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This puzzle is based off the What is a Word™ and What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and their spin-off What is a Number™ series.

If a word conforms to a certain rule, I call it a Croupier's Word™. Use the following examples to find the rule:

$$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE important; do not remove.) % increase Pad value only if your entries are longer than the title bar. % \def\Pad{\P{1.0}} \def\Title{\textbf{ Croupier's }} % \def\S#1#2{\Space{#1}{20px}{#2px}}\def\P#1{\V{#1em}}\ \def\V#1{\S{#1}{9}} \def\T{\Title\textbf{Words}^{\;\!™}\Pad}\def\NT{\Pad\textbf{Not}\T\ }\displaystyle \smash{\lower{29px}\bbox[yellow]{\phantom{\rlap{rubio.2018.03.05}\S{6px}{0} \begin{array}{cc}\Pad\T&\NT\\\end{array}}}}\atop\def\V#1{\S{#1}{5}} \begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline\Pad\T&\NT\\\hline % \text{GOTHS}&\text{HIPSTERS}\\ \hline \text{FUTON}&\text{TATAMI}\\ \hline \text{TRASHED}&\text{SOBER}\\ \hline \text{CONSOLES}&\text{COMPUTERS}\\ \hline \text{OLDIE}&\text{GOLDIE}\\ \hline \text{HATERS}&\text{LOVERS}\\ \hline \text{TASER}&\text{MACE}\\ \hline \text{STRAYS}&\text{STAYS}\\ \hline \text{BASED}&\text{DEBASED}\\ \hline \text{GENRE}&\text{SUBGENRE}\\ \hline \text{WIDER}&\text{NARROWER}\\ \hline \text{FAULTS}&\text{STRENGTHS}\\ \hline \end{array}$$


The puzzle satisfies the series' inbuilt assumption, that each word can be tested for whether it is a Croupier's Word™ without relying on the other words.

These are not the only examples, there are more of both Croupier's Words™ and Not Croupier's Words™.

CSV version:

GOTHS,HIPSTERS
FUTON,TATAMI
TRASHED,SOBER
CONSOLES,COMPUTERS
OLDIE,GOLDIE
HATERS,LOVERS
TASER,MACE
STRAYS,STAYS
BASED,DEBASED
GENRE,SUBGENRE
WIDER,NARROWER
FAULTS,STRENGTHS
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1 Answer 1

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A Croupier's Word™

can be used to form a new word by cutting it in half (with the first half receiving the extra letter if the length is odd) and interleaving the two halves, similar to the way a croupier cuts a deck of cards and interleaves the halves to shuffle.

For example, TRASHED is one because

interleaving TRAS and HED yields THREADS.

For completeness,

the shuffled words are
GHOST
FOUNT
THREADS
COOLNESS
OILED
HEARTS
TEARS
SATYRS
BEADS
GREEN
WEIRD
FLATUS.

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  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Yup, that's it, exactly. Looking at the edit history of your answer, I'm super impressed: looks like you got the answer first, and only afterwards linked it with the title! That wasn't supposed to be possible at all! :-) $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Jun 25, 2018 at 12:34
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @Bass If the correct answer has been posted, remember to accept it. ;-) (just posting this in case it was too early to do so back then) $\endgroup$
    – EKons
    Commented Jun 25, 2018 at 22:30

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