What POSITIVE-NEGATIVE EFFECTS do DUPLICATES in WORDLISTS have on construction ?

[Kem Balani]

  Sept 30, 2021
 To ALL EXPERIENCED and PUBLISHED PUZZLE CONSTRUCTORS, especially lowest word-count constructors:

 What POSITIVE and NEGATIVE EFFECTS do DUPLICATE WORDS in WORDLISTS have on construction ?
 2 Questions:
 1. IF you are trying to construct a puzzle with AS MANY 15-LETTER WORDS AS POSSIBLE, should you have AS MANY words of 15-LETTER
     LENGTH AS POSSIBLE in YOUR MAIN WORD LIST, INCLUDING DUPLICATES OF 15-LETTER WORDS?
 2. IF you are trying to construct a puzzle with AS MANY 15-LETTER WORDS AS POSSIBLE, should you have a SEPARATE LIST OF ONLY
    15-LETTER WORDS (as a theme word list for example) IN ADDITION to a MAIN WORD LIST ALREADY CONTAINING the 15-LETTER
    WORDS?
 

[mmcbs]

Crossword Compiler does not allow identical words in a word list. You can have the same word twice if their punctuation is different (a hyphen, or accent, for example), but I don't think that has any effect on the fill, as it will just show both of them as possibles for a slot. If you have them in a theme word list, it puts them at the top of the possible list, but if they're the same 15-letter words you have in your default list, it wouldn't affect the fill process, in my opinion.