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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 special rule, I call it an Independent Word™.
Use the following examples below to find the rule.

Independent Words™ Not Independent Words™
COOLER HEATER
GALAXY UNIVERSE
ILLUSION PHANTOM
ALGEBRA GEOMETRY
OKINAWA HOKKAIDO
NEUTRAL BIASED
VACANT EMPTY
WINDOWS LINUX
SCALLOP MUSSEL
MOBILE PHONE

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

Independent Words™,Not Independent Words™
COOLER ,HEATER 
GALAXY ,UNIVERSE 
ILLUSION ,PHANTOM 
ALGEBRA ,GEOMETRY 
OKINAWA ,HOKKAIDO 
NEUTRAL ,BIASED 
VACANT ,EMPTY 
WINDOWS ,LINUX 
SCALLOP ,MUSSEL 
MOBILE ,PHONE
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1 Answer 1

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Independent words are ones of which their

first two letters are US state abbreviations.

They are

Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Virginia, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Missouri.

None of the Not Independent words show this, and the name may refer to the US as an independent country - or that these are individual states.

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    $\begingroup$ Also, Independent is itself an Independent Word™ $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Aug 22, 2019 at 11:21
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Independent is for the rot13(Havgrq Fgngrf Qrpynengvba bs Vaqrcraqrapr) :) $\endgroup$
    – Conifers
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 5:25
  • $\begingroup$ See also What is a Unionized Word™? $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 3:46

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