I have a word. In the middle of my word are the letters 'ergro'. There are three letters at the start and the end of my word. The three letters at the start of my word are the same as the three letters at the end.
What is my word?
3 Answers
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I think its
Underground.
So far this is the only English word I could find that worked with this.
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1$\begingroup$ Overground.............................. Wombling free? $\endgroup$– JazcashCommented Aug 11, 2015 at 8:39
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Litscape claims there is another:
supergroups
It appears to be a music thing.
answered Aug 10, 2015 at 11:04
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1$\begingroup$ This works, but the letters are not in the same order. $\endgroup$– user9377Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:28
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17$\begingroup$ @Kslkgh: Well, technically, you only said the letters were the same, you didn't state they had to be in the same order. $\endgroup$– user15498Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:39
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$\begingroup$ @paxdiablo Yeah, sorry. $\endgroup$– user9377Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:40
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3$\begingroup$ I actually liked it more because the letters weren't in the same order. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 13:09
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3$\begingroup$ @Warlord099 I think "underground" should have more votes because it was first by several hours but not just because its letters are in the same order. I think that makes it a more interesting word but not a better fit to the puzzle. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 17:00
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Words of 11 letters with matching triplets start and end:
antioxidant
entitlement
microcosmic
redelivered
tessellates
underground <-- voila
And if the order of the triplet letters is malleable:
hypertrophy
stealthiest
researchers
restrainers
abracadabra
earthenware
encumbrance
sacroiliacs
sanitarians
shellfishes
inoculation
trendsetter
But annoyingly none that I can see which end in the opposite order to the start.
Of the above, we can see that some have 4 matching letters:
redelivered
abracadabra
sanitarians
And there is in fact a 9-letter which packs 2 4-letter repeats:
outshouts
The patterns for those who are grep -P ready:
^(...).{5}\1$ // 11 letters, common start and end triplet
^(....).+\1$ // 4-letter repeats
// unordered matching end triple
^(.)(.)(.).{5}(\1(\2\3|\3\2)|\2(\1\3|\3\1)|\3(\1\2|\2\1))$
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$\begingroup$ Im guessing you wrote some script for this? If so could you provide it in your answer? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 11, 2015 at 13:44
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1$\begingroup$ @Aʟᴀɢᴀʀᴏs: updated answer accordingly. No script per se, just patters to use with grep and a word list. $\endgroup$– Phil HCommented Aug 12, 2015 at 7:09