The sequence of partial sums of Fibonacci numbers, beginning with
2, 4, 7, 12, 20, 33,..., has several combinatorial
interpretations (OEIS
A000071). For instance, the
n-th term in
this sequence is the number of length-
n binary words that avoid 110.
This paper proves a related but new interpretation. Given a length-3
binary word—called the keyword—we say two length-
n binary words
are equivalent if one can be obtained from the other by some sequence
of substitutions: each substitution replaces an instance of the keyword
with its negation, or vice versa. We prove that the number of induced
equivalence classes is again the $n$-th term in the aforementioned
sequence. When the keyword has length
m+1 (instead of 3), the same
result holds with
m-step Fibonacci numbers. What makes this result
surprising—and distinct from the previous interpretation—is that it
does not depend on the keyword, despite the fact that the sizes of the
equivalence classes do. On this final point, we prove several results
on the structure of equivalence classes, and also pose a variety of
open problems.
Received July 29 2025;
revised versions received July 30 2025; September 29 2025.
Published in Journal of Integer Sequences,
November 24 2025.