What are the word records for movement?
language/english/spelling/relations.to.other.words/entire.word/movement New
New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.
Problem
What are the word records for movement? (Spelling / Relations to Other Words / Entire Word) a. head-to-tail shift (move letters from front of word to end to form another word) [L93,3-24,7-176,238,8-47,112,233,11-216,12-153] i. longest nontrivial one letter v. longest five letter b. letter shift (move letter anywhere in word to form another word), longest c. exchange or metathesis (exchange two letters in a word to form another word), longest [L99] d. exchange first and last letter, longest e. exchange all occurrences of two letters, longest [ Editor: question framed by the editor from the headings of the Taxonomy of Wordplay. ]
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[ Editor: from the Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com, retrieved 28 Oct 2026. Classes (common, uncommon, hyphenated words, phrases), scores, ties (-t) and the source codes in brackets are explained in language/english/word.records.introduction. ]
Sources: [L110,9-161]
a. head-to-tail shift (move letters from front of word to end to form another word) [L93,3-24,7-176,238,8-47,112,233,11-216,12-153]
i. longest nontrivial one letter
common words: devaluate = evaluated (9)
uncommon words: denunciate = enunciated (10)
phrases: dactinomycin = actinomycin D (12)
hyphenated phrases: G-strophanthin = strophanthin-G (13)
ii. longest two letter [L92,8-112,11-216]
common words: allocation = locational (10)
iii. longest three letter
common words: outbreak = breakout (8-t)
common words: inground = rounding (8-t)
uncommon words: manslaughter = slaughterman (12)
phrases: dye sensitizing = sensitizing dye (14)
iv. longest four letter
common words: workpiece = piecework (9-t)
common words: boathouse = houseboat (9-t)
common words: sidetrack = trackside (9-t)
common words: oversleep = sleepover (9-t)
uncommon words: backscratch = scratchback (11)
hyphenated words: blah-blah-blah = blah-blah-blah (12-t)
hyphenated words: overcrossing = crossing-over (12-t)
hyphenated words: yada-yada-yada = yada-yada-yada (12-t)
phrases: heir-presumptive = presumptive heir (15-t)
phrases: heir presumptive = presumptive heir (15-t)
phrases: sole corporation = corporation sole (15-t)
v. longest five letter
common words: guesthouse = houseguest (10-t)
common words: fortepiano = pianoforte (10-t)
uncommon words: housemother = motherhouse (11-t)
uncommon words: sextodecimo = decimosexto (11-t)
uncommon words: grasshopper = hoppergrass (11-t)
hyphenated words: goose-barnacle = barnacle-goose (13-t)
hyphenated words: meter-kilogram = kilogram-meter (13-t)
phrases: sauce hollandaise = hollandaise sauce (16)
b. letter shift (move letter anywhere in word to form another word), longest
common words: sexploitation = exploitations (13-t)
common words: statelessness = tastelessness (13-t)
uncommon words: adiadochokinesis = diadochokinesias (16)
hyphenated words: s-dichloro-ethylene = dichloroethylenes (17)
c. exchange or metathesis (exchange two letters in a word to form another word), longest [L99]
common words: certification = rectification (13-t)
common words: accouterments = accoutrements (13-t)
common words: conservations = conversations (13-t)
uncommon words: microspectrophotometers = microspectrophotometres (23)
d. exchange first and last letter, longest
common words: denouncer & renounced (9-t)
common words: dignifies & signified (9-t)
uncommon words: decommissioner & recommissioned (14-t)
uncommon words: demythologizer & remythologized (14-t)
e. exchange all occurrences of two letters, longest
common words: conservation = conversation (12)
uncommon words: nonconservational = nonconversational (17)
-- Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com