Did you know?: English Language Trivia
Uncopyrightable is the longest word in the English language with no
repeated letters.
Of all the words in English, the word set has the most definitions.
The word indivisibility has only one vowel, which occurs six times.
ZIP stands for Zoning Improvement Plan in Zip-code.
Spoonfeed is the longest word whose letters are arranged in reverse
alphabetical order.
You and ewe are pronounced the same way but share no letters in
common. Eye and I is another such pair. Oh and eau is yet another.
Underfund and underground are the only two English words that start and
finish with `und`.
Feedback is the shortest word in English that has the letters a, b, c, d, e,
and f.
Bookkeeper is the only English word that has three consecutive double
letters.
The dot over the letter `i` is called a tittle.
The word checkmate in chess comes from the Persian phrase
“Shah mat,” which means “the king is dead”.
These words contain all five vowels in reverse alphabetical order
duoliteral, subcontinental and uncomplimentary.
Only three words have entered English from Czech polka, pilsner and
robot.
No word in the English language rhymes with month.
The word `lethologica` describes the state of not being able to
remember the word you want.
Palindromes
Words
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Eye
Pop
Noon
Level
Radar
Kayak
Rotator
Longest Palindromic Words
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‘Redivider’ is believed to be the longest palindromic word using common
English.
‘Detartrated’ is a seldom used scientific word.
‘Tattarrattat’ was coined by writer James Joyce in a book called ‘Ulysses'.
‘Aibohphobia’ is a joke term used to describe the fear of palindromes.
Names
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Eve
Bob
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Otto
Anna
Hannah
Sentences
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Evil olive.
Mirror rim.
Stack cats.
Doom mood.
Rise to vote sir.
Step on no pets.
Never odd or even.
A nut for a jar of tuna.
No lemon, no melon.
Some men interpret nine memos.
Gateman sees name, garageman sees nametag.
English Language Trivia
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched."
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver,or purple.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, h
and hazardous.
Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Por
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange,
purple, and silver!
Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The
following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced,
thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after
falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
alternately:
"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
The longest word in the English language is 1909 letters long and it
refers to a distinct part of DNA.
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which
are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a
letter is uncopyrightable.
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct
order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah
Mat," which means "the king is dead".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses
every letter in the English language.
The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they
start with.
The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to
remember the word you want.
TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters
on only one row of the keyboard.
The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left
to right or right to left.
No word in the English language rhymes with month.
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
The Bible has been translated into Klingon.
Did you know ....
1. Letters
1. The most commonly used letter in the alphabet is 'e'. (1 out of
every 8 letters written is an 'e'.)
2. The least used letter in the alphabet is 'q'.
3. The youngest letters in the English language are 'j', 'v', and 'w'.
4. The letter 'w' is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't
have one syllable. (It has three.)
5. Skiing is the only word with double 'i'.
6. 'Subbookkeeper' is the only word in common English with four
consecutive double letters.
7. There are only three words in the English language with the
letter combination 'uu': muumuu, vacuum and continuum.
8. Words that contain the letter combination 'abc': abcaree,
abchalazal, abcoulomb, crabcake, dabchick, drabcloth.
9. words that contain the letter combination 'xyz': hydroxyzine,
xyzzor.
10.
As recently as the 19th century, the ampersand (&) was
considered to be the 27th letter of the alphabet. It was called
“and” or sometimes “et”. "Ampersand" is a distortion of “and
per se and,” which is what children were taught to say after
"z."
2. Word Parts/Affixes
1. Dreamt is the only word that ends in '-mt'.
2. there are only 4 words in the English language which end in 'dous': hazardous, horrendous, stupendous, tremendous.
3. Only 3 words in standard English begin with the letter
combination 'dw-': dwarf, dwindle, dwell.
4. 'Underground' and 'underfund' are the only words in the English
language that begin and end with the letters 'und'.
5. 'Angry' and 'hungry' are the only words in the English language
ending in '-gry'.
3. Fun with Words
1. The most commonly used word in English conversation is 'I'.
2. The most commonly used words in written English include: the,
of, and, a, to, in, is, you, it, he, for, was, on, are, as, with, his,
they, at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, had, not, but, what,
all, were, when, we, there, can, an, your, which, their, said, if,
do.
3. The word 'set' has more definitions than any other word in the
English language. (192 definitions.)
4. The longest one syllable words in the English language are
'screeched', 'scratched' and 'strengths'.
5. The shortest 5 syllable word in the english language is
'ideology'.
6. The longest word in common English is
'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'.
7. The longest word in common English with no repeated letters
is 'uncopyrightable'.
8. 'Floccinaucinihilipilification' is the longest word without the
letter 'e'.
9. The word 'thitherwards' contains 23 words that can be made
without rearranging any of its letters: a, ar, ard, ards, er, he,
her, hi, hit, hithe, hither, hitherward, hitherwards, I, it, ither,
the, thitherward, thitherwards, wa, war, ward, wards.
10.
The word 'almost' is the longest word in common English
with all the letters in alphabetical order. ('Aegilops' is longer,
but not in common usage.)
11.
'Spoonfed' is the longest word in common English with its
letters arranged in reverse alphabetical order.
12.
The longest words in which no letter appears more than
once: dermatoglyphics, misconjudatedly, uncopyrightable,
subdermatoglyphic.
13.
The longest words in which each letter occurs at least
twice: unprosperousness, esophagographers.
14.
Words in which a single letter is used 6 times:
degenerescence, indivisibility, nonannouncement.
15.
The longest word in common English that is a natural
palindrome: redivider.
