Post #3038236
2026-05-04 03:58 UTC
@scruss@xoxo.zone On my system (macOS 15.7.5), `wc -l < /usr/share/dict/words` shows 235,976 words. I did a brute-force, n-squared search, calling rot13 on every word and then `grep -E "^$ROTWORD$" /usr/share/dict/words`. Only after it was done did I smack my forehead and realize I could have stopped after the letter M.
Replies (1)
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@scruss@xoxo.zone 2026-05-04 14:02
@_the_cloud@mastodon.social my system (Debian) had a much smaller dictionary installed. I've replaced it with a huge one with 663373 entries, many dubious. I can do it in one shot with: rot13 < /usr/share/dict/words | sort | comm -12 <(sort /usr/share/dict/words) - | grep -P '^[a-z]{2,}$' | grep '^[a-m]' but I don't think that MacOS's grep supports '-P', PCRE matching. abjurer/nowhere is still the longest pair