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The treatment of words of foreign origin can be problematic. The entire history of English involves influence and loanwords from other languages, and this process continues today (see Foreign Language Influences In English ). However, there is a gray area between foreign words and words accepted as English. Everyone would accept that the formerly foreign '' Ballet '' ( French ), '' Ketchup '' ( Malay ) and '' Safari '' ( Swahili ) are now English words. The status of words such as '' Zeitgeist '', '' Weltanschauung '', and '' Schadenfreude '' is less clear-cut. The '' Oxford English Dictionary '' calls such words "resident aliens". Generally, a word of foreign origin is legitimate here if it may be encountered in an English text without translation.


COMBINATIONS OF LETTERS



Many vowels

It is important to note the difference between vowel letters and vowel sounds. A string of letters may represent a single vowel sound; conversely, a single letter may represent multiple vowels, or a diphthong. This section deals with words that have many vowel letters, which may, however, represent a low number of actual vowels.

''Euouae'' (a type of cadence in mediæval music) contains six 2006 ), {Link without Title}

There is only one common word in English that has five vowels in a row: '' Queueing ''. More unusual examples are ''cooeeing'' (making a "cooee" sound), ''miaoued'' or ''miaouing'' (from ''miaou'', to make a sound like a cat; more commonly ''miaow'' or ''meow''). Another candidate is ''zoaeae'', a plural of ''zoaea''. ''Zoaea'', more commonly spelt '' Zoea '', is a larval stage in crustacean development. Those who write using the Digraph "æ" may consider the plural to have only three vowels (''zoæa''). Proper nouns and their derivatives include ''Rousseauian'' (pertaining to the philosopher Rousseau ), '' Aeaea '' or ''Aiaia'' (a location in Greek mythology), and the related adjectives ''Aeaean''/''Aiaian''.

The list of common words with four vowels in a row is fairly short, comprising '' Aqueous '', '' Hawaiian '', ''obsequious'', '' Onomatopoeia '', '' Pharmacopoeia '', ''queue'' (and derivatives ''queued'' and ''queues''), and '' Sequoia ''.

Examples of words consisting entirely of vowels, including proper names and some words already mentioned, are: ''a'' (the indefinite article), ''ae'' (a Scots adjective form of "one"), '' Ai '' (the three-toed sloth), '' Aia '' (a Brazilian bird), '' Aiea '' (a town in Hawaii), '' Aeaea '' or ''Aiaia'' (a location in Greek mythology), ''au'' (French for "to" or "with", encountered in English in compounds such as '' Au Pair '' and '' Au Fait ''), ''euouae'' (a type of cadence in mediaeval music), ''euoi'' (a Greek exclamation of joy), ''eau'' (French for "water", encountered in English in compounds such as ''eau de cologne''), ''I'' (first person pronoun), ''Iao'' (a Polynesian god), '' I'i '' (a figure in Polynesian mythology), '' Io '' (a figure in Greek mythology, also a moon of Jupiter), ''oi'' (an impolite exclamation used to gain someone's attention), and ''oo'' (a Hawaiian bird). Exclamations such as ''oooo'', ''aaaa'' and ''eeee'' are not normally considered legitimate words.

The shortest word containing the five regular vowels is '''' (11 letters).

''Subcontinental'', ''uncomplimentary'' and ''unnoticeable'' are common words having the five vowels in reverse order. One of the shortest such words, at eight letters, is '' Muroidea '', a superfamily of rodents.

Some words not already mentioned that have a high proportion of vowels, including some proper names, are as follows. 6 letters, 5 vowels: '''' (capital of Burkina Faso), '' Paeoniaceae '' (a plant family), '' Outaouais '' (a region of western Quebec); 9 letters, 7 vowels.