16.
The longest words that are reverse images of each other:
stressed/desserts.
17.
Words that have no singular plural form: alms, amends,
braces, cattle, clothes, doldrums, eaves, folk/folks, ides,
marginalia, pants, pliers, scissors, shorts, smithereens,
trousers.
18.
Non-scientific words that are anagrams of each
other: representationalism/misrepresentational;
conservationalists/conversationalists;
internationalism/interlaminations;
interrogatives/reinvestigator/tergiversation.
19.
Words that consist of consecutive letters (with no
repeats): rust, struv, feigh, hefig, fighed.
4. Fun with Vowels
1. The word 'queueing' is the only English word with five
consecutive vowels.
2. Words that contain all five (or six, if you append "ly") vowels in
alphabetical order: abstemious, abstentious, adventitious,
aerious, annelidous, arsenious, arterious, caesious, facetious.
3. Words which contain all five vowels in reverse alphabetical
order: duoliteral, quodlibetal, subcontinental,
uncomplimentary, unnoticeably, unproprietary.
4. 'Strengths' is the longest word with only one vowel.
5. "Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal
vowels, a, e, i, o, or u. (Twyndyllyngs is longer, but not in
common usage.)
6. Words that begin and end with vowels, but have no vowels in
between: asthma, isthmi, aphtha, eltchi.
7. The longest word that consists entirely of alternating vowels
and consonants is 'honorific/abilitud/initati/bus'.
5. Phonics
1. The most commonly occuring sound in spoken English is the
sound of 'a' in 'alone'. (Followed by 'e' as in key; 't' as in 'top';
'd' as in 'dip'.)
2. 'Of' is the only commonly used word in which the 'f' is
pronounced like a 'v'. (also hereof, thereof, whereof.)
3. No words in the English language rhyme with month, wasp,
depth, orange, silver or purple.
4. The following sentence contains seven spellings of the [i]
("ee") sound: "He believed Caesar could see people seizing the
seas."
5. The follow sentence contains nine ways the combination
"ough" can be pronounced: "A rough-coated, dough-faced,
thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of
Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and
hiccoughed.
6. Typewriting
1. Scientists say the easiest sound for the human ear to hear is
'ah'.
2. The longest words typeable on a qwerty keyboard with left
hand: desegregated, desegregates, reverberated,
reverberates, stewardesses, watercresses. (Aftercataracts and
tesseradecades are longer, but not in common usage.)
3. The longest word typeable on a qwerty keyboard with right
hand: homophony, homophyly, nonillion, pollinium, polyonomy,
polyphony.
7. Synonyms/Antonyms
1. The following words have two synonyms that are antonyms:
cleave (adhere, separate), cover (conceal, expose), sanction
(approve, prohibit), transparent (hidden, known), trim (garnish,
prune).
2. Synonyms that should be antonyms but
aren't: flammable/inflammable, toxicant/intoxicant.
8. Symbols
1. The dot on top of the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
2. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
9. Just for fun:
1. English is arguably the richest in vocabulary; and that the
Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and there
are a half-million technical and scientific terms still
uncatalogued.
2. The highest scoring word in the English language game of
Scrabble is 'quartzy'. (This will score 164 points if played
across a red triple-word square with the 'z' on a light blue
double-letter square.)
3. 'Go' is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
4. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest
sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period.
5. 'Cabbaged', 'debagged', and 'fabaceae' are the longest words
that can be played on a musical instrument.
6. 'Q' is the only letter that does not appear in the name of any of
the U.S. states.
7. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that
they start with.
8. The oldest word in the English language is 'town'.
9. The ten most commonly used verbs in the English language
are: be, have, do, go, say, can, will, see, take, get. (All are
irregular.)
10.
Words that used to be trademarks but have since entered
into common usage: aspirin, bandaid, breathalyzer,
cellophane, ditto, dry ice, dumpster, escalator, frisbee, granola,
heroin, jacuzzi, jeep, jello, kerosene, kleenex, popsicle, q-tip,
rollerblade, scotch tape, sheetrock, styrofoam, tabloid, tarmac,
thermos, trampoline, windbreaker, yo-yo, zipper.
11.
The word 'lethologica' describes the state of not being
able to remember the word you want.
Language Trivia
"Euouae," a medieval music term, is the longest word in English that
contains only vowels. It’s also the word with the most consecutive
vowels.
"Screeched," which means to make a harsh sound, is the longest onesyllable word in English.
"Unprosperousness", meaning not wealthy or profitable, is the longest
word in English in which each letter is used at least two times.
The words "facetiously," "abstemiously," and "arseniously," each contain
all six vowels (including “y”) in alphabetical order. The word "duoliteral"
contains all five vowels (not including “y”) in reverse alphabetical order.
At 45 letters, "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis," which
refers to a lung disease, is often considered the longest word in English.
"Feedback" is the shortest word in English that has the letters a, b, c, d,
e, and f.
"Floccinaucinihilipilification," is the longest word in English that does not
contain letter “e”
No words in English rhyme with: "month," "orange," "silver," or "purple."
“Q” is the only letter that does not occur in any of the U.S. state names.
"Maine" is the only U.S. state whose name is just one syllable.
"Bookkeeper" is the only English word that has three consecutive double
letters.
The word “therein” contains only seven letters, but it contains 10 words
that can be formed using consecutive letters: the, there, I, he, in, rein,
her, here, ere, herein.
The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a
pangram, which is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet.
"United Arab Emirates," a small country in the Middle East, is made up of
alternating vowels and consonants. It is the longest name of a country
whose letters do that.