What is a Confused 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 Confused Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

CONFUSED WORD™	NOT CONFUSED WORD™
READER	WRITER
FRIEND	ENEMY
SHELF	FLOOR
WEATHER	FORECAST
LAME	GRACEFUL
LICENSED	BANNED
TEACHING	LEARNING
CHEATERS	HONESTY

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

CONFUSED WORD™, NOT CONFUSED WORD™
READER,WRITER
FRIEND,ENEMY
SHELF,FLOOR
WEATHER,FORECAST
LAME,GRACEFUL
LICENSED,BANNED
TEACHING,LEARNING
CHEATERS,HONESTY

Does this answer your question? What is a Re-Tileable Word™? — samm82, Jan 17 '21 at 16:02

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 23 '16 at 03:56

9

The obvious guess is:

a Confused Word is a word which is an anagram of another word.

Confused Words:

READER ~ DEARER
FRIEND ~ FINDER
SHELF ~ FLESH
WEATHER ~ WHEREAT
LAME ~ MEAL
LICENSED ~ DECLINES
TEACHING ~ CHEATING
CHEATERS ~ TEACHERS

Whereas the words in the second column

don't appear to be anagrams of other words.

edited Sep 23 '16 at 03:56

GentlePurpleRain

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answered Sep 22 '16 at 20:16

Rand al'Thor

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1

Not to be too pedantic here, but how about Enemy -> Yemen? – Matsmath Sep 22 '16 at 20:18
1

@Matsmath I'm assuming proper nouns don't count - I believe they're not allowable in Scrabble, for example. – Rand al'Thor Sep 22 '16 at 20:19
Well that was quick. Thought it might be a bit too easy :) I'll accept the answer once I'm able. – yitzih Sep 22 '16 at 20:22
I'm guessing it also doesn't take dated forms (rewrit) – charfellow Sep 22 '16 at 20:42
How are these different from Re-Tileable words then, expect maybe the looser stance on what exactly is a valid word? – M Oehm Sep 24 '16 at 07:09
@MOehm Good question. Maybe we should VTC the question as a duplicate. – Rand al'Thor Sep 24 '16 at 11:31

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 22 '16 at 20:16

8

It looks like a Confused Word™ is one that:

Can be an anagram of another word

In the list:

REREAD, FINDER, FLESH, WREATHE, MALE, SILENCED, CHEATING, TEACHERS

answered Sep 22 '16 at 20:16

KeyboardWielder

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What is a Confused Word™?

2 Answers2