# Six Words - A Riddle I Made Up

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 30, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824 "2009-04-30T06:40:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824/1 "2009-04-30T06:40:23Z")

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Hello everyone.

I was studying for a final I have tomorrow, and I ran across six words I wrote in the margin of my notes:

san  
doo  
kin  
poo  
bin  
han

These six words all have a very specific property in common. There is a very closely related property that all but one of the six words have in common.

Maybe it’s easy; maybe it’s hard. It’s probably stupid and contrived. But I am killing time, and here’s the post. Let me know what you think.

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**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824/2 "2009-04-30T12:52:00Z")

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“San” and “han” are words? English words?

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**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824/3 "2009-04-30T12:58:06Z")

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You add the sound “dle” in a variant spelling, and you get a common word? (Sandal, doodle, kindle, poodle, bindle, handle? (OK, bindle is not so common, but it’s a real word.

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**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824/4 "2009-04-30T14:35:09Z")

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**Sigmagirl** , I am very impressed. Thanks for playing. You pretty much got it. Your second property isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it can work, too.

In my defense, my dad seemed to use the word “bindle” a lot when I was growing up. I don’t think you could tell which words were common based in his usage, though.

On the other hand, maybe you did get the second property I was looking for but just didn’t say it explicitly? Either way, thanks for giving it some thought.

> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#):
>
> “San” and “han” are words? English words?

It’s a broad definition of “words.”

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-words-a-riddle-i-made-up/494824/5 "2009-04-30T15:17:17Z")

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Eh, I knew what that word means. A bindle is a sack made out of a handkerchief tied at the corners, and often tied to the end of a stick, for carrying meager belongings (as seen in old cartoons about hobos). The stick it’s tied to is a bindlestick, and the fellow who carries it is a bindlestiff.