Word Ways Challenges

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In 1979 Philip M. Cohen and A. Ross Eckler gathered the open problems that Word Ways had posed since 1968 into a three-part survey: "Word Ways Challenges" (12-3, 12-83, 12-181). This page restates each challenge in brief, links every Word Ways reference to the article on Butler University's Digital Commons, and adds what later issues of Word Ways reported and what a computer search of our word lists finds today.

A challenge, in their sense, asks for the most extreme example of a word property, for words completing a set (such as all 676 bigrams), or for a group of words with a given interrelationship (such as a word square). Dictionary levels, from smallest to largest: PD (a pocket dictionary), 7C and 8C (Webster's Seventh and Eighth Collegiate), NI (Webster's New International, second edition NI2 or third NI3), O or OED (the Oxford English Dictionary), UD (any unabridged dictionary), AD (any dictionary or reference work, gazetteers included). Also cited: RHD (Random House Dictionary), F&W (Funk and Wagnalls), CTC (Chambers). The definitions are on pages 4-5 of Part 1, which are missing from the Digital Commons scan; GD there is undefined.

"Later in Word Ways" lines summarize what Word Ways printed after the survey, through its last issue in 2020: records beaten or matched, gaps filled, questions settled, and, where nothing turned up, a note saying so. They come from a reading of every issue, and each is linked to the page that reports it (for 2018-2020, where pages restart in each issue, to the issue). The dictionary each result relies on is the one the article names; many later answers go beyond NI to the OED, dialect dictionaries, gazetteers or the web, and a few were later questioned in Word Ways itself, as the lines note.

"Found here" lines come from words.graded, the combined word list behind the Taxonomy of Wordplay: common words (grade 0), uncommon words (grade 1) and words found only in its largest sources (grade 2), letters only, with no phrases, hyphenated entries or abbreviations. Among words of equal length the lower grade is listed first. Grade 2 includes foreign words, nonce forms and other doubtful entries, so a grade 2 result is a lead to check, not a record. They are not NI or OED lookups: a word found here may still need checking against the dictionary a challenge names.

Uncommon words (grade 1) are marked with a degree sign, as in aegilops°, and grade 2 words with a dagger, as in noruz†.

Contents

Word Squares

1. 4x4 and 5x5 word squares with the most or fewest different letters: records 3 and 16 (4x4, NI2), 5 and 21 (5x5, NI2 and OED) (72-105, 172, 74-227, 78-36). Extend to 6x6, or beat the records with UD or AD words. Can any form (diamond, pyramid) hold all 26 letters?

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant built a 6x6 double square with 23 different letters (all but q x z), from NI2, OED and EDD words: fjorck luvian adepti germal hoball twynes. (13-30)
  • Jeff Grant gave a regular 5x5 square using only E and S (esses...) and a 6x6 double square using only E R S T, from OED and EDD words. (12-216)
  • Jeff Grant later gave a 16-letter 4x4 square of OSPD words (grid auto slew hymn; down gash ruly item down), after a 1980 version (bash/gown) with ruly from Chambers. (13-212, 40-96)
  • Jeff Grant answered the 26-letter question with a pangrammatic double nine-diamond (burowed, jagal, juick, kaxes, leovs, mir...) from OED, EDD, NI2 and gazetteers. (17-19)
  • Christopher McManus found a second answer: a pangrammatic 7-lattice of 33 letters, all words in NI2 (bagwyns, envapor, jukebox...), most also in OSPD3 and NI3. (35-255, 35-256)
  • Rex Gooch (finished by Susan Thorpe) searched by computer: no double 5-square has 25 different letters, 20 have 24 and 19,619 have 23, using OED, gazetteer and web terms. (40-189)

2. A 9x9 single word square of mostly NI words, or a 10x10 square of tautonyms (Walla Walla, chimachima) from O sources; the best of the latter uses only four different tautonyms (73-151).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Eric Albert's computer found the first 9x9 square with every word in NI2: necessism existence circumfer escarping sturnidae sempitern infidelic scenarize mergences. (24-195)
  • Chris Long built an OED-only 9x9 square: worcester overlarge recoinage crosstied elisional santonate trainages eggeaters reedlesse. (41-217)
  • Jeff Grant built a 9x9 square (epistasis pentonene intestate stenciler to-scatere anti-terms sealeries intermete seeresses), five words NI2, three OED, one from the New Yorker. (13-195)
  • Jeff Grant built a tautonymic 10x10 square of five different tautonyms from modern sources (japan japan, alangalang, passe-passe, anser anser, ngerengere). (18-200)
  • Rex Gooch found almost 500 tautonymic ten-squares (quarter squares) by computer, about 29% of all the ten-squares he found. (36-71)

3. A univocalic 5x5 double word square of PD words (closest: 9 E's and 2 A's) (77-174); univocalic 6x6 double squares need NI at least (76-80); a univocalic 6x6 single square may be possible in 8C.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Nothing found on univocalic 5x5 or 6x6 word squares in later Word Ways.

4. 5x5 word squares with three or fewer consonants, or six or fewer vowels (69-221).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant gave a 5x5 square with only three vowels (schwt crwth hwrte wtter therm, OED) and one with only two consonants (aeaea eneye..., OED and a gazetteer). (12-216)
  • David Rosen built a 5x5 square with only six vowels, all from the Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary: strap trine rings angst pests. (12-216)

5. A 6x6x6 triple word cube of 108 different UD words; one with OED words only exists (78-156).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Barry Fagan's computer found a 6x6x6 symmetrical word cube from the EOWL list (presto rushes escort shovel terete ostler...), the only one in that list; not 108 different words. (46-9)

6. The largest 2xn crossword of CTC words is PASSEMEASURE over INTERORBITAL (77-242). Find longer with NI or UD words.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant built a 2x19 crossword overcapitalizations over authoritativenesses, from NI2 or NI3 except ze (OED), iv (EDD) and oa (Times Index-Gazetteer). (12-154)
  • Tom Pulliam extended the 2xn crossword to 17 with NI2 or NI3 words: denominationalism over anisoleucocytosis. (12-92)
  • Christopher McManus found by computer a 2x14 grid over sedimentometer from one medical dictionary (Stedman's) plus OSPD two-letter words, and 16 grids of 2x12. (34-234, 34-235)

7. Word squares with numerical properties (A=1 ... Z=26): 5x5 squares with letter sums under 63 or over 467 (69-221); a 6x6 single square of numerical tautonyms, 537 of which are listed (70-244, 71-82); a 5x5 square that is a magic square when its letters become numbers; a 5x5 square of ten different letters with the digit patterns 12345 24680 36925 48260 50505 (69-115).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Anil gave 3x3 word squares that are magic squares with diagonals (yam amy mya, sum 39, NI3) and asked for larger ones. (38-76)
  • Leonard Gordon built 5x5, 6x6 and 8x8 magic word squares from Euler squares, but each cell is a whole word, not a letter. (29-235, 30-119)

Letters, Bigrams, Trigrams

8. NI words with four of the same letter exist for all letters but J, Q, V and X (69-53); an AD Q-example is in (70-180).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Dmitri Borgmann gave jejunojejunostomy, written solid in all medical dictionaries, for four J's; for Q he gave the Alaskan place name qawiqsaqq. (19-5)
  • Chris Cole and Ross Eckler found NI3 has at most three Q's (qaraqalpaq), three V's and two J's or X's; jejuno-jejunostomy (NI2) has four J's, solid in Dorland's. (28-35, 28-36)

Found here:

  • J: jejunojejunostomy°, jajjaj†
  • Q: quqequq†
  • V: avivaviva†, svvollovvs†
  • X: xxxix†, xoxxox†

9. Five of the same letter: H, K, P, U, W, Y and Z lie outside NI (zenzizenzizenzic, in the OED, is an improvement), and M is an NI phrase, multimammate mouse (70-252). Find AD or UD examples for H, J, Q, V, W, X and Y.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole and Ross Eckler found NI3's humuhumunukunukuapuaa has nine U's, though no other NI3 word has more than four; Y reaches only four (dacryocystosyringotomy, NI2). (28-36)

Found here:

