# A list-like text: recipes, index, glossary

> Ruled out: The plaintext is a list-like text (recipes, an index, a glossary, a star catalogue), whose items carry little word order, so that the…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/answers/ANS0D8FZYWJ27TF/a-list-like-text-recipes-index-glossary  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Voynich Manuscript](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript)[Is it a natural language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/questions/QST08JG27P80HMJ/is-it-a-natural-language)Answer

Answer · Voynich Manuscript

# A list-like text: recipes, index, glossary

The plaintext is a list-like text (recipes, an index, a glossary, a star catalogue), whose items carry little word order, so that the manuscript's weak word order is a property of the genre rather than of the encoding.

**Ruled out** Answers **1** questionAbductiveTested0

## Where it stands

**Ruled out** None pieces of evidence for, one against.

## What it predicts

- Latin texts of those genres show word-order gains and held-out bigram gains near the manuscript's at matched length
- and repeat phrases as rarely

## Evidence none for · 1 against

[Latin list genres (recipes, indexes, glossaries) are more ordered and more formulaic than…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/evidence/EVD0D8GDR1R1MWN/latin-list-genres-recipes-indexes-glossaries-are-more)

Established · weighs heavily · F-029

AGAINST

## Tested by 2 runs

| Run | Measured | Result | Against | Decision | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUN-037 | order gain (bits/word) of six Latin list-genre texts vs the manuscript at matched length | Apicius 2.32; Cato 1.40; Pliny NH 1 2.54; Isidore 0.63; Isidore 0.78; Hyginus 1.22 | Manuscript at matched lengths: 0.27 · 0.35 · 0.35 · 0.32 · 0.29 · 0.35 · 0.37 | See note | 22 Oct |
| RUN-040 | order gain (bits/word) of six Latin list-genre texts vs the manuscript at matched length | Apicius 2.32; Cato 1.40; Pliny NH 1 2.54; Isidore 0.63; Isidore 0.78; Hyginus 1.22 | Manuscript at matched lengths: 0.27 · 0.35 · 0.35 · 0.32 · 0.29 · 0.35 · 0.37 | See note | 22 Oct |

## The questions it answers

[Is it a natural language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/questions/QST08JG27P80HMJ/is-it-a-natural-language)

Part of [What kind of text is it?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/questions/QST08JG1S1G6D9T/what-kind-of-text-is-it)

Most likelyNo answer ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). A list-like text: recipes, index, glossary [Answer ANS0D8FZYWJ27TF]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0D8FZYWJ27TF
```

Key

**ANS** 0D8FZYWJ27TF

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Abductive

Proposed

[Session 7](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/voynich-manuscript/sessions/SES0D8CZNK07S90/session-7-phase-3-procedures-fragments-lists-transliteration) · 22 Oct 2026

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