Many consonants


The longest word with only one vowel is ''strengths'' (9 letters), packing six consonant sounds into a single syllable. The words '''' (12) are longer, but each clearly uses the letter ''y'' as a vowel. There are also a variety of onomatopoeic words, such as the nine-letter ''tsktsking'' (making a "tsktsk" sound), which appears in Chambers Dictionary. Eight-letter words with just one vowel are also fairly rare—as well as ''strength'' itself, some examples are ''schmaltz'', ''schnapps'' and ''twelfths''.

Candidates for words with seven consonants in a row are ''Twelfthstreet'' (normally two words but sometimes written as one, as in a song title; ''eighthstreet'' is feasible by analogy), and ''Hirschsprung'', as in '' Hirschsprung's Disease '' (though this is after a Danish surname).

The place-name '''', ''sightscreen'', ''watchspring'' and ''watchstrap'', and the somewhat more obscure ''borschts'' (plural of '' Borscht '', a type of soup from Eastern Europe), and the German -derived '' Festschrift '' (a collection of writings honouring a noted academic), '' Eschscholzia '' (a plant genus) and '' Bergschrund '' (a glacier crevasse).

Apart from words already mentioned (and their plurals), long words with just two, three, and four vowels include ''Christchurch'', ''spendthrifts'', ''stretchmarks'' (2 vowels, 12 letters); ''farthingsworths'', ''shillingsworths'', ''strengthfulness'' (3, 15); and ''handcraftsmanship'', ''splanchnemphraxis'' (4, 17). Exclamations such as ''mmmmm'' and ''grrrrrrrr'' are not normally considered legitimate words.


Alternating vowels and consonants


The superlatively long word '' Honorificabilitudinitatibus '' (27 letters) alternates consonants and vowels, as do the slightly more prosaic medical terms ''hepatoperitonitis'' and ''mesobilirubinogen'' (both 17 letters). The longest such words that are reasonably well known may be ''overimaginative'', ''parasitological'' and ''verisimilitudes'' (all 15 letters).

The longest alternating words beginning with a vowel are possibly the 16-letter ''adenolipomatosis'' (a glandular condition), ''aluminosilicates'' (a class of chemical compounds containing aluminium and silicon) and ''anatomicomedical'' (relating to anatomy and medicine).

''Theopneustia'' (an obscure word for Christian divine inspiration) alternates pairs of vowels and consonants.


Repeated letters

A number of English words have three of the same letter in sequence, but almost all are constructions involving a suffix, and could arguably be hyphenated or, in some cases, written as two words. They include ''brasssmith'', ''headmistressship'', ''wallless'' (lacking walls), and ''bulllike'' (like a bull).

Other candidates are the archaic ''agreeeth'' (third person singular present tense of the verb to agree), and ''tweeer'' (comparative adjective of the qualifier ''twee'' meaning infantilely kitsch). There are also many possessives ending in ''-ss's'' (e.g. ''actress's'').

Place-names include '' Rossshire '' and '' Invernessshire '', both in Scotland, UK (though both of these counties are usually hyphenated in official documentation), and '' Kaaawa '' in (although this is a common misspelling of '''' in Hawaiian , the being a Glottal Stop ). The famous Welsh placename '' Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch '' contains the letter ''l'' four times in a row, but the ''llll'' is considered by some to be the single Welsh Digraph ''ll'' twice, rather than the English ''l'' four times

Constructions such as ''zzzzzz'' (sound of a person snoring, representing sleep), ''shhhhhh'' (quiet!), and ''aaaaargh'' (cry of distress) are not normally recognised as legitimate words.

Roommate, Balloon, Coffee, Woolly, Steellike, Succeed have two consecutive doubled letters.

'' Bookkeeper '' has three consecutive doubled letters (some also allow ''subbookkeeper'' which has four).

Words in which no letter is used more than once are called ''isograms'' (though its use in this sense is Slang restricted to those who enjoy recreational linguistics, and not commonly found in dictionaries). ''Uncopyrightable'', with fifteen letters, is the longest common isogram in English (some also allow ''uncopyrightables''). ''Dermatoglyphics'' shares the distinction but is a less well-known word; ''subdermatoglyphic'' is two letters longer but even more obscure — it has only one report of alleged live use (an article in ''Annals of Dermatology''), and supposedly means "of or pertaining to the patterns on the lower Skin layers". The words ''blepharoconjunctivitis'' and ''pneumoventriculography'' (as well as several others) contain 16 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, though they are not isograms as some letters are repeated.