  • H: most is 7, hohohohohohoh†
  • J: most is 4, jejunojejunostomy°, jajjaj†
  • K: most is 6, kukkukkuk†
  • M: most is 5, Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus†
  • P: most is 8, saippuakuppinippukauppias†
  • Q: most is 4, quqequq†
  • U: most is 9, humuhumunukunukuapuaa°, humuhumunukunukuapuaas°
  • V: most is 4, avivaviva†, svvollovvs†
  • W: most is 4, wowwow†, wowwows†
  • X: most is 4, xxxix†, xoxxox†
  • Y: most is 5, polysymbrachydactyly†, llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch†
  • Z: most is 6, zenzizenzizenzic†, zenzizenzizenzics†

10. An alternating monotony has the same letter in every other position, three or more times: monogonoporous, pitot-static. Beat the NI3 records: eight U, six O, five A, E and I (six A in Panama balata), four K, R and T, three C D L M N P S T V, three B and G in the phrases baby blue and go gage (71-77, 72-73).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Edward Wolpow found nonunanimous with four alternating N's; Tom Pulliam gave Hawaiian onahanahaiaua (six A's) and lolololohua (four L's). (12-91)
  • Chris Cole confirmed humuhumunukunukuapuaa (eight U's) as the longest alternating monotony in NI3, ahead of monogonoporous (six O's). (23-82)
  • David Morice noted yatata yatata (six alternating A's), a phrase in Wentworth and Flexner's Dictionary of Slang, equal to Panama balata. (26-116)

Found here:

  • A 6: taramasalata°
  • B 3: bebeb†
  • C 3: cockcrow
  • D 3: daded°
  • E 6: telemetereder†
  • F 3: fufuf†
  • G 3: gagag†
  • H 7: hohohohohohoh†
  • I 7: floccinaucinihilipilification°
  • J 3: jijij†
  • K 4: kukukuku°
  • L 3: lilylike°
  • M 4: amamamama†
  • N 4: nonanonymity°
  • O 6: monogonoporous°
  • P 4: apapapapa†
  • Q 4: quqequq†
  • R 4: riroriro°
  • S 4: parisosises°
  • T 4: atitatita†
  • U 8: humuhumunukunukuapuaa°
  • V 4: avivaviva†
  • W 4: wuwowuw†
  • X 3: xexex†
  • Y 4: kyrymyry†
  • Z 3: zazaz†

11. NI words contain every set of three letters except FJQ FXZ JJQ JJX JJZ JQV JQX JQZ JXX JXZ KQX QQW QQX QWX QXX XXX XXZ (72-162, 206). Find them in NI or UD (hexahydroxycyclohexane, in RHD, has XXX).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Edward Wolpow found QQW in the hyphenated quobosque-weed, and Tom Pulliam found FXZ in deflexionization and benzofuroquinoxaline, all in NI2. (12-91)
  • Philip Cohen found JJZ in Zu'lhijjah in NI2 and NI3; Darryl Francis and Cohen gave place-name examples for the other gaps (Quixwood for QWX, Xaxazana for XXZ). (15-84)
  • Benjamin Zimmer filled QXX with xaxaquine from Dorland's Medical Dictionary. (17-146)

Found here:

  • FXZ: sulfamethoxazole, fuzzbox°
  • JJQ: jaqaj†
  • JJZ: jazaj†, zulhijjah†
  • JQV: sjoqvist†
  • JQZ: janizaresque†, janizaresquer†
  • JXX: xijix†, xenejenex†
  • QQW: qawaq†, qfwfq†
  • QQX: qaxaq†
  • QXX: quaxxed†, quaxxing†
  • XXX: hexahydroxycyclohexane°, xxx†
  • XXZ: xyzyx†, xzyzx†
  • no word found for FJQ, JJX, JQX, JXZ, KQX, QWX

12. 627 of the 676 bigrams occur inside NI words (69-215, 70-19, 75-88, 76-17); fx jq px qg qk qp zx are known only from O words. Upgrade them to AD or UD.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Ross Eckler's 676-bigram list gives fx only in Poe's nonce fxr, jq in Maltese fejqien, px qg qk qp in Hodge's Indian names, zx in Zyzzx (California); no AD or UD upgrade. (15-215)

Found here:

  • fx: fx°, npfx†, setpfx†
  • px: px†, pxt†
  • qg: penetrolqgy†
  • qk: qkt†, qkelt†, qkeltic†
  • qp: qp†, qpl†, eqpt†
  • zx: xzyzx†
  • no word found for jq

13. O words with two pairs of doubled letters (O and L in football), ignoring J Q V X, are known for every pair except AW BI BM BU BW CH CK CU CW CY DU DW DY EI FH FU FY GH GI GU GW HI HK HP HU HW HY HZ IW IZ KW KZ MW OY PW UW VZ WY WZ (73-17, 77-246). (Pairs with J Q V X: IQ JO JT JV KV LV OQ OV, see 77-109.)

Later in Word Ways:

  • Susan Thorpe found adjacent double doubles for gap pairs in OED variants: powwaa (aw), iibbet (bi), tabbuuli (bu), vaccuum (cu), dyffyyn (fy), iigge (gi), chiriihha (hi). (36-66, 36-67, 36-68)
  • Darryl Francis filled 47 of the 57 gaps, many from OED: rabbiing (bi), occupyyd (cy), hydduus (du), widdowwood (dw), belyydde (dy), leersii (ei), kirchhoff (fh), effectuusly (fu). (51.1)
  • Darryl Francis also gave OED niggliite (gi), nuutmugg (gu), whhipp (hp), hawwaiian (iw), wyyfhood (oy), euuww (uw); still open: cw hw hy mw pw wy wz uz yz. (51.1)

Found here:

  • BI: gubbii†, rabbiing†
  • BM: bubblegummer°
  • CY: tobaccoyyer†, tobaccoyyest†
  • DW: siddowwer†, siddowwest†
  • DY: middayyer†, middayyest†
  • EI: opiizeed†, treenaiing†
  • FH: kirchhoff, kirchhoffs†
  • FY: yyff†, yyffs†
  • GH: bushhogged°, bushhogging°
  • GI: niggliite°, shoggiing°
  • HI: wahhabiism†
  • HP: frothhopper†
  • OY: blooeyyer†, mooleyyer†
  • no word found for AW, BU, BW, CH, CK, CU, CW, DU, FU, GU, GW, HK, HU, HW, HY, HZ, IW, IZ, KW, KZ, MW, PW, UW, VZ, WY, WZ

Lexemes

14. NI entries containing numbers (azoic diazo 37) cover 1-100 except 65 67 68 69 77 82 91 96 97, and Roman numerals up to XXIII except XIX XX XXI (72-57).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article found reporting NI entries with the missing numbers (65 67 68 69 77 82 91 96 97) or Roman numerals XIX-XXI.

15. NI phrases with isolated letters (potato X virus) are known only for E Q R T X; find others in O (71-100).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later article found with dictionary phrases having an isolated letter inside (like potato X virus) beyond E Q R T X.

16. For each initial, the most famous person known by it (L. Frank Baum); examples for A B C E F G H I J L O R U W at (71-38).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later article found naming famous people known by a first initial for the missing initials (D K M N P Q S T V X Y Z).

Alphabetic Letter Order

17. The longest NI3 word from the first half of the alphabet is hamamelidaceae (72-26); longer phrases are black-backed jackal and lead-lead acid cell (68-35). The longest NI2 word from the last half is unsonorous. Beat both in NI or UD.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Susan Thorpe found the 17-letter first-half placename baeccicielgejakka (a Norwegian stream), gazetteer only, not NI or UD. (36-48)
  • Susan Thorpe found two 13-letter second-half placenames, tuttoqqortooq (Greenland island) and rossouwspoort (South African pass), gazetteer only. (36-48)
  • Chris Cole's NI3 records keep hamamelidaceae (14) as the longest first-half word and give nonsupports (11) for the last half. (23-84)

Found here:

  • first half (A-M): hamamelidaceae° (14), hididdlediddle† (14), cabbageheaded° (13)
  • last half (N-Z): tootsywootsy† (12), nonsupports° (11), nontortuous° (11)

18. UD words containing all of the first five or more letters of the alphabet, shorter than backed, feedback, bright-faced (74-187); words containing ABCDEFGH or more.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Susan Thorpe found baced (OED, past tense of bace), a five-letter word made of exactly ABCDE, shorter than backed. (26-34)
  • Susan Thorpe lists baced and embaced (OED) for the uninterrupted ABCDE scramble BACED; no ABCDEFGH word reported. (32-51)

Found here:

  • A to E: backed, braced, cabled
  • A to F: boldface, feedback, backfield
  • A to G: blackfigured°, quodlibetificating†, quodlibetificateing†
  • A to H: llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch†
  • A to I: llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch†

19. UD words containing more than ten consecutive letters of the alphabet: quasi-complimentary and quasi-importantly (RHD) contain LMNOPQRSTU (78-35). Any unhyphenated tenners?

