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Words

(Note to self: Insert pithy quote about words, when I get around to finding one.)

Balloon: Word with two sets of consecutive double letters

Bookkeeper: Word with three sets of consecutive double letters

SUBBOOKKEEPER

TROLLIED longest word with letters in reverse order

The shortest word with the five vowels in alphabetical order is AERIOUS (7 letters), meaning "airy." The OED2 shows one use of this word with this spelling in 1657. Other words with the five vowels occurring once each and in alphabetical order are: ABSTEINOUS, ABSTEMIOUS, ABSTENIOUS, ABSTENTIOUS, ACERIFLORUM, ACERIFLORUS, ACHEILOUS, ACHEIROUS, ACLEISTOUS, ADECTICOUS which is not in the OED2 but which web pages show is an adjective which describes a pupa with non-functional mandibles, ADVENTIOUS, AFFECTIOUS, ALEIKOUM, ALPESTRIOUS, ANEMIOUS, ANNELIDOUS, ARSENIOUS, ARTERIOSUM, ARTERIOSUS, ARTERIOUS, AVENIOUS, BACTERIOUS, CAESIOUS, CAMELIOUS, CARNELIOUS, FACETIOUS, FRACEDINOUS, GAREISOUN, GRAVEDINOUS, MAJESTIOUS, MATERIOUS, PARECIOUS, PLACENTIOUS, TRAGEDIOUS [Philip Bennett, Stuart Kidd, Paul Browning].

ULTRAREVOLUTIONARIES has each vowel exactly twice.

reverse order: DUOLITERAL, SUBCONTINENTAL UNCOMPLIMENTARY
The longest word in dictionaries having only one vowel is STRENGTHS.

Words with five consecutive vowels include QUEUEING

left hand on keyboare: AFTEREFFECTS,CRABGRASSES, EFFERVESCES REAGGRAVATES STEWARDESSES, SWEATERDRESSES VERTEBRATES, WASTEWATERS
right: LOLLIPOP MONOPOLY
TYPEWRITER can be typed using only the top row of keys on the keyboard.
PLEASING is typed by using each finger one time
6 consecutive consonants: CATCHPHRASE LATCHSTRING

JINNI is a singular form that becomes shorter when pluralized to JINN [Stuart Kidd].

AXE and AXIS are two different words, yet share the same plural, AXES

The smallest number whose name uses the six vowels a, e, i, o, u, y in order would appear to be 1,000,000,000,008,020 (one quadrillion eight thousand twenty).
The smallest number whose name uses the five vowels a, e, i, o, u in order is 1084 (one thousand eighty-four).
Among words consisting only of Roman numeral letters, the words with the highest total value are MIMIC (2,102)
FORTY is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order. FIRST shares this property [Stuart Kidd]. According to Stuart Kidd, ONE is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.
FOUR has four letters; no other number has this property in English such that the number of letters in the name equals the number.

Bevy: has its letters in alphabetical order but is also symmetrical in its distribution over the alphabet (that is, B and Y are equidistant from the center; likewise E and V
BAGGAGE, CABBAGE, FEEDBAG can be played on a musical instrument.
AEGILOPS (alternate spelling of egilops, an ulcer in a part of the eye) consists of letters in alphabetical order
COCOON DOODAD GOOGOL MAMMAL PEPPER TATTOO WEEDED has one instance of one letter, two instances of a second letter, and three isntances of a tird letter
INSTANTIATIONS, has one letter once, two letters twice, three letters three times
INTESTINES HAPPENCHANCE HOTSHOTS SIGNINGS, all have each letter appear twice
CRABCAKE contains "ABC"
DEEDED has each of its letters appearng three times
DREAMT ends in "MT"
ASTHMA begins and ends with a vowel and has no other vowels in between

EWE and YOU, OUI/WEE, are pronounced exactly the same, yet share no letters in common.
FICKLEHEADED and FIDDLEDEEDEE may be the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet.
NONTORTUOUS, SOUPSPOONS, second half of the alph.
RUGGED/SHRUGGED BOA/BOAT, OLE,SOLE NAKED/SNAKED two syllable words that become one syllable words by adding one or more letters
CAME/CAMEO RODE/RODEO SMILE/SIMILE one syllable word becomes three syllables by adding just one letter
Beijing gaijin Fiji, Hajji, hijinks three dotted letters in a row

one syllable countries: CHAD, FRANCE, GREECE, LAOS (one pronunciation), and SPAIN [Philip Bennett]. Several readers of this page have suggested adding WALES

CHECKBOOK, CHOICE, CODEBOOK, COOKBOOK, DECIDED, DIOXIDE, reflect themselves across a horizontal line

HIV VIRUS is an obvious redundancy, since the "v" stands for "virus." Some other common redundancies which include an abbreviation are ATM MACHINE, SALT TALKS, START TALKS, VIN NUMBER, PIN NUMBER, AC CURRENT, DC CURRENT, ISBN NUMBER, DOS OPERATING SYSTEM, ABS BRAKING SYSTEM, DIMM MODULE (Dynamic Inline Memory Module), EFT TRANSFER (Electronic Funds Transfer), EMP PULSE (Electromagnetic Pulse), and LCD DISPLAY [Thomas Larson, Nate Roe, Charles Turner, and others].
MONDAY is the only day of the week that has an anagram, DYNAMO
MUZZ would, according to Paul Dickson, be the last word in the Random House Dictionary if all the words in the dictionary were spelled backwards.
It is said that no word rhymes with ORANGE
It is claimed that -OUGH can be pronounced 9 different ways in the following sentence:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.

The alphabetical sequence -rstu- is contained in OVERSTUFF
monosyllabic: SCRATCHED STRENGTHS, STRETCHED,
PIERRE, the capital of South Dakota, is the only state capital name that shares no letters with the name of its state
Q is the only letter that does not occur in the names of the states of the U. S.
MAINE is the only name of a state of the United States consisting of only one syllable.

The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct spellings) according to a study of Usenet traffic several years ago were DUMBBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI, PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and PRONUNCIATION.
The same study showed these words most frequently misspelled (by gross count): RECEIVE, A LOT, AMATEUR, SEPARATE, REALIZE, THEIR, DEFINITE, INDEPENDENT, WEIRD, EMBARRASS, ARGUMENT, NO ONE, ACQUIRE, ACCIDENTALLY, OCCURRENCE, COLLECTIBLE, RIDICULOUS, MANEUVER, LIAISON, GAUGE, ATHEIST, GRAMMAR, SUPERSEDE, KERNEL, and CONSENSUS.
most frequently misspelled: MINUSCULE, MILLENNIUM, EMBARRASSMENT, OCCURRENCE, ACCOMMODATE, PERSEVERANCE, SUPERSEDE, NOTICEABLE, HARASS, INOCULATE, OCCURRED, SEPARATE, EMBARRASS, PRECEDING, INDISPENSABLE, DEFINITELY, PRIVILEGE, GAUGE, QUESTIONNAIRE, EXISTENCE, MINIATURE, PRECEDE, WEIRD, RHYTHM, SEPARATELY, CONSCIENTIOUS, MISSPELL, HIERARCHY, GRAMMAR, CALENDAR, and WITHHOLD.

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS (45 letters; a lung disease caused by breathing in certain particles) is the longest word in any English-language dictionary. (It is also spelled -koniosis.)

More words