Long words with just two, three, four... distinct letters include ''booboo'', ''deeded'', ''muumuu'' (2 distinct letters, 6 letters in total); ''assesses'', ''referrer'' (3, 8); ''senselessness'' (4, 13); ''defenselessness'' (6, 15); ''disinterestedness'' (7, 17); and ''institutionalisation'' (8, 20).

The following table lists words that repeat the given letter many times. The number of repetitions is shown in brackets. If the word with the most repetitions is dubious (for example, it is hyphenated, arguably should be hyphenated, is a proper name, or seems artificial) then further candidates with fewer repetitions are offered. Where there are many candidate words with the same number of repetitions only the shortest or commonest (judged subjectively) is listed.

Ignoring the 20-letter play title '' Chrononhotonthologos '', the longest words containing only one of the five regular vowels (overlooking y) may be the 17-letter ''proctocolonoscopy'' and ''synchrocyclotrons''. A candidate for longest word containing only one type of consonant is the 10-letter ''coucicouci'', a word apparently included in at least one version of ''Roget's Thesaurus'' to mean "imperfect", but otherwise almost unknown. 9-letter words are '' Allolalia '' (a type of speech disturbance) and ''Coccaceae'' (an obsolete name for a family of bacteria).


Unusual word endings


'''', the Austrian painter.

Despite the assertions of a well-known puzzle, modern English does not have three common words ending in ''-gry''. '' Angry '' and '' Hungry '' are the only ones. There are, however, a number of rare and obsolete words; see Gry for a further discussion.

''-mt'' and ''-gry'' are possibly the best-known unusual word endings, but there are many others exhibited by only one or two everyday words. Some examples, excluding derivative words, are ''-ln'' (''kiln'', ''Lincoln''), ''-bt'' (''doubt'', ''debt''), ''-igy'' (''effigy'', ''prodigy''), ''-nen'' (''linen''), and ''cay'' (''decay'', ''Biscay'').


Unusual word beginnings

Words beginning with a double letter are generally very rare. The most common combination is probably ''oo-'' (''oodles'', ''oolong'', ''oomph'', ''oops'', ''ooze'', and a number of less familiar examples, mostly technical words incorporating the prefix ''oo-'', meaning "egg"), followed by ''aa-'' (familiar examples being ''aardvark'' and ''Aaron''), and ''ee-'' (''eel'', ''eerie'', ''eek'', ''eesome'' (attractive)).

Otherwise such words are unlikely to be considered part of the English vocabulary, and almost entirely of foreign origin. Some examples are ''Ccoya'' (Inca queen), ''ʻiʻiwi'' (a Hawaiian bird), ''llama'', ''llano'' (a grassy plain), and ''llanero'' (someone who lives on a ''llano''). There are, however, numerous Welsh placenames beginning ''Ll-'' (e.g. '' Llandudno '', '' Llanberis '') – plus the familiar personal names ''Llewellyn'' and ''Lloyd'' – and a smaller number beginning ''Ff-'' (e.g. '' Ffestiniog '', '' Ffrith ''). A number of Japanese names begin ''Ii-'' when transliterated into the Roman alphabet.

The words ''euouae'', ''Aeaea'' and ''euoi'', mentioned earlier under "Many vowels", start with six, five and four vowels respectively. There are very few other words starting with four vowels. Some proper name examples are: '' El Aaiún '' (a city in Western Sahara),
''Aeaetes'' (a character in Greek mythology), ''ʻAiea'' (a town in Hawaiʻi), ''Aouad'' (personal name), ''Aouita'' (personal name), ''Euaechme'' (a character in Greek mythology), and ''Ueueteotl'' (an Aztec god).