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later article found with an unhyphenated word containing ten or more consecutive alphabet letters; Cole's NI3 best is perquisition (8, N-U). (23-84)

Found here:

  • longest run of consecutive letters: 10, in tympanosquamosaler†, tympanosquamosaller†, hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian†

20. Words containing four consecutive letters of the alphabet: NI words exist for all 26 sequences but UVWX VWXY WXYZ (71-10). Five: TUVWX UVWXY VWXYZ are unsolved (71-144).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Philip Cohen filled the three missing 4-sets from outside NI: vireux-wallerand (UVWX), xsmwdribvnwlxy (VWXY, play title), xiawaziyu (WXYZ). (16-67)
  • Jeff Grant's list includes the dubious Facebook first names uvwxy and vwxyz, which contain the five-sets UVWXY and VWXYZ. (51.3-16)
  • Ross Eckler's undominated-sequence table for NI2/NI3 stops at RSTUVW liverwurst and WXY waxy, confirming no NI UVWX, VWXY or WXYZ. (15-78)

Found here:

  • no word found for UVWX, VWXY, WXYZ, TUVWX, UVWXY, VWXYZ

21. The four letters in order: NI words for all but those above plus GHIJ IJKL TUVW.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant gave adjacent in-order examples, placenames and names only: singhijuba (GHIJ), nijkleaster (IJKL), tuvwere (TUVW). (51.3-16)
  • Darryl Francis found IJKL in order in the OED online: lijkli, lijkly (Middle English forms of likely). (51.4-4)
  • Ross Eckler's NI2/NI3 table of in-order sequences has EFGHI prizefighting, HIJK hijack, RSTUV interdestructive, UVW purview: no GHIJ, IJKL or TUVW. (15-78)

Found here:

  • GHIJ: ghirlandajo°, ghilji†
  • IJKL: rijksdaalder°, rijksdaalders°
  • no word found for TUVW, UVWX, VWXY, WXYZ

22. Adjacent in any order (STUV in KaryUVTSi): UD examples for all but HIJK JKLM KLMN NOPQ PQRS TUVW UVWX VWXY WXYZ XYZA ZABC (74-61). Adjacent and in order: NI has MNOP (gymnoplast) and RSTU (understudy), the OED STUV (stuver).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant gave adjacent in-order tetragrams for every gap, many dubious names: sahijki, hijklmn, nopqorn, opqrst, tuvwere, uvwxy, vwxyz. (51.3-16)
  • Darryl Francis filled the circular gaps: xyzal (XYZA, Wikipedia), zabcikville (ZABC, Texas place) and analyzable (YZAB, W3). (51.4-4)
  • Darryl Francis's reversed tetragrams fill more gaps in any order: zyxware (WXYZ), azyx (XYZA, moth genus), karacbazi (ZABC), blackjihad (HIJK). (51.4-9)
  • Darryl Francis added more OED adjacent-in-order words: lijkly (IJKL), almnoress (LMNO), and RSTU words like superstud and bierstube. (51.4-4)
  • Jeff Grant gave adjacent in-order abcdarian (ABCD, OED), omnopon (MNOP, OED Supp), chelmno (LMNO, Poland), and names like shijka, rijkland. (32-101, 32-103)

Found here:

  • JKLM adjacent, any order: getmjlkost†
  • LMNO adjacent, in order: chelmno†
  • MNOP adjacent, in order: gymnopedia°, gymnoplast°
  • RSTU adjacent, in order: understudy, overstuffed
  • STUV adjacent, in order: stuver†, stuvers†
  • XYZA adjacent, any order: oxyazo†, hydroxyazobenzene†
  • YZAB adjacent, in order: analyzable, feyzabad°
  • ZABC adjacent, any order: butzbach†, merzbacher†
  • no word found for HIJK adjacent, any order, KLMN adjacent, any order, NOPQ adjacent, any order, PQRS adjacent, any order, TUVW adjacent, any order, UVWX adjacent, any order, VWXY adjacent, any order, WXYZ adjacent, any order

23. A group of letters is alphabetically invariant if its letters keep the alphabet's spacing, as elOPeRs (72-140); find longer groups than six (iNOPeRaTiVe, coOPeRaTiVelY). Words ending in an invariant letter for each letter (A, oB, saC, ...) exist in NI for all but J Q U V W X Y Z, and in AD for all but V W X Z (71-96); the reverse (Z, mY, heX) has holes at B D F (71-91).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Dave Morice's poem uses immunoelectrophoretically from the unabridged Merriam-Webster: Y is its 25th and last letter, filling Y. (34-64)
  • Ross Eckler restates that inoperative and cooperatively, each with six letters matching one shifted alphabet, are still the best. (26-12)

Found here:

  • largest invariant group: 6 letters, in inoperative, cooperatively, neighborlinesses, gymnoplast°
  • ending in J as letter 10: litargirij†
  • ending in K as letter 11: apparatchik
  • ending in L as letter 12: adaptational
  • ending in M as letter 13: anticommunism
  • ending in N as letter 14: administration
  • ending in O as letter 15: fiatconfirmatio†
  • ending in P as letter 16: acquaintanceship
  • ending in R as letter 18: anthropogeographer°
  • ending in S as letter 19: authoritativenesses
  • ending in T as letter 20: psychopharmacologist
  • ending in Y as letter 25: electrocorticographically°
  • no word of length n ending in letter n for: Q U V W X Z; reverse (Z, mY, heX): missing J F D B

24. The longest NI words with letters in alphabetical order (no repeats) and in reverse order: aegilops, wronged (78-246). Longest such in each half of the alphabet: Noruz (F&W) and Achim (NI2) are the only five-letter ones known (73-172, 78-246).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole's NI3 records keep aegilops (8) for alphabetical order and give sponged (7), tying wronged, for reverse order. (23-84)
  • Rex Gooch found no strictly ordered word longer than aegilops (chill loss, 9, repeats a letter); his reverse lists include wronged and sponged. (35-207)
  • Darryl Francis found ywronge (OED), a Middle English seven-letter word in reverse alphabetical order, tying wronged; no five-letter half-alphabet word found. (30-150)

Found here:

  • alphabetical order: aegilops° (8), chikors° (7), deghost° (7), adelops† (7), deglory† (7)
  • reverse order: sponged (7), wronged (7), tonifed† (7), tsoneca† (7), uplifed† (7)
  • alphabetical, first half: abdel† (5), abdim† (5), achim† (5), defil† (5)
  • alphabetical, last half: norty† (5), noruz† (5), nosy (4), nosu° (4)

25. The longest NI word with total alphabetic disorder, where sorting its letters moves every one of them (desirable to abdeeilrs). Beat the English village Rumboltswhyke (AD).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole gave the NI3 word trinitrophenylmethylnitramine (29 letters) as the longest word with no letter in its alphabetical place; sorting it moves every letter. (23-84)

Found here:

  • pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanosis† (40), trinitrophenylmethylnitramines° (30), trinitrophenylmethylnitramine° (29), thyroparathyroidectomizeing† (27), hemangioendothelioblastoma† (26)

Vowels and Consonants

26. Seven-letter words exist for every vowel-consonant pattern but vvvcccc and vvvvccc; ccccccv is part of an AD phrase and vcccccc (Ehrnsch) is an unprinted nickname (68-138, 77-221, 78-215). Find AD (or O) words; purists may also replace the vocalic Y in archspy and earthly.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Susan Thorpe filled vvvcccc with ouachrd (a place in Morocco, BGN gazetteer) and vvvvccc with the OED form auoughs, leaving only vcccccc unfilled. (35-251)
  • Thorpe allows no Y at all, so she replaces archspy and earthly with the place name archddu (vcccccv) and aeschna from Chambers (vvccccv). (35-250, 35-251)

Found here:

  • vvvcccc: euonyms°, euonymy†
  • ccccccv: synchro, bryndza°, rhythmi°
  • vcccccc: encrypt, acrylyl°, alchymy°
  • no word found for vvvvccc

27. Words with A E I O U once each, in all 120 orders (fAcEtIOUs, sEqUOIA, UnsOcIAblE): all found but AEIUO IAEUO IAUEO IEAUO IUEOA OAIEU OEIAU (69-208, 70-18, 75-20, 77-84). Two AD words have each vowel exactly twice (70-18, 147); is a UD word possible?

