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The following words share a special property or properties that make them very special. This list is complete. No other English words have what it takes to make this list:

FUZIL
YUTZ
UNZIP
UNFIXT
PIXY
INFLUX
FUTZ
WIZ
UNFIX
PYX
PUTZ
FIZ

What makes these words so special?

HINT:

One of our members couldn't make it because no eligible partnerships could be formed.

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    $\begingroup$ Didn't think 80% of these were words at first $\endgroup$
    – boboquack
    Jan 18, 2017 at 7:54
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    $\begingroup$ Does this have anything to do with scrabble? they have very close scores. $\endgroup$
    – Marius
    Jan 18, 2017 at 7:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Marius you're on the right track. $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Jan 18, 2017 at 7:56
  • $\begingroup$ You should call these ZYZZYVA words, due to the number of late letters in the alphabet. $\endgroup$
    – boboquack
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:04
  • $\begingroup$ @boboquack Did you know there's a community in CA named Zzyzx? Too bad it's not eligible for this list... :) $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:06

2 Answers 2

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They're

the only English words made up of the standard pentomino names with a Scrabble score of at least 15 and no repeating letters. enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ If "Z" is a pentomino, then so is "S". $\endgroup$
    – MikeQ
    Jan 19, 2017 at 4:56
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    $\begingroup$ @MikeQ: How so? These are the standard names. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Jan 19, 2017 at 4:57
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi you have found the last piece of the puzzle! It's the only part that Marius hadn't yet discovered! :) +1 $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Jan 19, 2017 at 4:58
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    $\begingroup$ @wildBillMunson - oh, is this correct? $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Jan 19, 2017 at 5:00
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    $\begingroup$ @Deusovi I stand corrected - I didn't realize chiral pairs were counted as one type instead of two. Nice job! $\endgroup$
    – MikeQ
    Jan 19, 2017 at 5:05
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Not sure If I'm right here

The scrabble scores for the words are
FUZIL = 17
YUTZ = 16
UNZIP = 16
UNFIXT = 16
PIXY = 16
INFLUX = 16
FUTZ = 16
WIZ = 15
UNFIX = 15
PYX = 15
PUTZ = 15
FIZ = 15

Other things that might be useful or not

The only vowels are U and I (not sure if Y is considered a vowel).
The consonants used are: F, L, N, P, T, W, (Y), X, Z (again not sure if I should put Y here).
None of the words have repeating letters (as M Oehm says )

Conclusion.

These are the only English words using the letters f,i,l,n,p,t,u,w,x,y,z without repeating them that have a score of at least 15 in scrabble.
not sure yet why these letters are special.

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  • $\begingroup$ You're on the right track! +1 :D $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:17
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    $\begingroup$ And none of the words have repeated letters. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:18
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm. But why these letters? You can achieve better scores from these letters with repetitions, eg FUZZY or UNWILFULLY. And you can get better scores with other letters, but without repetitions, eg QUARTZ or QUICK or WHIZ. And all of them are nicer words. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:37
  • $\begingroup$ @MOehm I'm thinking about it now. I'm trying to transform them to numbers and other approaches to see what makes them special $\endgroup$
    – Marius
    Jan 18, 2017 at 8:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Marius n.b. I've just added a hint. :) $\endgroup$
    – wildBillMunson
    Jan 19, 2017 at 3:23

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