The list of words starting with three vowels is rather longer, but most are obscure. Some of the more familiar examples are: '' Aeolian '' (relating to the wind), '' Aeon '' (an age),
''aoudad'' (a sheep-like animal of northern Africa), ''eau'' (French for "water", encountered in English in compounds such as '' Eau De Cologne ''), ''Iain'' (personal name), ''oeuvre'' (an artist's body of work), '' Ouagadougou '' (capital of the African country Burkina Faso), and '' Ouija '' (a board used by mediums to reveal spirit messages). ''Aeolian'' and ''aeon'' are British spellings.

There are similarly few English words beginning with a large number of consonants. ''Tsktsks'' appears in Collins Dictionary . Also, ''cwrth'' and ''cwtch'' (of Welsh origin) are five consonants, although the "w" functions as a vowel. There is also a surname ''Schkrohowsky'' of Russian origin.

There are a reasonable number of words beginning with four consonants. The commonest beginnings are ''phth-'' (''phthalein'', ''phthisis'', ''Phthirus'') and ''sch-'' (mostly words of German/Yiddish origin such as ''schlep'', ''schmaltz'', ''schnapps''). Other examples are ''chthonic'', ''pschent'', ''sphragide'' and ''tshwala''.

A partial list of words with other unusual initial letter combinations follows. Unsurprisingly, many are of foreign origin: '''', '' Tmesis '', '' Tsunami '', '' Tzar '', ''vlei'' (in southern Africa, a seasonally flooded area), ''vroom'' (a revving sound), '' Xhosa '', '' Xiphoid '', ''xoanan'' (a carved wooden icon), '' Yggdrasil '', '' Ylem '', ''ynambu'' (a South American bird), '' Yttrium '', '' Zloty '', '' Zwitterion ''.


"Q" without "U"

''See main article: List Of English Words Containing A Q Not Followed By A U .''


Other unusual spellings


Most people are aware that the letter ''y'' can serve as both a consonant and a vowel. ''w'' can also be an Orthographic vowel, since ''how'' is pronounced /hau/ (with ''w'' representing the second half of the Diphthong .)

However, '' Cwm '' (pronounced "koom", defined as a steep-walled hollow on a hillside) is a rare case of a word using ''w'' to represent a Nucleus vowel, as is '' Crwth '' (pronounced "krooth", a type of stringed instrument). Both words are in Merriam-Webster 's Collegiate Dictionary. They derive from the Welsh use of ''w'' as a vowel. The word ''cwm'' is commonly applied to Welsh place names; Cwm s of Glacial origin are a common feature of Welsh geography. It is also used to describe features in the Himalaya .

Both these examples may belong in 'Words of Foreign Origin', as they are actual words in the Welsh language which have been absorbed into English. See ''coombe'' as the south-west English equivalent of ''cwm''.


Containing the letters a,b,c,d...


''Boldface'' and ''feedback'' both contain all the letters from ''a'' to ''f'' (there are many such words, but these are the shortest at eight letters). There is probably no common English word that contains all letters ''a'' through ''g''. Feedbacking may be acceptable in some usage. ''Black-figured'' (referring to a type of pottery decoration) and ''double-refracting'' are hyphenated examples.

The longest word consisting entirely of letters from the first half of the alphabet (''a'' through ''m'') may be '' Hamamelidaceae '' (a plant family) at 14 letters. Long common words include ''fiddledeedee'' (12 letters), ''blackballed'' (11) and ''blackmailed'' (11).

''Soupspoons'' (10) consists entirely of letters from the second half of alphabet, as does the hyphenated ''topsy-turvy'' and a number of rarer 10-letter words such as ''nonsupport'' (failure to support), ''puttyroots'' (plural of '' Puttyroot '', a species of orchid), and ''zoosporous'' (relating to a '' Zoospore '', a type of fungal or algal spore).