Later in Word Ways:

  • All seven gaps were filled: oeciacus OEIAU (Murray Geller 1985, NI3), laeviturbo AEIUO (Thorpe 1993), milquetoast IUEOA (NI3), lillabullero IAUEO and ierfaulcon IEAUO (Chris Long 1994). (26-196, 32-170)
  • Susan Thorpe added better words for the gaps, containerful OAIEU, inaequo IAEUO, coeluacus OEIAU (NI3) and cane-liquor AEIUO (NI2), and found an OED word for all 120 orders. (32-171)
  • Eric Chaikin found NI3 entries for every order but iaoeu (some capitalized or phrases): milquetoast IUEOA, Oeciacus OEIAU, black guillemot IEAUO, blockade-running OAIEU. (33-256, 33-257)
  • Andrew Griscom reported that audiomagnetotelluric, with each vowel exactly twice, is now printed without its hyphen (EOS, 1979); not a UD word. (13-88)
  • John Foster found pseudohemagglutination, 22 letters with AEIOU twice each, in Dorland's Medical Dictionary. (26-155)
  • Eric Chaikin knew only one NI3 entry with each vowel twice, the phrase automobile insurance; number names such as one thousand six hundred and six also work. (33-297)

Found here:

  • IUEOA: figueroa, milquetoast, milquetoasts°
  • OAIEU: donnadieu†, connaisseur†, containerful†
  • OEIAU: oeciacus°, overdistraught°, protesilaus†
  • each vowel exactly twice: ultrarevolutionaries°, audiomagnetotellurics†, pseudointraligamentous†
  • no word found for AEIUO, IAEUO, IAUEO, IEAUO

28. Longer words without A E I O U than symphysy (NI) or Mynyddyslwyn (F&W), and without A E I O U Y than crwth (NI) or bzzzbzzz (72-108, 174).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant and Ross Eckler listed six-letter OED forms with no AEIOUY, longer than crwth: schwll (shovel) and thrwch (through). (13-174)
  • Alan Frank added tsktsk (OSPD), llwchwr (Gazetteer of NI2) and the Welsh place name cwmtwrch, which at 8 letters equals bzzzbzzz. (13-207, 13-209)
  • Sir Jeremy Morse's list of the longest monovocalics in Chambers or the OED still has symphysy as the longest word whose only vowel is Y. (33-221)

Found here:

  • no AEIOU: byrynnyns† (9), drysnyngs† (9), kyrymyrys† (9), kytylyngs† (9), pyggysnys† (9)
  • no AEIOUY: tsktsks° (7), pgnttrp† (7), rtststr† (7), thrwchs† (7), crwths° (6)

Word Stairs

29. WASHERAYETAGEMUD has every three-letter substring in 8C, TSARIDESK every four-letter one, SAGRASPARELICA every five-letter one in NI (68-156, 70-49, 79-37). Find longer, with no repeated words.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tom Pulliam (May 1979) gave NI2/NI3 strings of 437 letters for three-letter words, 296 for four, sacaracharamanasalemaneth (25) for five and Kyle Corbin's relatesterol (12) for six. (12-119, 12-120)
  • Rex Gooch reported in 1998 that Pulliam's 437-letter string was still the NI2 record. (31-95)

30. The longest NI word made of two-letter NI words, linked (sore: so, or, re) or unlinked (domain: do, ma, in): ureterocystanastomosis holds both records (75-104, 76-41).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Nothing found in later Word Ways improving on ureterocystanastomosis as a word made of linked or unlinked two-letter words.

31. A longer chain of overlapping state abbreviations than WVARINMNVTNCOHIALAKSCAZ, or with DC GU PR VI, GUTNMNCALAKSCOHIARINVIDCTX (76-241, 77-46).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No longer chain found; Ross Eckler's 2011 look back still cites Cohen's 22-state chain WVARINMNVTNCOHIALAKSCAZ as the record. (44-251)

Word Ladders

32. Most one-step neighbors (change one letter): in PD, an 8, say 25, ware 24, share 15, batter 13, petting 11, slipping 7 (73-67, 156).

Later in Word Ways:

  • The Aug 1979 Colloquy noted that, with inferred Pocket Dictionary words allowed, mates has 19 one-step neighbors (bates, dates ... mated). (12-153)
  • Rex Gooch (OED, NI2 and others): ware 57 neighbors, cares and pales 46, coller 38, betters and sealing 28, slatters 20, slattered 14, slattering 15; much was Jeff Grant's 1979 work. (30-245)
  • Gooch's 2001 update raised the counts: saie 63, seale and seare 55, coller 44, sealing 31, slatters 20, battering 14, slattering 15. (35-318, 35-319)

Found here:

  • 2 letters (common words): as has 49 one-step neighbors
  • 3 letters (common words): mas has 63 one-step neighbors
  • 4 letters (common words): mars has 63 one-step neighbors
  • 5 letters (common words): seres has 68 one-step neighbors
  • 6 letters (common words): maries has 48 one-step neighbors
  • 7 letters (common words): milling has 33 one-step neighbors
  • 8 letters (common words): bankings has 19 one-step neighbors

33. The longest minimum ladder between two words of a length: PD TV-up (11 steps), ivy-you (12), sudden-giggly (30), parting-longing (17), wrapping-swapping (10) (73-67, 156). Ladders changing each letter once, settle-settee-setter-better-batter-banter-banner (73-156).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Leonard Gordon found OSPD network spans for the missing four- and five-letter cases, 14 (inch to amyl) and 29, and 40 for six letters (painch to degage). (22-28, 23-154)
  • Gordon raised the seven-letter span to 59, anlagen to cabaret, and found 25 for eight letters (quirking ... spanked), using the OSPD plus Chambers. (23-154)
  • Gordon (1995, mostly NI2 words added) found an eight-letter span of 73, deafness to rurality, and a nine-letter span of 29, unpausing to underlout. (28-197)
  • Jeremy Morse (Aug 1979 Colloquy) gave seven-letter ladders changing each letter once (settler ... banners) and the NI2 eight-letter shippons-shippens-...-clamberd. (12-154)
  • Kyle Corbin's eight-letter minimal ladder thumbing-thumping-trumping-tramping-trapping-crapping-crappins-crappies-crappoes uses NI3; Chris Cole lists it as the NI3 record. (21-103, 23-85)
  • Rex Gooch found about fifty nine-letter ideal ladders (mostly OED words), after Ross Eckler's cancerate-...-buttoning (1988), but no ten-letter one. (33-209, 33-210, 33-212)

34. An onalosi becomes a word whichever letter is changed: longer than pasters (72-54). An isolano cannot be changed into any word: four-letter NI examples (70-108).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Edward Wolpow proposed ecru as a four-letter isolano in NI2 and NI3 (ziim and ukaz may be others); Chris Cole lists ecru as the shortest NI3 isolano. (12-153, 23-85)
  • Rex Gooch found no onalosi longer than seven letters in his OED-based list; the nearest eight-letter words, crampers, mistrest and stanners, have 7 changeable letters. (30-245, 35-318)
  • Chris Cole's NI3 records keep pasters (masters, posters, palters, passers, pastors, pastels, pastern) as the longest onalosi. (23-85)

Found here:

  • onalosi (every letter can change): cassates° (8), parelles° (8), palisses† (8), banders (7)
  • no word found for four-letter isolanos (common words)

