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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:

Asymphonic Words™ Non-Asymphonic Words™
CACHE CRICKET
CIRCLE CROCODILE
CANCER COCK
GRUDGE GANG
GEOGRAPHY GEOLOGY
GRAPHOLOGY GEMOLOGY
GAUGE GAG
CROTCH CHARACTER

CSV version:

Asymphonic Words™, Non-Asymphonic Words™
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, 2017 at 20:18

1 Answer 1

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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, 2017 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, 2017 at 16:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Mike Q. You are correct. I overlooked the repeated vowels in CHARACTER, CROCODILE, and GRAPHOLOGY. $\endgroup$
    – user41265
    Oct 10, 2017 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, 2017 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, 2017 at 16:21

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