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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 Confused Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

CONFUSED WORD™ NOT CONFUSED WORD™
READER WRITER
FRIEND ENEMY
SHELF FLOOR
WEATHER FORECAST
LAME GRACEFUL
LICENSED BANNED
TEACHING LEARNING
CHEATERS HONESTY

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

CONFUSED WORD™, NOT CONFUSED WORD™
READER,WRITER
FRIEND,ENEMY
SHELF,FLOOR
WEATHER,FORECAST
LAME,GRACEFUL
LICENSED,BANNED
TEACHING,LEARNING
CHEATERS,HONESTY
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2 Answers 2

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The obvious guess is:

a Confused Word is a word which is an anagram of another word.

Confused Words:

READER ~ DEARER
FRIEND ~ FINDER
SHELF ~ FLESH
WEATHER ~ WHEREAT
LAME ~ MEAL
LICENSED ~ DECLINES
TEACHING ~ CHEATING
CHEATERS ~ TEACHERS

Whereas the words in the second column

don't appear to be anagrams of other words.

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    $\begingroup$ Not to be too pedantic here, but how about Enemy -> Yemen? $\endgroup$
    – Matsmath
    Sep 22, 2016 at 20:18
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    $\begingroup$ @Matsmath I'm assuming proper nouns don't count - I believe they're not allowable in Scrabble, for example. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Sep 22, 2016 at 20:19
  • $\begingroup$ Well that was quick. Thought it might be a bit too easy :) I'll accept the answer once I'm able. $\endgroup$
    – yitzih
    Sep 22, 2016 at 20:22
  • $\begingroup$ I'm guessing it also doesn't take dated forms (rewrit) $\endgroup$
    – charfellow
    Sep 22, 2016 at 20:42
  • $\begingroup$ How are these different from Re-Tileable words then, expect maybe the looser stance on what exactly is a valid word? $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Sep 24, 2016 at 7:09
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It looks like a Confused Word™ is one that:

Can be an anagram of another word

In the list:

REREAD, FINDER, FLESH, WREATHE, MALE, SILENCED, CHEATING, TEACHERS

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