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Language Trivia 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 one-syllable 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. Words Orthography The longest common (i.e., likely to appear in an unabridged "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis " (45)6; dictionary) word The two longest one-syllable "screech ed" (9)2, "strength s" (9)2. words in English words which contain all five (or six, if you append "ly") vowels in "facetious "1, "abstemious "4, "annelidous "5, "arsenious "4 alphabetical order words which contain all five vowels in reverse alphabetical "duoliteral "5, "subcontinental "5 "uncomplimentary "5 order words which contain the longest "bergschrund " (6), "borscht s" (6), "eschscholtzia " (6), "latchstring " strings of consonants14 (6), "weltschmerz " (6) longest word with no repeated "uncopyright able" (15)4 letters sentence containing seven "He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas." spellings of the [i] ("ee") sound "A rough -coated, dough -faced, thoughtful ploughman sentence containing nine ways strode through the streets of Scarborough ; the combination "ough" can be after falling into a slough , pronounced he cough ed and hiccough ed." longest word typeable on a "desegregate d" (12), "desegregate s" (12), "reverberate d" (12), qwerty keyboard with left hand9 "reverberate s" (12), "stewardess es" (12), "watercress es" (12) longest word typeable on a "homophony " (9), "homophyly " (9), "nonillion " (9), "pollinium " (9), qwerty keyboard with right "polyonomy " (9), "polyphony " (9) hand10 longest word typeable on a qwerty keyboard with "dismantlement " (13) alternating hands11 longest word typeable on a qwerty keyboard on the top row "rupturewort " (11), "proterotype " (11) ("qwertyuiop")7 longest word typeable on a qwerty keyboard on the middle "alfalfa s" (11), "hadassah " (11) row ("asdfghjkl")8 Semantics words with two synonyms which "cleave " ("adhere " and "separate ")4 are antonyms "cover " ("conceal " and "expose ")13 "sanction " ("approve " and "prohibit " (colloquial))12 "transparent " ("hidden " (jargon) and "known " (jargon))15 "trim " ("garnish " and "prune ")16 seemingly contradictory "flammable " and "inflammable " synonyms "toxicant " and "intoxicant " word describing the shape of the "orthotetrachidecahedrons"4 bubbles in beer foam origin of the word "checkmate" Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead".4 English language did you knows Did you knowthe most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E Did you knowthe least used letter in the alphabet is Q Did you knowdreamt is the only word that ends in mt Did you knowthe first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON Did you knowthere are only 4 words in the English language which end in 'dous' (they are: hazardous, horrendous, stupendous and tremendous) Did you knowthe oldest word in the English language is 'town' Did you know'Bookkeeper' and 'bookkeeping' are the only 2 words in the English language with three consecutive double letters Did you knowthe word 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel Did you knowthe dot on top of the letter 'i' is called a tittle Did you knowthe past tense for the English word 'dare' is 'durst' Did you knowthe word 'testify' derived from a time when men were required to swear on their testicles Did you knowThe first English dictionary was written in 1755 Did you knowthe word old English word 'juke' meaning dancing lends its name to the juke box Did you know1 out of every 8 letters written is an e Did you knowthe longest one syllable word in the English language is 'screeched' Did you knowall pilots on international flights identify themselves in English regardless of their country of origin Did you knowthe expression to 'knuckle down' originated from playing marbles (players used to put their knuckles to the ground for their best shots) Did you knowthe word 'almost' is the longest in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order Did you knowthe most commonly used word in English conversation is 'I' Language & Words Trivia & Useless Facts The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead". The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic." "Polish" is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality. "Corduroy" comes from the French, "cord du roi" or "cloth of the king." The slash character is called a virgule, or solidus. A URL uses slash characters, not back slash characters. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate. 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." 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. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares. 'Bezique' and 'Cazique' are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go. The English word with the most consonants in a row is latchstring. The word "robot" was created by Karel Capek. It came from Czech/Slovak "robotovat," which means to work very hard. The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is the word "deeded." A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral. The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable. The word "karate" means "empty hand." The word "girl" appears only once in the Bible. The abbrevation "PDX" (Portland International Airport) is derived from "P" standing for Portland and "DX" meaning long distance or wide reaching. The abbreviation "ORD" for Chicago's O'Hare airport comes from the old name "Orchard Field." Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan. A H I M O T U V W X Y are the symmetric capital letters in the Roman alphabet. i l o t u v w x are the symmetric lower case letters in the Roman alphabet. All Hebrew orignating names that end with the letters "el" have something to do with God. Source: Joshua Allen The 'v' in the name of a court case does not stand for 'versus', but for 'and' (in civil proceedings) or 'against' (in criminal proceedings). The term, honeymoon, is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding; that month became known as the honeymonth, hence our honeymoon. Source: Bryan Giese "Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels. The national anthem of the Netherlands "Het Wilhelmus," is an 'acrostichon.' The first letters of each of the fifteen verses represent the name "Willem Van Nassov" (old spelling.) Source: Albert Siersema The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths." Source: Michael Baraz 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel. The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupoka iwhenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It is a a pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. The second longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is "floccinaucinihilipilification," which means "the act of estimating as worthless." The third longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism".
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