Scrambled Alphabets

35. With the alphabet in typewriter order (qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm), the longest words in order and reverse order are wettish and chapitre (70-176, 71-118).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant (Aug 1979 Colloquy) found the OED early spellings wertuall (8 letters in keyboard order) and chappytre (9 in reverse order). (12-154)
  • Chris Cole's NI3 records give wettish (7) in keyboard order and chapote (7) in reverse order. (23-83)
  • Michael Keith also found wettish the longest in keyboard order, and bourree and chappie in reverse. (32-270)

Found here:

  • in qwerty order: qwertys° (7), eryops° (6), qwerty° (6), tipalm† (6)
  • in reverse qwerty order: chapote° (7), chaptre† (7), capote (6), claire (6)

36. Alphabet orders with few words in order (74-77, 74-73); maximum combined length of a word in a new order plus one in reverse order: uncopyrightable/deflations, 25 (73-111, 172); trigram and tetragram rings (77-189).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Alan Frank arranged the alphabet as the ring mcvitlbzquxfrnedhwyjkasopg, in which every six adjacent letters, wrapping around, occur in one NI2 word. (15-93)

Insertions, Deletions

37. A charitable word stays a word when any one letter is removed (seat: sea eat sat set); a hospitable word takes a letter anywhere (rap: trap reap rasp rapt) (71-171, 72-53, 109). Beat chains or pleats, cares, and sale (both).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole's NI3 records keep pleats as the longest charitable word and cares as the longest hospitable one, with only amy (3) both. (23-84, 23-85)
  • Leonard Gordon found no six-letter OSPD word deletable in all six places; cares remains the word taking an insertion at six places. (23-134)
  • A 2013 Kickshaws item by Anil still names pleats and chains as the longest charitable words. (46-186)

Found here:

  • charitable: theines° (7), trouses° (7), boundes† (7), greists† (7)
  • charitable, no doubled letters: theines° (7), trouses° (7), boundes† (7), greists† (7)
  • hospitable: copies (6), leases (6), manies (6), mendes (6)
  • both: carine† (6), vailes† (6), veries† (6), waries† (6)

38. Successive beheadments down to one letter: aspirate (73-202). Curtailments: angelicas (76-63), bitternesses (78-152). Deletions anywhere: strangelings (73-210). Beheadables ending in J or Q (73-199).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant took successive curtailment to 13 letters, shepherdesses down to s, all but sheph and shephe (phone-directory surnames) in dictionaries; the OED chain bitternesses has 12. (42-169)
  • Chris Cole gave prestate as the longest NI3 word beheadable to a single letter, the same length as the NI2 aspirate; for NI3 curtailment down to one letter he had no answer. (23-84)

Found here:

  • beheadments: prescribes (10), estreating° (10), hegemonies° (10), restabling° (10)
  • curtailments: terrestrialises° (15), terrestrialised† (15), terrestrialisms† (15), terrestrialise° (14)
  • deletions anywhere: terrestrialises° (15), acrostichallest† (15), determinabliest† (15), rectilinearlest† (15)
  • beheadable to a word, ending in J: braj°, hadj°, adj†, doj†
  • beheadable to a word, ending in Q: pdq°, aeq†, bbq†, chq†

39. A seven-letter word all of whose substrings are words: Morales lacks only ral, sheaves only eav (74-168, 213, 75-87, 174). Find an eight-letter one.

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later article found an eight-letter word all of whose substrings are words; Chris Cole's NI3 best with all substrings words was the six-letter shades. (23-84)

Found here:

  • tamarines† (9), brothers (8), pleasers (8), camelias° (8), mouthers° (8)

40. The insertion index of a word is the fewest letters to add to make another word; the shortest word that cannot be enlarged, the largest index, the most fecund word (76-163).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant completed an alphabetic insertion of all 26 letters at the centre of aa (aaa, aba, aca ... aza), mostly from Web3 and OED; ee lacked only eoe. (15-208)
  • Leonard Gordon found the most fecund five-letter OSPD words for insertion: ailed and owing take 13 different inserted letters; cares accepts a letter in six places. (23-134)
  • Chris Cole listed syzygy as the shortest NI3 hostile word, one that cannot accept an inserted letter (his entry reads "no deletion possible"). (23-85)

Transpositions

41. AEGINRST is probably the most transposable letter set in O words (76-216); AELST has 34 transposals and AELS 12 (71-6, 134). Find the most transposable sets.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant found all 24 transposals of AEST (aest, aets, aset ... tse-a) in the OED, Web2, gazetteers and phone directories. (20-195)
  • Jeff Grant reached 63 transposals of AELST and 64 of AERST out of a possible 120, against the 34 for AELST given in the challenge. (27-3, 20-195)
  • Jeff Grant counted 164 known AEGINRST transposals: 131 from 1976, plus additions by Jeremy Morse, Grant and Darryl Francis (tiranges, tasering). (27-3)
  • Darryl Francis listed 50 transposals of ADEINRST (detrains, strained, desirant ...), a set that is statistically as fecund as AEGINRST. (32-264)

Found here:

  • AEINRST: 30 transposals
  • AERSST: 28 transposals
  • AERST: 27 transposals
  • AEGINRST: 26 transposals
  • AELRST: 26 transposals
  • AENRST: 26 transposals
  • AEGINRST: 26 transposals
  • AELST: 25 transposals
  • AELS: 13 transposals

42. First and last entries for each letter in a transposition dictionary (71-28, 143).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Darryl Francis gave only the overall first and last seven-letter alphomes in Official Scrabble Lists, aaaadnp (apadana) and orsttuu (surtout), not per-letter entries for NI. (35-276)

43. Number transposals (five, eighty, one hundred) in AD (75-216); US place-name transposals and reversals (73-206, 73-176).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Eric Tentarelli found well-mixed US place-name transposal pairs of 13 letters (alpine terrace/raintree place, north strabane/tenants harbor), beating masterson/searsmont. (52.4)
  • Eric Tentarelli beat the trio caroline/colerain/cornelia with a well-mixed quartet of 8-letter US names: asherton, hansrote, north sea, oshanter. (52.4)
  • Dan Tilque confirmed nostrebor VA as the longest personal-name reversal and rotavele CA as the longest common-word reversal among US place names. (31-283, 31-284)
  • Darryl Francis transposed number names only into phrases (one hundred: rounded hen; nine hundred: nun hindered); eighty still had no transposal. (38-109)

44. A shiftword moves its first letter to the end (top, opt): beat speculation, the inflectionless electric, and the double shiftwords strickle and strinkle (74-176, 238, 75-47, 112, 233, 78-216).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole confirmed speculation/peculations as the longest NI3 head-to-tail shift; his longest NI3 double shift was only stable/tables/ablest. (23-85)

Found here:

  • shiftword: sclerification° (14), adiadokokinesi† (14), amaterialistic† (14), sexploitation (13), swordsmanship (13)
  • double shiftword: estrous (7), reprise (7), estrich° (7), stickie° (7)

Alphanumerics

45. A numerical tautonym splits into equal-length parts with equal letter sums (A=1 ... Z=26): beat biblio/graphical, the three-part tra/nsf/und, the four-part ove/rse/cur/ely; arithmetic and geometric progressions (70-10).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Rex Gooch found two-part numerical tautonyms of 20 letters in Web2: ophthalmoblennorrhea (110/110) and philosophicojuristic (127/127); his counts run to 25 letters. (30-290)
  • Rex Gooch found the 15-letter three-part misco/nsecr/ation (59 each), beating tra/nsf/und; he found three 4/12 words but no five-part word. (30-290)

Found here:

  • 2 parts: hypergammaglobulinemicer† (24), hypobetalipoproteinemias† (24), dicyclopentadienyliron° (22)
  • 3 parts: microspectroscopes° (18), subminiaturisation† (18), consolatoriness° (15)
  • 4 parts: underpayment (12), oversecurely† (12), pseudofossil† (12)
  • no word found for 5 parts

