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In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.


If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Hopeful Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

Hopeful Words™ Not Hopeful Words™
AGAINST FOR
AGENTS SPY
BASE LOFTY
BATTLE ACCORD
CIVIL CHURLISH
DEATH LIFE
DESTROY REBUILD
EVIL GOOD
POWER RESPONSIBILITY
REBEL COMPLY
SINISTER HOPEFUL
STRIKING CARESSING
VICTORY DEFEAT
WAR PEACE
WEAPON PLOWSHARE

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

Hopeful Words™,Not Hopeful Words™
AGAINST,FOR
AGENTS,SPY
BASE,LOFTY
BATTLE,ACCORD
CIVIL,CHURLISH
DEATH,LIFE
DESTROY,REBUILD
EVIL,GOOD
POWER,RESPONSIBILITY
REBEL,COMPLY
SINISTER,HOPEFUL
STRIKING,CARESSING
VICTORY,DEFEAT
WAR,PEACE
WEAPON,PLOWSHARE

The puzzle satisfies the series' inbuilt assumption, that each word can be tested for whether it is a Hopeful Word™ without relying on the other words.
These are not the only examples of Hopeful Words™; many more exist.

What is the special rule these words conform to?

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Well, this puzzle is easy to get once you get to one word. $\endgroup$
    – A J
    Commented Jul 28, 2017 at 4:48

1 Answer 1

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These are...

Words that appear in Star Wars: A New Hope's opening crawl:

Episode IV, A NEW HOPE: It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...

And the non-Hopeful words are nowhere in sight. ;)

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