Letters in alphabetic order


Words whose letters are in alphabetical order include the eight-letter '' Aegilops '' (a grass genus), and the seven-letter ''addeems'' (from the archaic verb ''addeem'', meaning to award), ''alloquy'' (an archaic or literary word for an address), ''beefily'' (in a beefy manner), ''billowy'' (like a wave or surge), '' Dikkops '' (a South African bird) and ''gimmors'' (plural of ''gimmor'', an old-fashioned word for a mechanical contrivance).

In reverse alphabetical order are the nine-letter ''spoonfeed'' and the eight-letter ''spoonfed'' and ''trollied''.

There are a number of words that contain a string of four consecutive letters of the alphabet. The commonest combination is ''rstu'', with most examples having the prefix ''under-'', ''over-'' or ''super-'' (e.g. ''understudy'', ''overstuff'', ''superstud''). Words with the combination ''mnop'' include ''cremnophobia'' (a fear of steep slopes), ''gymnopaedic'' (of birds, having unfeathered young), ''limnophilous'' (marsh-loving) and '' Prumnopitys '' (a genus of conifers). '' Chelmno '', a town in Poland, has the unusual combination ''lmno''.


Palindromes

See main articles Palindrome and Semordnilap .



First and last words by reversed spelling


In a dictionary that lists the reversed spellings of words alphabetically, some of the first entries (excluding proper names) would be:

  • ''a'' (=''a'', the indefinite article)

  • ''aa'' (=''aa'', a type of lava)

  • ''aab'' (=''baa'', the sound made by a sheep)

  • ''aahc'' (=''chaa'', a variant of ''char'', British slang for tea)

  • ''aakkram'' (=''markkaa'', plural of '' Markka '', a former Finnish unit of currency)

  • ''aam'' (=''maa'', a dialect word for a seagull)

  • ''aamaju'' (=''Ujamaa'', a political system in East Africa)

  • ''aaupaukunukunumuhumuh'' (='' Humuhumunukunukuapuaa '', a type of Hawaiian fish)

  • ...


Some proper names would appear earlier: ''aabbirem'' (=''Meribbaa'', a Biblical name); ''aabmup'' (='' Pumbaa ''); ''aabre'' (=''Erbaa'', a town in Turkey); ''aacisuan'' (='' Nausicaa ''); ''aaemu'' (='' Umeaa ''); ''aagsin'' (='' Nisga'a '').

The first entries that correspond to common words (including some proper names) would be, in normal letter order, ''casaba'', ''Abba'', ''Sheba'', ''amoeba'', '' Toshiba '', '' Elba '', ''melba'', ''mamba'', ''samba''.

The last few entries all come from words ending ''-uzz'', including:

  • ''zzuh'' (=''huzz'', to buzz or murmur)

  • ''zzuks'' (=''skuzz'', variant of ''scuzz'')

  • ''zzul'' (=''luzz'', British slang, meaning to chuck)

  • ''zzum'' (=''muzz'', British slang, meaning to confuse)

  • ''zzurf'' (=''fruzz'', to brush hair the wrong way)



First and last words in anagram dictionary


Suppose that, in a dictionary of anagrams, the letters of each word are sorted into alphabetical order (for example, "alphabet" becomes "aabehlpt"), and then the resulting strings are themselves sorted alphabetically. After the usual culprits ''a'' and ''aa'', some of the first few words in the dictionary (including only the singular form of nouns) would be:

  • ''aaaaaacceglllnorst'' (=''astragalocalcaneal'')

  • ''aaaaaaccegllnorrst'' (=''calcaneoastragalar'')

  • ''aaaaaalmrsstt'' (='' Taramasalata '', a fish roe paste)

  • ''aaaaaannrstyy'' (=''Satyanarayana'', another name for Vishnu )

  • ''aaaaabbcdrr'' (='' Abracadabra '', a word said when performing a magic trick)


The end of the list might appear something like:

  • ''utx'' (=''tux'', contraction of ''tuxedo'', a dinner jacket)

  • ''uty'' (=''Tuy'', a city in Spain)

