick
    Sep 10, 2020 at 5:33
  • $\begingroup$ I know the general meaning of "word" -- I mean, for this puzzle, what exactly counts as a word? If there's no clear way to determine what is and isn't a word, the question is opinion-based. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Sep 10, 2020 at 5:35
  • $\begingroup$ Answer is a word that can find a word meaning in the Britannica. $\endgroup$
    – Nick
    Sep 10, 2020 at 5:48

4 Answers 4

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Slightly obscure 8 letter answer

wiliwili and corocoro which are inverse under application of ROT6/ROT20

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7 letters:

'nowhere' and 'abjurer' are each other's ROT13 inverses

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  • $\begingroup$ Did you steal this from the Wikipedia article? I did... purpura ↔ Chechen is another 7 letter listed there either way. $\endgroup$
    – TCooper
    Sep 10, 2020 at 23:51
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    $\begingroup$ I figured this out a while ago when gathering information for creating a new puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – Glorfindel
    Sep 11, 2020 at 5:02
  • $\begingroup$ A better puzzler than I $\endgroup$
    – TCooper
    Sep 11, 2020 at 16:26
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Also seven letters, but not listed in the preexisting answers:

Since for our purposes a word is "the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be uttered in isolation with objective or practical meaning", I propose "myslayd" (put in a place that was thereafter forgotten), which under rot-6 is "Seyrgej" (a man's name).

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7 letters : Don't ask the meaning

23->SULPHUR::PRIMERO

22->LEVELER::HARAHAN

22->RISKIER::NEOGEAN

22->TETTERS::PAPPANO

20->MUU-MUU::GOO-GOO

20->POM-POM::JIG-JIG

19->BUMPILY::UNFIBER

18->JIG-JIG::BAY-BAY

16->GOO-GOO::WEE-WEE

16->WEE-WEE::MUU-MUU

14->BAY-BAY::POM-POM

13->ABJURER::NOWHERE

13->CHECHEN::PURPURA

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  • $\begingroup$ But I want to know the meaning $\endgroup$
    – Nick
    Sep 10, 2020 at 6:14
  • $\begingroup$ :) google google $\endgroup$
    – Aakash Mathur
    Sep 10, 2020 at 6:15

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