Memory Hack: Keeping Count with Words

[jesse_the_k]

Weight lifts, breaths, hide-and-go-seek, hand washing: I have many opportunities to count during the day. When I count with digits, I get lost because I forget whether I’m counting down or counting up.

While exercising in the pool the word "chlorinate" came to mind, and I noticed that all ten letters were unique. I realized I could count to ten by spelling out the word. I don’t get lost, because words have a fixed direction. If I forget what the next letter is, I can picture the complete word to remind me.

Thanks to the internet, there are lists of words grouped by length and by letter frequency repetition. There are hundreds of ten-letter words at that link, but many are technical terms I’ve never seen before and wouldn’t remember.

Hence: 75 unique ten-letter counting words, clumped in intuitive bunches.

locations

1. beachfront
2. birthplace
3. campground
4. downstream
5. earthbound
6. forestland
7. motherland
8. playground
9. timberland
10. wanderlust

related to the body

1. benchmarks
2. chivalrous
3. compatible
4. complexify
5. crystalize
6. customized
7. farsighted
8. forgivable
9. headstrong
10. hospitable
11. improvable
12. lengthways
13. methodical
14. myasthenic
15. narcolepsy
16. neuropathy
17. precaution
18. productive
19. prudential
20. quadriceps
21. sympathize
22. syncopated
23. transfixed
24. tumbledown
25. unscramble
26. vestibular
27. worshipful

roles

1. blacksmith
2. chairwomen
3. designator
4. elucidator
5. folksinger
6. greyhounds
7. harlequins
8. lifeguards
9. lumberjack
10. pathfinder
11. playwright
12. speculator
13. superwoman

things

1. breadstick
2. chrysolite
3. clothespin
4. cornflakes
5. dayflowers
6. depilatory
7. driveshaft
8. dumbwaiter
9. houseplant
10. ladyfinger
11. manuscript
12. paintbrush
13. palindrome
14. pterodactyl
15. roundtable
16. scherzando
17. silverback
18. soundtrack
19. tambourine
20. tourmaline
21. trampoline
22. vibraphone
23. whiteboard
24. wingspread

Comments

[sylvaine]

Oh, how cool!

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[monanotlisa]

Oh, interesting!

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[esteefee]

brilliant! I like superwoman the best! :))

[jesse_the_k]

<34567890!

[replyhazy]

You are making me think of Playfair ciphers:






NARCO
LEPSY
BDFGH
IKMQT
UVWXZ

where the grid begins with a keyword without repeating letters and the other letters are filled in afterwards. Then the coded message is broken into letter pairs for encryption:
AG EN T K IS AC TI VE
dc la q i lq nr qk ul

And then sent in a less obvious fashion: Dcla quilq. Nrq? Kul.

And you use the grid to find corresponding corners of the letter squares to swap the letters. If you don't know the keyword apparently it's very hard to break (without a computer).

Impressive!

[jesse_the_k]

I always skipped over the cipher details in mysteries and thrillers--that folks a) thought them up and b) can decode them boggles my wee brain.

Were you a decipherer? Would build patience for dealing with programmers, as well as scrying bugs.

[vass]

Definitely wouldn't work for me: I'd lose my place in a word just as easily as in a number. But I'm glad it works for you, and I enjoyed the list of words.

[lilysea]

Interesting!

Would 100% not work for me, but I am glad that it works for you! ^_^

[jeshyr]

That’s such a cool idea!