  • ''uw'' (='' Wu '', a Chinese dialect (and region))

  • ''ux'' (=''xu'', a Vietnamese unit of currency)

  • ''uy'' (=''yu'', Chinese jade)

  • ''uz'' (=''Zu'', a Sumerian god)

  • ''uzz'' (=''zuz'', an ancient Hebrew coin)



PAIRS AND GROUPS OF WORDS



Homophones


'' Ewe '' and '' You '' are a pair of words with identical pronunciations that have no letters in common. Another example is the pair '' Eye '' and '' I ''. However, such word pairs are often dependent on the accent of the speaker. For instance, Canadians might well believe that '' A '' and '' Eh '' form such a pair whereas other American English speakers might not.

See also Homophone , List Of Homophones and List Of Commonly Confused Homonyms .


Homographs


Homograph s are words with identical spellings but different meanings. A famous example is the town of '' Reading '' (pronounced to rhyme with ''threading'') vs. the gerund ''reading'', as in reading a book (pronounced to rhyme with ''feeding''). At one time the bookseller Blackwell's had a branch in Reading, signed "Blackwells Reading Book Shop", in which either pronunciation made sense.

See also List Of English Homographs .


Self-antonymns


''Main article: Auto-antonym .''

A few English words have such disparate definitions that one meaning is the opposite of another. These are called "self-antonyms", "auto-antonyms" or "contronyms". Examples include ''cleave'' or ''clip'' (joining things together or taking them apart), ''fast'' (move quickly or fix in one spot), ''enjoin'' (to cause something to be done, to forbid something from being done), and ''inflammable'' (able to be burned or fire-proof).


Sequences of words formed by the addition of letters


The nine-word sequence ''I'', ''in'', ''sin'', ''sing'', ''sting'', ''string'', ''staring'', ''starting'' (or ''starling''), ''startling'' can be formed by successively adding one letter to the previous word.
There are a number of other nine-word sequences that use only common words, and numerous shorter sequences, such as the seven-word ''a'', ''at'', ''rat'', ''rate'', ''irate'', ''pirate'', ''pirates''.

If rare words, proper names and/or obsolete words are allowed then sequences of at least eleven words are possible. One example is: ''a'', ''ma'' (mother), ''mac'' (raincoat, British), '' Mace '' (spice), '' Macle '' (mineral), '' Macule '' (skin spot), ''maculae'' (plural of ''macula'', variant of ''macule''), ''maculate'' (blotchy), ''masculate'' (to make strong, obsolete), ''emasculate'', ''emasculated''.

''Al'', ''Ala'', ''Alan'', and ''Alana'' is a sequence consisting only of first names.

A seven-word sequence in which letters are added to the ''end'' of the previous word is: ''ma'', ''max'' (used in phrases such as ''to the max''), ''maxi'' (a long skirt), ''maxim'', ''maxima'' (plural of '''' (asteroid), '' Tamar '' (English river), '' Tamari '' (soy sauce), '' Tamarin '' (monkey), '' Tamarind '' (tree), ''tamarinds'' (plural).

The one-syllable word ''are'', with the addition of one letter, becomes '' Area '', a word with three syllables.

A six-word sequence in which letters are added to the ''beginning'' of the words is: ''hes'' (plural of ''he'', used as a noun to mean a male), ''shes'' (plural of ''she''), ''ashes'', ''lashes'', ''plashes'' (plural of ''plash'', a splashing sound), ''splashes''.


"ough" words


The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ''ough'', is commonly pronounced at least ten different ways. Ough is in fact a word in its own right; it is an exclamation of disgust similar to "ugh".

The original pronunciation in all cases was the last one. However the ''kh'' sound has disappeared from most modern English dialects. As it faded, different speakers replaced it by different near equivalents in different words. Thus the present confusion resulted.

The two "ough"s in the English place name Loughborough are pronounced differently, resulting in ''Luffburruh''.

