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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 a Vowelreuben™ Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

Vowelreuben™ Words™ Not Vowelreuben™ Words™
beanbag couch
doorknob torch
dungeon hall
felon crime
ghost spirit
horizon cliff
hiccup cough
honest loyal
nougat munch
partnership partner
typhoon twister
typist quill

CSV version:

Vowelreuben™ Words™, Not Vowelreuben™ Words™
beanbag, couch
doorknob, torch
dungeon, hall
felon, crime
ghost, spirit
horizon, cliff
hiccup, cough
honest, loyal
nougat, munch
partnership, partner
typhoon, twister
typist, quill

What is the special rule these words conform to?

Hint 1:

For this puzzle, only "A", "E", "I", "O", and "U" are considered "vowels."

Hint 2:

Vowelreubens™ are like Vowelburgers™ but with add-ons inside.

Most dictionaries can be used. You can rely on UKACD or SOWPODS.

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    $\begingroup$ Two ™s? You're very keen on keeping hold of that trademark ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 4, 2020 at 10:48
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    $\begingroup$ I wanted to say that rot13(gnxvat gur svefg naq ynfg yrggref, jvgu NAL bs gur vaare ibjryf orgjrra gurz, sbezf n jbeq). But then "spirit" and "partner" would also be Vowelreubens, so that can't be it. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 5, 2020 at 9:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Randal'Thor Great observation. You're very close but there is more to it than that. There is a reason why "spirit" and "partner" are not Vowelreuben words. $\endgroup$
    – DenverCoder1
    May 5, 2020 at 11:18

1 Answer 1

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My guess:

A Vowelreuben™ Word™ is a word that (its first letter) + vowel + (its last letter) is a valid English word for any vowel (i.e. a, e, i, o, u).

Examples:

beanbag is a Vowelreuben™ Word™, and bag, beg, big, bog, bug are all in UKACD.
couch is not a Vowelreuben™ Word™, as cah, ceh, cih, coh, cuh are not in UKACD.
partner is not a Vowelreuben™ Word™, as por is not in UKACD.

Note that

While hun is not in UKACD, it is in SOWPODS, making horizon a Vowelreuben™ Word™.
On the other hand, sut isn't in UKACD or SOWPODS, making spirit not a Vowelreuben™ Word™. (por mentioned above are not in SOWPODS as well.)

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    $\begingroup$ Great job, you are correct. What did you use to check words in UKACD? The website I used shows "hun" in both dictionaries. $\endgroup$
    – DenverCoder1
    May 5, 2020 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ I used this as UKACD, which appears as the second result when googling "UKACD". Maybe I've used an unofficial UKACD... $\endgroup$
    – naldjuno
    May 5, 2020 at 15:10
  • $\begingroup$ They could possibly be different editions. $\endgroup$
    – DenverCoder1
    May 5, 2020 at 15:10

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