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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 Trimpar Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

TRIMPAR Words™ Not TRIMPAR Words™
PHANTOM ADJUSTS
LIKABLE OFFHAND
LEGIBLE AUDITOR
UTILIZE ECHELON
QUELLED ALLUDES
TACITLY UNBLIND
LIMITED TEXTUAL
UNWEAVE REVIVED
REQUIRE OUTLAYS
ANSWERS IMPOSES
PROVIDE CONVEYS
ELUSORY PARTAKE

The CSV version:

TRIMPAR Words™,Not TRIMPAR Words™
PHANTOM,ADJUSTS
LIKABLE,OFFHAND
LEGIBLE,AUDITOR
UTILIZE,ECHELON
QUELLED,ALLUDES
TACITLY,UNBLIND
LIMITED,TEXTUAL
UNWEAVE,REVIVED
REQUIRE,OUTLAYS
ANSWERS,IMPOSES
PROVIDE,CONVEYS
ELUSORY,PARTAKE

These are not the only examples of Trimpar Words™, many more exist.

What is the special rule these words conform to?


HINT:

"Trimpar" is relevant :)

HINT 2:

you may just agree
just see it in three
if you can't see the truth
just take it in two

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    $\begingroup$ ahh I see you decided to take a crack at this style of question too eh? How about another hint since it's been over a month? $\endgroup$
    – Sensoray
    Mar 19, 2019 at 13:01
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Does the fact that they are all seven-letter words mean anything? $\endgroup$
    – gnovice
    Apr 8, 2019 at 16:01
  • $\begingroup$ It's been some time, so I will add another hint. Hint added, have fun! $\endgroup$
    – Riddler
    Feb 8, 2020 at 0:30

1 Answer 1

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A Trimpar Word is a word where:

The third letter is represented by an odd number in A1Z26 (i.e. it is a letter with an odd-numbered position in the English alphabet).

Note that:

The 24 Trimpar Words and exceptions appear to have been carefully chosen by the OP so that every letter between A and X appears exactly once in the third-letter position of the example words, and in each case those that are odd-numbered in A1Z26 appear in the Trimpar Word list, while those that are even-numbered appear in the exceptions...

Trimpar Words:
PHANTOM (A=1)
TACITLY (C=3)
QUELLED (E=5)
LEGIBLE (G=7)
UTILISE (I=9)
LIKABLE (K=11)
LIMITED (M=13)
PROVIDE (O=15)
REQUIRE (Q=17)
ANSWERS (S=19)
ELUSORY (U=21)
UNWEAVE (W=23)

Not Trimpar Words:
UNBLIND (B=2)
AUDITOR (D=4)
OFFHAND (F=6)
ECHELON (H=8)
ADJUSTS (J=10)
ALLUDES (L=12)
CONVEYS (N=14)
IMPOSES (P=16)
PARTAKE (R=18)
OUTLAYS (T=20)
REVIVED (V=22)
TEXTUAL (X=24)

This makes perfect sense of Hint 2:

you may just agree
just see it in three

'see it in three' = look at the third letter...

if you can't see the truth
just take it in two

'take it in two'= divide it by two.

This also fits with the choice of name for these words...

'Trimpar' is a blending of 2 words - 'TRI' and 'IMPAR':

- TRI is the common prefix meaning 'three' (e.g. tricycle, trisect, triceratops...);
- IMPAR is a word in many Romance languages (e.g. Spanish) which means odd (thanks to @GabrielG for pointing this out in comments).

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    $\begingroup$ In Romance languages, 'par' (or a variation) means 'even', and 'impar' means 'odd'; therefore, 'trimpar' is a portmanteau of 'tri' and 'impar'. $\endgroup$
    – Gabriel G
    May 13, 2020 at 23:26
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    $\begingroup$ @GabrielG Oh, well done there! This was knowledge I didn't have. Thanks for pushing me over the finish line :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 14, 2020 at 4:47
  • $\begingroup$ Good job! Someone finally got it! :D $\endgroup$
    – Riddler
    May 20, 2020 at 16:49
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    $\begingroup$ p.s. "impar" is also English - old middle English: "ORIGIN OF IMPAR 1375–1425 for earlier noun sense “odd number,” 1525–35 for current sense; late Middle English < Latin impār unequal. In today's English, it means "azygous" or "unpaired" which is still derivative of "odd number". Azygous means "not being one of a pair; single", as in, an even number is a pair of two of the same number, whereas an odd number is not one of a pair of the same numbers, as it is single in itself. $\endgroup$
    – Riddler
    May 20, 2020 at 17:13
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    $\begingroup$ @Riddler Ah, that's news to me! I was so focussed on expecting the title to cleave cleanly in two I didn't spot the overlap and wouldn't have spotted this extra definition... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 20, 2020 at 17:55

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