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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 certain rule, I call it a Asymphonic Word™. Use the following examples to find the rule:

$$ % nonstandard template, do not reuse % \def\Pad{\P{0.0}} \def\Title{\textbf{Asymphonic }} \def\S#1#2{\Space{#1}{20px}{#2px}}\def\P#1{\V{#1em}}\ \def\V#1{\S{#1}{9}} \def\T{\Title\textbf{Words }^™\Pad}\def\NT{\Pad\textbf{Non-}\T\ }\displaystyle \smash{\lower{29px}\bbox[yellow]{\phantom{\rlap{rubio.2017.02.04}\S{6px}{0} \begin{array}{cc}\Pad~\T&\NT\\\end{array}}}}\atop\def\V#1{\S{#1}{5}} \begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline\Pad~\T&\NT\\\hline % \text{CACHE}&\text{CRICKET}\\ \hline \text{CIRCLE}&\text{CROCODILE}\\ \hline \text{CANCER}&\text{COCK}\\ \hline \text{GRUDGE}&\text{GANG}\\ \hline \text{GEOGRAPHY}&\text{GEOLOGY}\\ \hline \text{GRAPHOLOGY}&\text{GEMOLOGY}\\ \hline \text{GAUGE}&\text{GAG}\\ \hline \text{CROTCH}&\text{CHARACTER}\\ \hline \end{array}$$

CSV version:

CACHE, CRICKET
CIRCLE, CROCODILE
CANCER, COCK
GRUDGE, GANG
GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY
GRAPHOLOGY, GEMOLOGY
GAUGE, GAG
CROTCH, CHARACTER

Not only these but many such words exist.

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    $\begingroup$ I just wanted to say that "Non-Asymphonic" is a double negative and should be replaced with "Symphonic". $\endgroup$ – BooleanCheese Oct 10 '17 at 20:18
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In a Non-asymphonic word, when

a letter appears more than once, it it pronounced the same way each time. C is a hard C, as in CROCODILE, if it appears that way at least once. GAG=hard g, hard g.

In an asymphonic word,

a letter that appears twice (or more?) has different pronunciations. CANCER= hard c, soft c. GAUGE=hard g, soft g.

Why you would call it non-asymphonic instead of symphonic is one of those deep mysteries.

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  • $\begingroup$ It is probably worth noting the O's in a few of the Non- words and A's in the last one. Either it is required for all pairs, or just consonants. $\endgroup$ – Apep Oct 10 '17 at 15:56
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    $\begingroup$ The rule seems to apply to repeated consonants only, rather than all repeated letters. $\endgroup$ – MikeQ Oct 10 '17 at 16:05
  • $\begingroup$ @Mike Q. You are correct. I overlooked the repeated vowels in CHARACTER, CROCODILE, and GRAPHOLOGY. $\endgroup$ – user41265 Oct 10 '17 at 16:13
  • $\begingroup$ GANG probably needs more attention, since NG isn't same as G. (try to make them same, it sounds hilarious either way). +1 anyway. $\endgroup$ – Bass Oct 10 '17 at 16:17
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    $\begingroup$ @Bass Even if they don't sound quite the same, they're both a hard G sound, as opposed to being soft G sounds (Neither Jang or Ganj sound like Gang) $\endgroup$ – DqwertyC Oct 10 '17 at 16:21

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