What do these words have in common?

[Xami]

OK that last hint did it.

quaint, quick, wire, pile, spot

I think I get it now, and maybe you do too;

Spoiler:

I'd say these are all IN Quintopia's list.

Actually I just guessed 5 IN set words then

More IN if I finally get it and in increasing magnitude
snow, pile , graphical, metablogging

Edit: forgot 'pile'

[Cosmologicon]

I really like quintopia's! Excellent! Hopefully it's not too gauche to give it away for anyone still completely in the dark.

Spoiler:

Number of ascenders = number of descenders

Man, these puzzles are so frustrating if you don't get it. Second only to the "secret encryption" threads where OP posts a secret message, someone else posts an encrypted response, and they merrily have a conversation with nobody ever feeling the need to post the answer.



Okay I got one.

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated

No trivia involved, and nothing to do with the meaning of the words. About 86% of English words - including about 99% of 13+ letter words - are OUT. Very short words are more likely to be IN. Capitalization doesn't matter.

[Poohblah]

cosmologicon:

tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius

[Cosmologicon]

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative, tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated

[OverBored]

tins, tinsel, tint, tints, stints,

[Cosmologicon]

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative, tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius, tint

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated, tins, tinsel, tints, stint

[rhino]

Cosmologicon: (not really a spoiler, just two lists of words)

Spoiler:

IN: escape, hot, tall, wintry, Jobs, qwantz
OUT: elope, cold, short, balmy, Gates, xkcd

Assuming this is right,
(a) I'm delighted because I normally fail hard at this kind of thing, and
(b) I'd be curious to know how you found the statistics you quoted.

[Cosmologicon]

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative, tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius, tint, escape, hot, tall, wintry, jobs, qwantz

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated, tins, tinsel, tints, stint, elope, cold, short, balmy, gates, xkcd

Yep, I think you've got it! As for getting the statistics, I just wrote a quick python script to test it on a wordlist I downloaded. 23527 out of 173528 words were IN.

Qaanol, could you give a hint or something for yours? Or, I guess: in for yet ash genus aviator seasick retroactively

[Poohblah]

Cosmologicon:
IN: six, gorilla, table, rocket

OUT: sticks, cantaloupe, melon, spaceship

(my first guess turned out to be simply luck)

[Cosmologicon]

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative, tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius, tint, escape, hot, tall, wintry, jobs, qwantz, six, gorilla, rocket

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated, tins, tinsel, tints, stint, elope, cold, short, balmy, gates, xkcd, table, sticks, cantaloupe, melon, spaceship

Not quite. If you want to be sure you're not getting lucky, try a long IN word or a short OUT word.

[Poohblah]

Whoops. I put "table" in the wrong list.

The rule is:

Spoiler:

Words that have two or more letters that appear consecutively in the English alphabet are "out"

[quintopia]

cosmo: I, have, absolutely, no, idea, what's, going, on, here

[Cosmologicon]

in, for, yet, ash, genus, aviator, seasick, retroactively, interplanetary, commemorative, tin, fort, jet, lash, sash, genius, tint, escape, hot, tall, wintry, jobs, qwantz, six, gorilla, rocket, i, have, here

out, foe, wax, elm, monocle, flier, homesick, retraction, protoplanetary, commemorated, tins, tinsel, tints, stint, elope, cold, short, balmy, gates, xkcd, table, sticks, cantaloupe, melon, spaceship, absolutely, no, idea, whats, going, on

Poohblah, you've got it. Anyone who knows the answer should feel free to fill in for me if I don't respond fast enough.

[dedalus]

Here's one... hopefully it's not too tricky:

aged, best, better focus, commend, argue

commence, focal, betters, arguably, help

If people want to do Qaanol's instead though, that's fine.

[Cosmologicon]

dedalus, I have no clue so: ate eat eta tea espirit persist sprites discounter introduces reductions

[dedalus]

aged, best, better focus, commend, argue, reductions

commence, focal, betters, arguably, help ate, eat, eta, tea, espirit, persist, sprites, introduces

[Goldstein]

dedalus: age, bet, set, mend

[dedalus]

aged, best, better focus, commend, argue, reductions, age

commence, focal, betters, arguably, help, ate, eat, eta, tea, espirit, persist, sprites, introduces, bet, set, mend