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

$$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE important; do not remove.) % increase Pad value only if your entries are longer than the title bar. % \def\Pad{\P{0.0}} \def\Title{\textbf{ Unlucky }} % \def\S#1#2{\Space{#1}{20px}{#2px}}\def\P#1{\V{#1em}}\def\V#1{\S{#1}{9}} \def\T{\Title\textbf{Words}^{\;\!™}\Pad}\def\NT{\Pad\textbf{Not}\T\ }\displaystyle \smash{\lower{29px}\bbox[green]{\phantom{\rlap{rubio.2019.05.15}\S{6px}{0} \begin{array}{cc}\Pad\T&\NT\\\end{array}}}}\atop\def\V#1{\S{#1}{5}} \begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline\Pad\T&\NT\\\hline % \text{ GREEN }&\text{ JADE }\\ \hline \text{ RAIL }&\text{ TRAIN }\\ \hline \text{ FUR }&\text{ WOOL }\\ \hline \text{ VEX }&\text{ ANNOY }\\ \hline \text{ ONYX }&\text{ BLACK }\\ \hline \text{ FLAP }&\text{ WAVE }\\ \hline \text{ SYNC }&\text{ DATA }\\ \hline \text{ ONE }&\text{ UNIT }\\ \hline \text{ BALK }&\text{ RESIST }\\ \hline \text{ ART }&\text{ NICE }\\ \hline \text{ ENVY }&\text{ SPITE }\\ \hline \text{ ROOF }&\text{ FLOOR }\\ \hline \text{ NOWHERE* }&\text{ SILENCE }\\ \hline \end{array}$$                                         * This is an Unluckiest Word™

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

Unlucky Words™,Not Unlucky Words™
GREEN,JADE
RAIL,TRAIN
FUR,WOOL
VEX,ANNOY
ONYX,BLACK
FLAP,WAVE
SYNC,DATA
ONE,UNIT
BALK,RESIST
ART,NICE
ENVY,SPITE
ROOF,FLOOR
NOWHERE,SILENCE

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

What is the special rule these words conform to?
Why are they called Unlucky and Unluckiest Words™?

Good luck!

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1 Answer 1

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Unlucky Words™ are ones which

When rot13 translated, produce another word.

The below shows the words

with the rot13 cipher applied:

TERRA, WNQR
ENVY,GENVA
SHE,JBBY
IRK,NAABL
BALK,OYNPX
SYNC,JNIR
FLAP,QNGN
BAR,HAVG
ONYX,ERFVFG
NEG,AVPR
RAIL,FCVGR
EBBS,SYBBE
ABJURER,FVYRAPR

They are called this as 13 is often considered unlucky, and the longest word of this type is abjurer.

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  • $\begingroup$ Correct, well done! I'll accept this in a bit :) $\endgroup$
    – user47134
    Sep 9, 2019 at 14:39
  • $\begingroup$ @Supersonic Not sure if this was intentional or not but when you map each of the unlucky words to numbers using A1Z26 and then sum them, the total is 666 $\endgroup$
    – Karm
    Sep 9, 2019 at 14:52
  • $\begingroup$ @Karm It wasn't intentional... :( $\endgroup$
    – user47134
    Sep 9, 2019 at 15:24
  • $\begingroup$ Just added in one line I noticed you missed (pertinent to a recent puzzle this question got linked to). Also only just noticed that the original puzzle has 13 rows to solve in its table, which is a nice extra clue that hasn't been mentioned so far... :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Jul 27, 2020 at 12:18