DID YOU KNOW?
No words in English rhyme with month, orange, silver, or purple.
Bookkeeper is the only word in the English language that has three consecutive double letters.
The word strengths is the longest English word with only one vowel.
Skiing is the only common noun with a double i. (Hawaii is a proper noun).
Rhythms is the longest English language word with no vowels (unless you count y as a vowel.)
Queueing is the only word in the language that has five consecutive vowels.
None of the words from one to nine hundred ninety-nine have an a in them.
Polish is the only word in the English language that changes from a common noun or verb to a nationality when the P is capitailzed.
Uncopyrightable is the only English word with 15 letters where no letter is repeated.
The dot over the letter i is called a tittle.
The only number that has the same number of letters as the value it represents is four.
You can type the word typewriter just using the top row of the QUERTY keyboard.
Faced and decaf both use letters from the first six letters of the alphabet without repeating any letters.
Often the last entry in the dictionary, zyzzyva is a type of weevil.
The only common language that has no governing association to make and change grammar rules is . . . English.
Here I went again (but not looking things up in the OED ….):
Final ‘-e’ is REGULARLY dropped before the ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ inflections;
but ‘-ee’, ‘-ye’, ‘-oe’, ‘-ue’ do not drop the ‘-e’ before ‘-ing’; but they do drop it before ‘-ed’:
agree – agreeing – agreed
dye – dyeing – dyed
hoe – hoeing – hoed
queue – queueing – queued
singe – singeing – singed
But then I could not help myself: OED gives alternative spellings without final ‘-e’:
‘turn hair up in a queue’: While they are combing and queuing him. (1858, Carlyle).
1927 When the public-houses opened their doors in the evening there was no queuing-up.
1948 James was delighted to see a row of taxis.‥ There was none of that queuing he had been led to expect.
1956 This is typical of a number of congestion problems that arise in … , in the queuing of patients at a hospital, and so on.
Very few examples and far between, but remember the ‘REGULARLY’ from the beginning of this reply.
I would still opt for ‘queueing’, so 5 consecutive vowels , indeed.
Thank you for all your work and the information! I do believe I need more coffee before I can process it all! 🙂
Try ‘kopi luwak’ from Indonesia (land of some of myf orebears), a very tasty coffee at a mere US$ 590 per pound.
P.S. Don’t look this up!
I won’t look it up! 😉
Thank you-all new information!
Question-is it Intent and purpose. Or is it Intense and purpose.
Any history on the expression would help.
Love this big words place to come and enjoy words
Thanks so much. Well, the expression is “for all intents and purposes.”
Dear Arlene,
On the rhyming words, I could find in the OED the following two word:
chilver, ‘ewe-lamb’; possibly only in the UK. (From an ablauted form of ‘calf’.
sporange, anglicized form of ‘sporangium’, a spore-case or -capsule.
So, in everyday use, there are ‘No words in English rhyme …’.
Thanks for that information! There’s always one smartest in the class!!!! And that is you! :)\
I am flattered actually that you took the time to look it up!
“Faced and “decaf” have only five letters and no “b”.
I know. However, it didn’t say that they used all the letters, just that they used letters from the first 6 and didn’t repeat any.
You do mean “queueing” not “queuing”n right?
Oh, no. Did I make a typo? Thanks Will check it out and fix. My bad.
I always enjoy your offerings, so I hate to be a party-pooper. But…
I’m baffled by the claim about “faced” and “decaf.” There is no letter ‘b’ in either of them.
The way you wrote it, “nine hundred and ninety-nine” has an ‘a’ in “and.” Probably should have been “nine hundred ninety-nine.”
With apologies and in the spirit of the fun this posting represents! 🙂
That is quite all right. I appreciate the comment! It didn’t say that the words used ALL the first six letters. I forget the wording, but I wondered the same thing when I first read it. So obviously, they used letters from the first six and didn’t repeat any.
I counted four vowels in queuing – ueui.
Typo. I will fix. I left out a vowel.