46. Difference words (bird to gin) longer than mulita/hicks (70-231, 75-163, 207); sum words longer than affine/glows (77-47).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Rex Gooch counted 2 eight-letter and 20 seven-letter absolute difference source words, longer than mulita/hicks; the word lists are blank in our OCR text. (30-37)
  • Rex Gooch reported Ross Eckler's seven-letter sum word canfuls (to dotage), from Making the Alphabet Dance, beating the six-letter affine/glows. (29-228)

Found here:

  • difference words: savasavas† (9), retainer (8), ruinates° (8), schilder° (8)
  • sum words: trident (7), tzitzit (7), baghdad° (7), bandaka° (7)

47. Centrally balanced beam words longer than invocation and liquidation (69-37).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Rex Gooch found 763 centrally balanced beam words that are also numerical tautonyms, up to 18 letters with phrenicoabdominals; 14-letter ones include unintermittent. (31-17)

Found here:

  • nepparterrestaalplaatserretrappen† (33), saippuakuppinippukauppias† (25), solutomaattimittaamotulos† (25), uvulopalatopharyngoplasty† (25), microspectrophotometric° (23)

48. The lightest and heaviest words of each length (to Coleochaetaceae, 102, and untrustworthily, 263) (72-226); normalized center of gravity below tab or above babby (74-117).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Susan Thorpe's 15-letter ecdeiocoleaceae (91, a plant family in Willis) is lighter than coleochaetaceae (102); she improved 13 of 24 lightest and 12 heaviest words. (28-254, 36-195)
  • Susan Thorpe used gazetteer place names for lighter words at 21 of 31 lengths, e.g. the 15-letter dambagahagedara (74), a populated place in Sri Lanka. (36-196)
  • Rex Gooch found yugada with normalized center of gravity 0.286, below tab (.300); his highest was 0.714, short of babby (.745). (31-20)

Found here:

  • 2 letters: lightest aa° (2), heaviest zz† (52)
  • 3 letters: lightest aaa† (3), heaviest zzz° (78)
  • 4 letters: lightest abba° (6), heaviest yzys† (95)
  • 5 letters: lightest ababa (7), heaviest zzyzz† (129)
  • 6 letters: lightest abaaba† (8), heaviest Zyzzyx† (152)
  • 7 letters: lightest aabaaba† (9), heaviest sytytys† (153)
  • 8 letters: lightest fabaceae° (24), heaviest Zyzzyzus† (194)
  • 9 letters: lightest beccaccia° (30), heaviest kyrymyrys† (179)
  • 10 letters: lightest galacaceae† (39), heaviest tuzzimuzzy† (213)
  • 11 letters: lightest cabbagehead° (39), heaviest zurrumurruz† (221)
  • 12 letters: lightest bibblebabble† (56), heaviest tootsywootsy† (231)
  • 13 letters: lightest cabbageheaded° (48), heaviest voluptuoustys† (246)
  • 14 letters: lightest dieffenbachiae† (78), heaviest untumultuously† (255)
  • 15 letters: lightest dichapetalaceae† (94), heaviest untrustworthily° (263)
  • 16 letters: lightest lactobacillaceae° (105), heaviest unpresumptuously° (276)

49. Words of prime letters ABCEGKMQSW longer than ambassages, of square letters ADIPY longer than ippiappa, of Fibonacci letters ABCEHMU longer than Amahuaca, cachucha, Chamacea (72-108, 51).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Rex Gooch listed Fibonacci-letter words of 9 letters (chachacha) and 10 (cache-cache, hubba-hubba), longer than amahuaca, cachucha and chamacea. (32-16)
  • Rex Gooch's longest square-letter (ADIPY) word was the nine-letter pip-pip-pip, one letter longer than ippi-appa (Web3). (32-18)
  • Rex Gooch dropped A for "purely prime" words; his longest was see-see-sees (10, WW 1985), the same length as ambassages, which uses A. (32-14)

Found here:

  • prime letters: akamakamaka† (11), wakessesses† (11), wassamassaw† (11), ambassages° (10)
  • square letters: apapapapa† (9), dayaayad† (8), idappadi† (8), adiaida† (7)
  • Fibonacci letters: macacahuba° (10), macacauba° (9), amamamama† (9), chachacha† (9)

Morse Code

50. Isomorses (same dots and dashes, different spacing, as dean and nip); words from letters of one bit-count (et, aimn, dgkorsuw, bcfhjlpqvxyz) longer than teetee, minima, woodworks, flyby; a Morse inverse pair longer than kneel/ratty (75-171, 209).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole gave the longest NI3 isomorse pair as chlorophyllins/chlorophyllites, 48 dots and dashes. (23-83)
  • Chris Cole confirmed kneel/ratty as the longest NI3 Morse inverse pair. (23-83)
  • Philip Cohen gave sourwoods (9) as the longest word from the four-bit group DGKORSUW, tying woodworks, with flyby and xylyl the longest for BCFHJLPQVXYZ. (12-235)

Found here:

  • et: ettette† (7), teetee° (6), eteete† (6)
  • aimn: ainamania† (9), amamamama† (9), anananana† (9)
  • dgkorsuw: kooskoosoos† (11), kooskoosoo† (10), kukurrukuk† (10)
  • bcfhjlpqvxyz: fyxyll† (6), xyllyx† (6), Zyzzyx† (6)
  • inverse pairs: annanna† (7), annonna† (7), asanasa† (7), ossesso† (7)
  • longest isomorses (56 bits): monopleurobranchians†, monopleurobranchiates†

Pangrams

51. The fewest words and letters covering the alphabet in PD, 8C, NI and O (72-107, 72-22, 77-41); place-name pangrams (73-206).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Eric Chaikin found the first five-word pangrams wholly in NI3: frowzly vexing jacks thumb pdq and variants (thumbing frowzly jacks vex pdq). (31-292)
  • Chris Cole lists the NI3 bests as humpbacks frowzy tingled (22 letters in three words) and blacksmith gunpowdery (20 in two), tying the NI figures. (23-82)
  • Dmitri Borgmann used 23 different letters in four US place-names, duxby-mcknight-jasper-wolf, and tied 22 with three: camp flowers-duxby-knight. (18-74, 18-75)

Sight and Sound

52. Words whose initial letter is not the sound they begin with (aisle, bdellium, czar), missing F and N (73-164); homophones differing in one letter, missing J and V (77-26, 83, 152, 78-89); syllable records (70-148, 70-173, 72-27, 70-149, 74-22); heteronyms (71-9, 63, 78-217).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tristan Miller supplied the missing initial letters: floyd (Welsh pronunciation, F not sounded as F) and ngultrum (N silent), in a "pessimal spelling alphabet". (46-154, 46-155)
  • Alan Frank offered a J homophone pair, ai / jai (of jai alai), but only as pronounced by a Cockney; no V pair was found. (13-153)
  • Jeff Grant found 11-letter one-syllable words: spleeatched (EDD) and streyngthes (OED), beating scraunched; printed Aug 1979 and again in 2014. (12-153, 47-294)
  • Jeff Grant beat the 15-letter two-syllable straight-grained with the 17-letter squaitched-mouthed (EDD); straight-tongued (OED) ties it. (12-153)
  • Chris Cole gave the NI3 shortest ten-syllable word as epizootiologically (18 letters, beating 20); nine syllables epizootiological (16) ties. (23-86, 36-318)
  • Kyle Corbin gave NI3 amioidei (8 letters, six syllables) and omohyoidei (10, seven); he found no five-syllable word shorter than oxyopia. (14-114)

Interlingual

53. Roman-Cyrillic cipher pairs longer than restate/pectate (72-179, 73-49); English-foreign transposals of 12 letters (73-3); a 4x4 square in eight languages (77-84); truthful numbers in other languages (69-179, 70-46, 76-170).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tristan Miller's computer search found over 2000 words in Cyrillic-lookalike letters, longest chattahoochee (13) and phaeophyceae (12), beating pectate/teammate. (46-165)

Pattern Words

54. Of the 161 six-letter patterns without three identical letters in a row, NI has 128 (71-227, 72-3); missing: cbabaa aacabb bbacaa aabbcc abaccb ababba aabaac aacdbb aacbab aabacb abbaac abbcca bababb aabaca aabbcd aacbba aabbca aabbac abccab bbaabb abacaa acbbaa abcaab bbaaca aabcbc aababb bbabab bcabaa babcaa aababc aabccb aabbab bbabba.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tom Pulliam filled cbabaa with ailill or danann (NI2) and abbaac with annaas; Jeff Grant added effeer (OED) for abbaac. (12-217)
  • Pattern bbaabb was filled by a Northern Territory, Australia place name from the Times Index-Gazetteer (the name is garbled in the OCR). (12-217)

