[messaging] Word list for English Words

[Trevor Perrin]

On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 6:00 AM, Tom Ritter <tom at ritter.vg> wrote:
> I ran across the PGP Word List, which was specifically engineered for
> communication over a voice channel.  It seems this would be a better choice
> than using a random english list of words or the Diceware list.
>
> It would make the fingerprint significantly longer however.  20 words,
> instead of 8 to 10.

Why not 128-bit fingerprints?


> Obviously there's a whole slew of tests that could be done comparing word
> lists and english word fingerprint lengths...  But since we don't (I don't)
> have time to come up with 65,000 english words that fit the PGP Word List's
> criteria, I feel our options are an existing word list (shorter fingerprint)
> or the PGP World List (longer).

Below are examples of 128 bits encoded as (PGP words, Basic English,
Mnemonicode, Diceware, and "random words" from a large dictionary).
Code at [1].

My sense is there's a sweet spot in the 10-12 bit dictionary range.
Smaller dictionaries produce awkwardly-long fingerprints (PGP), and
larger dictionaries get into weird words.

So I'd go with Basic English or Mnemonicode.  If you're comparing
against Michael Rogers' poems, I think that uses Basic English, so
perhaps it makes sense to use that to reduce the number of variables.


PGP (8 bits/word, 16 words)

concert - sociable - shamrock - reproduce - repay - outfielder -
cranky - Norwegian - tactics - unravel - reward - decadence - orca -
antenna - sweatband - consensus

transit - direction - dreadful - aggregate - eating - typewriter -
prefer - positive - showgirl - article - endow - molecule - drifter -
inception - scorecard - warranty

spigot - processor - breadline - fortitude - acme - pyramid - crumpled
- fascinate - beeswax - underfoot - sweatband - unify - assume -
maritime - music - potato

nightbird - amulet - klaxon - crossover - briefcase - article -
keyboard - determine - gazelle - penetrate - transit - Orlando -
regain - Chicago - shadow - underfoot

stapler - Pacific - topmost - chambermaid - absurd - enterprise -
flatfoot - megaton - tunnel - belowground - payday - Jupiter -
spheroid - gadgetry - befriend - Eskimo


BASIC ENGLISH (9.7 bits/word, 13 words)

regular - disease - see - complex - ink - but - top - shake - eye -
other - forward - strong - payment

goat - flat - walk - country - cruel - white - manager - food - voice
- peace - farm - till - comb

front - insect - need - play - authority - rod - letter - school -
slip - winter - parcel - wing - roll

father - opinion - fruit - off - he - cheap - mine - common - month -
of - record - name - humor

look - comb - net - young - thunder - rat - machine - slow - degree -
station - stocking - knot - wind


MNEMONICODE (~10.7 bits/word, 12 words)

cuba - edgar - method - fortune - amazon - aspirin - demo - winter -
shave - donor - russian - mineral

octopus - toga - social - declare - special - micro - gemini - indigo
- artist - justin - gibson - fidel

chicago - cave - alice - scorpio - totem - dynamic - degree - manual -
bombay - forbid - jessica - ceramic

pioneer - dynasty - organic - plume - people - zipper - caramel -
english - flood - scuba - ethnic - animal

coral - shelf - project - arthur - poem - news - saturn - axiom -
trumpet - yoga - mission - portal


DICEWARE (~13 bits/word, 10 words)

ns - mill - tacoma - penna - slim - mung - 8000 - hu - camber - olav

puerto - qualm - crag - ripley - bogey - skid - nee - pad - cahill - crowd

sachs - ate - anglo - fugue - arab - denny - might - atlas - cpa - ks

blip - bulge - jill - joule - scion - sk - squad - alma - micky - alan

dizzy - oslo - sf - incest - goofy - hater - y's - chopin - getty - tung

exult - wish - skin - envoy - jenny - basin - apron - gulp - roomy - veer


RANDOM WORD GENERATOR AT WORDREFERENCE.COM (~16.5 bits/word, 8 words) [2]

cowhage - ekasilicon - democratist - clum - dyslexia - farfetched -
furrier - mangosteen

matric - beadsman - enterlace - oarswoman - secretitious - incisor -
danite - linstock

potash - intersert - possum - verbarfunambulo - additionally -
enterotome - turrethead - telegrammic - clupeid


Trevor


[1] https://github.com/trevp/keyname
[2] http://www.wordreference.com/random/definition