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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 Rotten Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

Examples of Rotten Words™

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

Rotten Words™,Not Rotten Words™
ANT,BEETLE
BARF,VOMIT
CLERK,TELLER
EBBS,FLOWS
ENVY,JEALOUSY
FLAP,FLUTTER
GNAT,FLY
GREEN,BLUE
NOWHERE,SOMEWHERE
NUN,PRIEST
PURELY,MIXED
REEF,OCEAN
ROOF,CEILING
VEX,TROUBLE
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  • $\begingroup$ does font/case matter? $\endgroup$
    – dfperry
    Nov 20, 2015 at 21:21
  • $\begingroup$ Should "somewere" be "somewhere"? $\endgroup$
    – question_asker
    Nov 20, 2015 at 21:24
  • $\begingroup$ @dperry Neither font nor case matters for this one. It's a lot more fun that my previous ones, in my opinion. $\endgroup$
    – Engineer Toast
    Nov 20, 2015 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ @question_asker Spellcheck didn't catch it because it was all capitals. Thanks. Fixed now. $\endgroup$
    – Engineer Toast
    Nov 20, 2015 at 21:31
  • $\begingroup$ 86% of rotten words are shorter than their non-rotten counterparts! $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Nov 20, 2015 at 22:58

1 Answer 1

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Rotten Words are words that...

can be ROT13'd to produce a new word. (A is replaced with N B with O, etc.)
These produce: NAG ONES PYREX ROOF RAIL SYNC TANG TERRA ABJURER AHA CHERYL ERRS EBBS IRK.

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    $\begingroup$ Wouldn't rot13("n" orpbzr "a" naq O" orpbzr " b")? $\endgroup$
    – Goose
    Sep 2, 2018 at 16:34

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