Found here:

  • cbabaa: bazazz°, pazazz°
  • ababba: ananna†
  • aabaac: ooloos†
  • aacdbb: ooyess†
  • aacbab: yyldyd†
  • abbcca: saaffs†
  • bababb: ibibii†
  • aabaca: eebete†, eefele†
  • aabbcd: aarrgh°, xxiier†
  • abccab: sheesh, shoosh°
  • bbaabb: eezzee†, oolloo†
  • abcaab: enleen†, feyffe†
  • aabcbc: ooeses†, oolala†
  • bcabaa: tretee†
  • babcaa: tethee†
  • aabccb: iiette†
  • still missing: aacabb bbacaa aabbcc abaccb aabacb abbaac aacbba aabbca aabbac abacaa acbbaa bbaaca aababb bbabab aababc aabbab bbabba

55. Five-letter patterns: all but aabba and aabaa (71-113). Four-letter: all but aabb (71-228). Vowel-consonant versions (71-128).

Later in Word Ways:

  • The missing five-letter patterns were filled by eette (aabba, OED) and eelee (aabaa, a mountain in Funk & Wagnalls); aabb by ooss (EDD). (12-217)
  • Three missing vowel-consonant four-letter patterns were filled: abCC aitt (OED), Abcc hiuu (OED), Abbc huuy (EDD); Ed Wolpow adds NI2 tyee, pooa, llyn if Y is a vowel. (12-217)

Found here:

  • aabaa: llull°, aakaa†
  • aabb: vvll†, xxii†
  • no word found for aabba

56. The longest NI pair with the same letter pattern: uncontrovertibleness/uncontrovertableness; under a substitution changing every letter, demulsification/gynaecomorphous (73-146), and in 7C conceptualism/exceptionably (74-238).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Darryl Francis found more 13-letter non-crashing isomorphs of conceptualism/exceptionably in LeXpert: agranulocytes, reproachingly, swashbuckling, uncustomarily. (34-310)

Found here:

  • same pattern, every letter changed: archiphonemicest†/ultracrepidating° (16)
  • same pattern: deinstitutionalizations°/reinstitutionalizations° (23)

57. Of the 210 eight-letter patterns with two pairs of like letters, only aabbcdef lacks an AD word; aabcbdef aabcdbef aacdebbf need UD examples (76-206).

Later in Word Ways:

  • aabbcdef, the one pattern with no AD word, got the EDD word oolliest; aacbbdef was improved with ffullyth (OED). (12-217)

Found here:

  • aabcbdef: mmabatho°
  • aabcdbef: llanfair†
  • no word found for aabbcdef, aacdebbf

58. Longer than dermatoglyphics with no repeated letter (73-176, 76-54); a pair isogram (each letter exactly twice) longer than scintillescent.

Later in Word Ways:

  • Edward Wolpow reported the 17-letter isogram subdermatoglyphic, used by dermatologist Lowell Goldsmith in a 1990 Archives of Dermatology article (not in dictionaries). (24-18)
  • Dan Tilque found a 16-letter solid place-name isogram, malitzschkendorf (Saxony), in the Official Standard Names Gazetteer for East Germany. (29-214)
  • Dmitri Borgmann listed 16-letter isograms, among them uncopyrightables and the reference-work place-names Bougy, Switzerland; Ouchy, Switzerland; South Cambridge, NY. (18-71, 18-72)
  • Rex Gooch gave the 16-letter pair isogram esophagographers (citing Stedman's medical dictionary), plus the Spanish antiperspirantes, both longer than scintillescent. (31-69)
  • Jeff Grant noted that esophagographers is only inferred (Stedman's lists esophagography); his longest attested pair isograms are phrases or Net forms (ultratranslucences, 18). (45-237)
  • Jeff Grant found four 14-letter pair isograms: inaccidentated, scintillescent, taeniodontidae, unsufficiences; nothing longer in English reference works. (15-137, 15-138)

Found here:

  • no repeated letter: subdermatoglyphic° (17), uncopyrightables° (16), uncopyrightable (15), dermatoglyphics° (15)
  • pair isogram (each letter twice): esophagographers° (16), orientationaller† (16), scintillescent° (14), alliteratinner† (14)

59. The longest polygram (every letter at least twice): antianthropomorphisms, 21 (72-49, 110). Ten-letter letter distributions 433 532 541 55 (71-231, 72-14).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Nothing beats antianthropomorphisms (21); Chris Cole's NI3 record polygram is unprosperousnesses (18); no examples for the 433 532 541 55 distributions were found. (23-82)

Found here:

  • every letter at least twice: nepparterrestaalplaatserretrappen† (33), solutomaattimittaamotulos† (25), transistorisations° (18), unprosperousnesses° (18)
  • no word found for ten letters, 433, ten letters, 532, ten letters, 541, ten letters, 55

60. State names whose patterns match words: all but PA CT MA MI (77-248); place-name palindromes and tautonyms (73-176).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Wassamassaw (a South Carolina swamp), 11 letters, was reported as a US place-name palindrome longer than kanakanak. (12-217)
  • Darryl Francis confirmed there are still no isomorphs for Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania; near misses are applosions (cconnecticut) and collapsible (pennsylvania). (34-311)

Terminal Letters

61. Words of every form a---a to z---z: all but aq bq dj dq ej eq fq gq hq ij jj jq kq oj oq qj uq uv wj xb xj xq xv xw yj yq (71-195, 72-15, 40).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article was found filling any of the missing first-and-last-letter pairs (aq bq dj ... yj yq).

Found here:

  • a---q: aeq†, antiq†
  • b---q: bbq†, barbq†
  • d---j: doj†, dunaj†
  • d---q: dimashq†, duboscq†
  • e---j: esraj†
  • e---q: esq†
  • f---q: faruq, faq†
  • g---q: ghq†
  • h---q: halq°, haq†
  • i---j: interj†
  • j---j: jaj†, jej†
  • k---q: khalq†
  • o---j: obj†, ondrej†
  • u---q: umiaq°, unq†
  • u---v: ustinov, univ†
  • x---v: xiv†, xxv†
  • x---w: xnew†
  • no word found for j---q, o---q, q---j, w---j, x---b, x---j, x---q, y---j, y---q

62. Words beginning with every bigram: all but bp cg fp fv hg hx qk vq xg (75-89, 207, 79-39).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Alex J. Quiz listed words for 675 initial bigrams from mixed sources, e.g. bpih, cgwalikc, fverst, hxw, qkipik, xguthe; only vq was missing. (53.1)
  • Jeff Grant filled vq with vquever (Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue) and said his unpublished collection has all 676; he faulted many of Quiz's sources. (53.2)

Found here:

  • bp---: bps°, bpd†
  • cg---: cgm†, cgs†
  • fp---: fpd†, fpm†
  • hg---: hgs†, hgt†
  • qk---: qkt†, qkelt†
  • no word found for fv---, hx---, vq---, xg---

63. Words ending with every bigram: all but bp cf cr gp jw jx kv mg mw pb qv vq vw vz xb xg xj xm xp xr zc (70-152, 75-165, 79-39).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant improved two weak endings with gazb (EDD) for -zb and z-z-zp (OED) for -zp; none of the missing endings was found. (12-153)
  • Philip Cohen improved the -fv ending with lillkalfv, a variant of Lillkalven Island in the Swedish Official Standard Names Gazetteer. (16-157)

Found here:

  • ---bp: abp†, archbp†
  • ---cf: bcf†, ecf†
  • ---cr: acr†, scr†
  • ---kv: pkv†
  • ---mg: emg†, brimmimg†
  • ---pb: mpb†, ppb†
  • ---qv: qqv†
  • ---vw: chivw†
  • ---xp: exp†, regexp†
  • ---xr: exr†
  • ---zc: alrzc†
  • no word found for ---gp, ---jw, ---jx, ---mw, ---vq, ---vz, ---xb, ---xg, ---xj, ---xm

Restricted Letter Sets

64. Garble groups (B)(AIU)(DG) = bad bag bid big bud bug: beat (BFGRW)(AEIOU)(DT) = 50, (BLMPRST)(AI)(N)(EDGKS) = 70 and others (70-144, 212, 71-15, 73-67, 156); a choice in every position for five letters, beyond (SF)(AI)(NT)(SE) (68-165).

