Sunday, October 17, 2010

English Trivia

  • The word set has more definitions than any other word in the
    English language.
  • Underground is the only word in the English language that
    begins and ends with the letters “und.”
  • There are only four words in the English language which end
    in”-dous” tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  • The longest one-syllable word in the English language is
    screeched.
  • The longest word in the English language, according to the
    Oxford English Dictionary,
    is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
    The only other word with the same amount of letters is
    pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.
  • There is a seven letter word in the English language that
    contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters,
    therein the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein. Does the sporting goods store REI count too?
  • Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the
    left hand. (On a QWERTY keyboard)
  • Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct
    order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing arsenic.”
  • 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 only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a
    letter is uncopyrightable.
  • 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”.

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