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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

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

Can you tell me how to get a word that conforms to the rule?

Examples of Tellygraph Words

And, if you want to analyze, here is a CSV version:

Tellygraph Words™,Not Tellygraph Words™
ANVIL,FORGE
ANXIETY,STRESS
FILTHY,DIRTY
HAMLET,HOVEL
INFLAME,IGNITE
INHALE,BREATHE
KNIFE,BLADE
NATIVE,LOCAL
NEAT,CLEAN
TWINKLE,SHINE
VITAL,CRITICAL
VIXEN,HARLOT
WEALTHY,WELL-OFF
WHINE,FUSS
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1 Answer 1

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A Tellygraph Word™ is, in essence,

a word containing no letters that are drawn using a curved line (BCDGJOPQRSU).

It's called a Tellygraph Word™ because

if you look at the top edge or the bottom edge of the word, the letters can be interpreted as Morse Code.

For example,

The word ANVIL The top edge of the word is $\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot - \centerdot$. The bottom edge is $\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot\centerdot - -$ (The first five dots on the top are from the top of the A, the tops of the two arms of the N, and the tops of the two arms of the V.)

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  • $\begingroup$ Wow, this answer is totally better than what I intended. The fact that it works is an accidental artifact of what I actually designed it to be. I searched for a puzzle that already covered this one and I couldn't find it but I strongly feel like one exists. If it does, would that make this question an accidental duplicate? You have answered first, validly, and better than OP. I'll leave it open a bit to see if someone else sees what I see or if the logical leap I built in was too large. $\endgroup$
    – Engineer Toast
    Oct 23, 2015 at 18:43
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    $\begingroup$ I wonder if there are words whose top/bottom edge encodes the word itself in morse code. $\endgroup$
    – xnor
    Oct 23, 2015 at 20:18
  • $\begingroup$ @xnor I think there can't be many of them. Also, there might be some variations in encoding. If you make an majuscule I as a straight line, then it's a dot, but if you make it with wide crossbars, it would be a dash. That issue aside, I think that the big problem would be that most letters' actual Morse Code is longer than their Tellygraph Morse Code, you'd end up with too much Morse Code. That said, T is -, U is ..-, so TUT is - ..-, which I guess would count. $\endgroup$
    – Joshua Taylor
    Oct 23, 2015 at 21:28

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