''Tough'', ''though'', ''through'', and ''thorough'' are formed by adding an additional letter each time, yet none of them rhymes with another.


LONG WORDS

''Main article: Longest Word In English .''

'' Antidisestablishmentarianism '' listed in the '' Oxford English Dictionary '', was considered the longest English word for quite a long time, but today the medical term '' Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis '' is usually considered to have the title, despite the fact that it was coined to provide an answer to the question 'What is the longest English word?'.

The '' Guinness Book Of Records '', in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be Floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Defined as ''the act of estimating (something) as worthless'', its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741 .

Chemical Nomenclature of Organic Compound s and especially Protein s can easily beat any record, as official nomenclature rules lead to legitimate names thousands of letters long.


Longest one-syllable word

''Main article: List Of The Longest English Words With One Syllable .''

The longest one- Syllable word in the English language is either ''squirrelled'', ''scraunched'', or one of several 9-letter words. The first two words may be pronounced using more than one syllable in some Accent s. ''Strengths'' is the longest with only one Vowel .


UNRHYMABLE WORDS

In the most common form of Rhyme , words rhyme if they end in identically or nearly-identically sounding syllables, and match in stress. If a word has an unusual or unique ending syllable and no other word has a Stress Pattern to match, it does not rhyme. Excluding disputed loan words, whose foreign sounds make them obviously difficult, unrhymable English words include ''chimney'', ''depth'', ''month'', ''orange'', ''pint'', ''purple'', and ''wasp''. Of these, '' Orange '' is arguably the one most famous for being unrhymable.

''Silver'' is commonly considered unrhymable, however it rhymes with Chilver , a provincial English term meaning a ewe-lamb or ewe mutton.

Note that some words rhyme if we allow prefixed derivatives of them (like ''empurple'' or ''desilver''), but this is not commonly considered proper rhyme.

The most common way to concoct a "rhyme" for such words — usually in humorous poetry — is to rhyme it with the first syllable of a word that is split over two lines. An example is rhyming ''orange'' with ''car eng/ine'', noted by Douglas Hofstadter . Likewise, Stephen Sondheim rhymed ''silver'' with "will, ver-/bosity, and time", and Willard R. Espy managed the couplet "I might distil Ver-/ona's silver". On a similar note, ''orange'' has been rhymed with "door hinge".


WORDS WITH LARGE NUMBERS OF MEANINGS

Scanning the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' reveals an astounding 76 definitions of the word ''run''. The top five words with large numbers of meanings are:
# '' Run '' (76)
# '' Set '' (63)
# '' Point '' (49)
# '' Strike '' (48)
# '' Light '' (47)


ACRONYMS AS WORDS


Some acronyms have attained the status of words. Many are company names that were either deliberately created for marketing reasons or have morphed from true acronyms over time, such as Compaq , a computer company; Qantas , an Australian airline; and Nasdaq , the US electronic stock market. Others are organizations, such as Nato , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (spelled with all capital letters in the U.S.).

Another example is WYSIWYG , pronounced 'Wizzywig', describing a computer program which displays accurate previews of work.


TYPEWRITER WORDS


The longest words spelt solely with the left hand when typing properly using a QWERTY keyboard may be the 14-letter '' Aftercataract s'' (secondary cataracts of the eye) and ''sweaterdresses'' (plural of '' Sweaterdress '', a knitted dress). The longest common words are the 12-letter ''desegregated'', ''desegregates'', ''reverberated'', ''reverberates'' and ''stewardesses''.

The 13-letter chemical name '' Phyllophyllin '' can be typed solely with the right hand. The longest such word that is reasonably common is the 9-letter '' Polyphony ''.

Common words of ten letters that can be spelled solely with the top line of letters on a ''.

The eight-letter words ''ashfalls'', ''Falashas'', '' Hadassah '', '' Haggadah '' and '' Haskalah '' can all be typed on the middle row of letters on the keyboard. The longest such common word is probably the seven-letter '' Alfalfa ''.


REFERENCES



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