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In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Farm Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

Farm Words™ Not Farm Words™
ANIMAL LIVESTOCK
ANIME ANIMATION
BISON OXEN
BUDGE SHIFT
CHICKS DUCKLINGS
FEND EKE
FOILS PARRIES
HAYLIFT AIRLIFT
HICKS REDNECKS
INWARDLY EXTERNALLY
JIG BARNDANCE
LIFTER RAISER
LOIN BRISKET
MEN WOMEN
MIST RAIN
MOVE RELOCATE
NONSTICK NONSKID
OILING GREASING
PATENT PENDING
PICKER HARVESTER
PINES EVERGREENS
RIOT TURMOIL
RIPEST JUICIEST
ROIST CAROUSE
SHIRT JEANS
SILOS ELEVATORS
SPOIL DECAY
SPRING SUMMER
TICKS FLEAS
TOIL EFFORT
UNCOIL UNWIND
UNLIVABLY UNBEARABLY
WHIM NOTION
WRING TWIST

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

Farm Words™,Not Farm Words™
ANIMAL,LIVESTOCK
ANIME,ANIMATION
BISON,OXEN
BUDGE,SHIFT
CHICKS,DUCKLINGS
FEND,EKE
FOILS,PARRIES
HAYLIFT,AIRLIFT
HICKS,REDNECKS
INWARDLY,EXTERNALLY
JIG,BARNDANCE
LIFTER,RAISER
LOIN,BRISKET
MEN,WOMEN
MIST,RAIN
MOVE,RELOCATE
NONSTICK,NONSKID
OILING,GREASING
PATENT,PENDING
PICKER,HARVESTER
PINES,EVERGREENS
RIOT,TURMOIL
RIPEST,JUICIEST
ROIST,CAROUSE
SHIRT,JEANS
SILOS,ELEVATORS
SPOIL,DECAY
SPRING,SUMMER
TICKS,FLEAS
TOIL,EFFORT
UNCOIL,UNWIND
UNLIVABLY,UNBEARABLY
WHIM,NOTION
WRING,TWIST

The puzzle satisfies the series' inbuilt assumption, that each word can be tested for whether it is a Farm Word™ without relying on the other words.
These are not the only examples of Farm Words™; many more exist.

What is the special rule these words conform to?

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  • $\begingroup$ It's really bugging me that the left side is all alphabetical but the right is not $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 13:26
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    $\begingroup$ It's tradition. Left side alphabetic, right side is a similar word. $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 14:50
  • $\begingroup$ @greenturtle3141 Neither the Triad or the Cyclone ones were alphabetical. $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 17:44
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    $\begingroup$ Not everyone follows the same style. $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 17:45
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    $\begingroup$ @Alex It's the OP's discretion whether to answer questions about additional words; some will, some will after a while, and some won't. I'm in a giving mood, so: yes, LION is a Farm Word™. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 19:43

1 Answer 1

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I guess that:

The farm words follow an "EIEIO" rule. That is, if you take a farm word and replace each "E" with "IE" and each "I" with "O", you get another valid word. For example: "LIFTER" -> "LOFTIER".
Most of the resulting words are common but I did have to double check that "anomal", "anomie", "onwardly", "nonstock", "pockier", "ropiest", and "sprong" were real words.

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4
  • $\begingroup$ Nice catch. That should be it. +1 $\endgroup$
    – Techidiot
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 9:47
  • $\begingroup$ Very nicely done :) The slightly more obscure replacement-words were needed to avoid a rather monotonous list of words all ending "er"; once you see the rule, verifying those last few would of course be easy, as you found. Great job! $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 12:52
  • $\begingroup$ I got as far as noticing the huge number of Is, and that the ones without Is have Es - was that observation plus "Farm" enough to get you to EIEIO? Or was there another realization in between? $\endgroup$
    – Personman
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 21:37
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    $\begingroup$ @Personman I noticed near the bottom of the list that there were a bunch of words with "I" that could be changed to "O" (the bottom 11 words or so are all like that). Then somehow I connected "farm" with "EIEIO", and thought of replacing "E" with "IE", and that worked for the words with "E" in them. Lastly I had to check that all the weird words were actually real words. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 0:49

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