Kangaroo word¶
kangaroo_word · letter · validated
A word containing the letters of a synonym of itself, in order but not necessarily adjacent.
Provenance¶
- Source: Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics (1968 onwards)
- Attribution:
reference— attested in a standard reference rather than traced to an origin - Checkability:
self— decidable from the text and its parameters alone - Attested:
codified— formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author
Details¶
- Kind: restrictive
- Languages: en, fr
- Requires:
tokens,fold_diacritics,lexicon.words - Deterministic: yes
- Also known as: marsupial word
- In other languages: Mot kangourou (fr)
Prompt hint¶
Find words that carry a synonym of themselves inside their own letters, in order.
Parameters¶
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
fold_diacritics |
boolean | True |
Treat accented letters as their base letter, and ß as ss. |
synonym |
string | — |
The synonym the word is claimed to carry. |
Examples¶
encourage-urge¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
encourage
Parameters: synonym='urge'
Source: the form's most cited example
letters-out-of-order¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
encourage
Parameters: synonym='rug'
Source: constructed counterexample
fold-diacritics-on¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
cafés
Parameters: synonym='cafe', fold_diacritics=True
Source: constructed counterexample
fold-diacritics-off¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
cafés
Parameters: synonym='cafe', fold_diacritics=False
Source: constructed counterexample
souriant-riant¶
fr — this text satisfies the procedure.
souriant
Parameters: synonym='riant'
Source: constructed example; riant is a word the lexicon knows and its letters run in order inside souriant
lettres-presentes-mais-dans-le-desordre¶
fr — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
souriant
Parameters: synonym='train'
Source: constructed counterexample; every letter of train is present in souriant — so this fails on order alone, which is the constraint the case is here to exercise. Its predecessor claimed the same thing with triste, whose e is absent from souriant altogether, and so passed on letter absence rather than on ordering.
accented-synonym-under-default-folding¶
fr — this text satisfies the procedure.
écologie
Parameters: synonym='école'
Source: constructed example; écologie scatters école's letters in order and is itself a real, distinct word. is_word is not fold-aware — French keeps its accents on purpose — so a folded "ecole" never matched the table's "école" under default fold_diacritics (ADR 0036).