What is a Contradictory Word™?

Question

_{^{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 Contradictory Word™.

Use the following examples to find the rule:

Contradictory Words™	Not Contradictory Words™
TOUCH	TEXT
LIMITED	LATE
BRUTAL	EXPLOSIVE
HEALTHY	GREEN
CUDDLY	SHARP
FINAL	FIRST
ODD	EVEN
TIGHT	BIND
UNION	COMPOSITE

Some words are neither Contradictory Words™ nor Not Contradictory Words™.

Should you need it, here's a CSV version for easier copy-pasting:

Contradictory Words™, Not Contradictory Words™           
TOUCH,TEXT
LIMITED,LATE
BRUTAL,EXPLOSIVE
HEALTHY,GREEN
CUDDLY,SHARP
FINAL,FIRST
ODD,EVEN
TIGHT,BIND
UNION,COMPOSITE

EDIT: added a few more examples, and fixed a mistake. (Note that PLOT is a Contradictory Word™, correctly pointed out by Yout Reid)

Plot is not a contradictory word™? – Yout Ried Sep 14 '23 at 20:46 — Yout Ried, Sep 14 '23 at 20:46
@YoutRied, you are right! – CatProgrammer Sep 15 '23 at 00:04 — CatProgrammer, Sep 15 '23 at 00:04

Yout Ried · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-15T01:52:51.133

A Contradictory Word™ is a word that is not a valid solution to the Word™ puzzle on this site of the same word.

Non-Contradictory Words™ all fit their secret rules:

Text Word Text is a word that appears in Baba Is You, according the accepted solution
Late Word The letters in the word Late alternate between vowels and consonants
Explosive Word The ASCII Codes in the odd numbered letters add up to 370, which is not odd, making this an explosive word
Green Word N has an opening at the top, making it a green word
Sharp Word Sharp without the P can be rearranged to rash
First Word First becomes 10111 by replacing consonants with 1s and vowels with 0s, making 23, which is prime
Even Word 5 (e) + 22 (v) + 5 (e) + 14 (n) = 46, which is even
Bind Word Bind is Bird with one letter misspelled
Composite Word C + M + I = 1101, which is a composite number

Contradictory Words™ are not valid Words™ for their secret rules:

Touch Word Lips don't touch each other or teeth when pronouncing "touch"
Limited Word 76 + 73 + 77 + 73 + 84 + 69 + 68 = 520, which is not 1 less than a power of 2
Brutal Word Brutal doesn't give any other words under a rot Cipher
Healthy Word The word healthy doesn't contain all the letters of a word for a colour of red as far as I can tell
Cuddly Word There are no letters that you can add to the start and the end of the word cuddly that would make another word
Final Word The word final doesn't appear in the KJV bible
Odd Word ODD has no ends. Lowercase odd has 2 ends, but that's still not an odd number of ends
Tight Word Tight has the letters t, g, and h, all of which are either ascenders or descenders, making tight not a tight word
Union Word Uni is not a valid Alpha-3 country code

Some words cannot be in either category because there isn't What is a Word™ puzzle with those words. Also, contradictory can't be either because that would create a paradox.

Nice... I will accept your answer when you also explain why some words cannot be either categories. — CatProgrammer, Sep 15 '23 at 01:46
@CatProgrammer I've added an explanation of why some words don't fit into either category — Yout Ried, Sep 15 '23 at 01:54
@Youtreid, good job solving it despite my initial mistake. Rot13(Vs lbh hfr n0m25 vafgrnq, gura cybg vf n Cybg Jbeq. ) — CatProgrammer, Sep 15 '23 at 04:19
Despite your spoilers, the "Linked Questions" section is now a pretty big spoiler ¯\(ツ)/¯ — Engineer Toast, Sep 15 '23 at 11:41
@EngineerToast, I believe those only appeared only after the solution was posted :) — CatProgrammer, Sep 15 '23 at 16:35

What is a Contradictory Word™?

1 Answers1