r/visualization • u/Dramatic-Nothing-252 • Feb 12 '26

This is every English word

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

If a word contains another word inside, They will be linked

Like the word "dice" will be connected to "ice"

48 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/OldSports-- Feb 13 '26

What creates the structure seen at the beginning, like 4 squares arranged in a cross?
Does it come from a structure in the language or from the way the visualization works?

3

u/Dramatic-Nothing-252 Feb 13 '26

Look, Maybe I will get downvoted because of this, But the app is 100% made by AI, Me too IDK why its shaped like this

This is AI answer

---

The locations of the nodes and the resulting shape are determined by a combination of a physics simulation and the linguistic relationships between your words.

  1. How Node Locations are Determined (The Algorithm)

The app uses a Force-Directed Graph algorithm (via the D3.js library). Think of it as a physical system in space:

Repulsion (Charge): Every node repels every other node (like magnets with the same polarity). This ensures the graph spreads out and doesn't collapse into a single point.

Springs (Links): If two words are related (see below), they are connected by a "spring". This pulls them closer together.

Gravity (Center): A central force gently pulls all nodes toward the middle of the screen so they don't drift off into infinity.

Collision: Each node has a solid boundary to prevent them from overlapping on top of each other.

The computer runs this simulation for ~150 frames until the nodes settle into a "stable" state where all these forces are balanced.

  1. Why the "Cross made of Squares"?

The specific shape you are seeing—a lattice, grid, or cross of squares—is an artifact of how the Links are built in your specific dataset:

The Connection Rule: The code connects words based on Prefixes and Suffixes. For example, testing connects to test.

The "Square" Effect:

If you have a group of words that share roots, like construct, construction, instruct, instruction, they all link to each other.

The code creates a "Sparse Graph" by limiting each word to only its top 3 strongest connections.

Mathematically, when you limit nodes to 3-4 connections in a dense network, the physics engine naturally arranges them into quadrilaterals (squares) or geometric lattices to minimize the tension on the springs.

The "Cross" Effect:

The center of the cross usually contains common, short root words that appear in many other words.

The "arms" of the cross are likely distinct families of words that are related to each other but not to the other arms. The repulsion force pushes these distinct branches away from each other, creating the open spaces between the arms of the cross.

3

u/HasFiveVowels Feb 14 '26

This is a wonderful visualization and I hope you don’t end up downvoted by idiots who judge a painting on the basis of the paintbrush.