Later in Word Ways:

  • A five-letter garble group with a choice in every position: (cf)(lr)(ae)(mt)(es), 32 words (crats, frams, flete, frete...) from the OED and EDD. (12-217)
  • Leonard Gordon built the first complete 3x3x3x3 garble block: 81 four-letter words (dane, dine, done, hint, mink...) from the PD, NI3, OED and dialect dictionaries. (25-102)

65. Letters on four dice minimizing or maximizing the chance of a word (70-29, 73-108); letter sets usable in any order (78-158).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Ross Eckler lettered five dice (26 letters, four blanks) so all 120 draw orders spell a boldface NI2/NI3 word, e.g. humor, vicar, shack; six dice left open. (40-249)
  • Ross Eckler states that no four dice can rule out every word, even using only Pocket Webster, so the minimum is not zero. (40-250)

66. Isotels share a telephone number: a non-crashing NI pair longer than amounts/contour or astride/crushed (75-227, 78-215).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole's Webster's Third records list keeps amounts/contour as the longest words confused on the telephone keypad; no longer non-crashing isotel pair was printed. (23-83)

Found here:

  • longest non-crashing isotel pair: wrackeder†/yscaldeds† (9)

Letter Shapes

67. A longer word than OKEECHOBEE of letters symmetric about a horizontal axis (78-177).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant found the 14-letter NI3 hoochie-coochie in horizontally symmetric letters, beating OED bechecked, chickhood and EDD chick-chock. (12-216)
  • Susan Thorpe gave the 12-letter Peruvian place name choccochocco, all horizontally symmetric letters. (38-135)

Found here:

  • letters BCDEHIKOX: hohohohohohoh† (13), coccidiocide° (12), okeechobee (10), hibokhibok† (10)

68. Narrow letters (acemnorsuvwxz) longer than overnumerousnesses; tall (bdfghijklpqty) longer than lillypilly; all-high libidibi, all-low gyp, alternating sinicizing (73-188).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant found tall-letter words longer than lillypilly: highty-tighty (EDD) and the inferred fifty-fifthly, both 12 letters. (12-216)
  • Jeff Grant matched the all-high libidibi with titifill (OED, an early form of titivil). (12-216)
  • Jeff Grant found all-low words longer than gyp: pygg (OED) and jygg (EDD; printed jugg, corrected in the next Colloquy). (12-216, 13-26)
  • Rex Gooch extended both: the all-low gyppy (5) and the nine-letter all-high tittifill and tit-tit-tit (EDD); overnumerousnesses still the longest narrow word. (32-182, 32-183, 32-181)

Found here:

  • narrow letters: curvaceousnesses° (16), nonerroneousness† (16), overnumerousness† (16)
  • tall letters: hightytighty† (12), lighttight° (10), lillypilly° (10)
  • all high (bdfhiklt): hidihhidih† (10), kilikkilik† (10), illibilli† (9)
  • all low (gjpqy): gyppy° (5), yggy† (4), gyp° (3)
  • narrow and tall alternating: strychninizing° (14), strychninising† (14), degringoladed° (13)

Proper Names

69. Greek-letter town names (70-210); state-name chains of more than 26 links (70-220, 71-15); presidential names as towns (70-131, 70-210); long town names (70-132, 73-92, 73-91); Twenty or Twelve (78-45); Uranus (70-131); one town name in all 50 states (70-210).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tom Pulliam found Ford (KS VA WA), Carter (7 states), Hiram (GA ME OR) and Stephen (MN) as US towns in the Rand McNally Road Atlas; Eisenhower still missing. (12-218)
  • Dan Tilque built a state-name chain of 41 links through 42 states (Wyoming RI, Rhode Island TX, ...), from Rand McNally and GNIS. (32-154)
  • Dan Tilque found places named Washington in 42 states, tying Franklin's 42. (32-153)

Words in Words

70. Words containing each Greek letter name (caRHOp, DELTArium): epsilon and upsilon undone (71-169).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article was found giving words that contain epsilon or upsilon.

Found here:

  • epsilon: epsilons, epsilonic°
  • upsilon: upsilons°, upsilonism†, upsilonisms†

71. A word allowing an eight-way progressive deletion (vicissitudes, seven-way) (76-173).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant found territorialises (Chambers) progressively deleted in 15 different ways with no word used twice (OED, EDD, NI2/NI3 words). (12-217)

Crashing Words

72. The longest lists of n-letter words no two of which share a letter in the same position (73-67, 156, 72-107, 174); symmetric crash groups (78-230); non-crashing transposals longer than opposit/poopits (72-104, 174).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant raised mutually non-crashing words in the OED to 23 four-letter (abba, brwk, czar...) and 20 five-letter words (affix, bwrch, chaum...). (15-95, 15-96)
  • Jeff Grant reports the Games contest winner's 21 mutually non-crashing four-letter NI3 words: abbe, bait, cleg, djin, eddy ... Xtra. (15-95)
  • Stephen Root found 20 non-crashing five-letter NI3 words (angst, brigg, clamp, ... waltz), up from his 19 a few months earlier. (19-151, 19-91)
  • Steve Root found 63 symmetric crash groups of eight seven-letter words, five all in Webster's 10th Collegiate, e.g. biology deathly sloshed bastard selvage fissile dallies flavors. (32-4, 49-137)

Miscellany

73. The longest word to which every letter can be transadded: sere (72-106).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Jeff Grant transadded all 26 letters to the five-letter trues (all OED but EDD turzes) and the six-letter routes (all OED). (13-102)
  • Jeff Grant got 25 of 26 for the seven-letter souters (French troussez for Z) and a weak set for the eight-letter linguets. (13-102, 13-103)

Found here:

  • euros (5), rouse (5), trues (5), roues° (5)

74. 21 five-letter words from 21 letters, any two sharing one letter (75-250, 68-212, 77-85).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article was found completing the 21-word, 21-letter set.

75. The ten-digit square 1532487609 with root 39147, as a word pair under one letter-digit cipher (1237069584/35172 is antichorus/train) (70-122).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Ed Wolpow and Tom Pulliam both solved 1532487609/39147, e.g. interclash/thirl (both in NI2). (12-217)

Found here:

  • 1532487609/39147: actorishly°/tyars†, angulosity°/gyals°, axungietys†/usage, carmustine°/recut, cyathoider†/archi†, disformate†/sedom†

76. Shiftgrams (shift every letter, then transpose: ray, cat) longer than perhaps/lowland; subtransposal sets (69-24).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Tom Pulliam easily found eight-letter shiftgrams such as abutment/habitual. (12-218)
  • Tom Pulliam gave NI2/NI3 nine-letter shiftgrams for nearly every initial letter, e.g. becoiffed/highflier, deplaster/spaghetti. (13-22)
  • Dmitri Borgmann found ten-letter shiftgrams, the best the Websterian overleaned/viziership; the editor conjectured twelve-letter ones exist. (13-88)
  • Richard Sabey found twelve-letter shiftgrams: apprenticing/platycyrtean and precipitants/pentadactyle, plus many 11-letter pairs. (36-177)
  • Subtransposals: Tom Pulliam's betwines/western (55,062,000) beat dmitri/miller; Alan Frank later reached preceptor/dillydally (1,866,240,000). (12-217, 15-18)
  • Jeff Grant greatly enlarged the subtransposal set scoring 300 (OED plus NI2 edo, tao, teca, yal); Ed Wolpow gave the eleven-letter abracadabra/pili. (12-218)

Found here:

  • hypernuclearer† (14), reverberation (13), antiapartheid° (13), overbearinger† (13)

77. All spellings of schwa (75-232).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Stuart Kidd listed the spellings of the schwa, the sound with the most spellings (About, CanAAn, currACH ... martYREd). (36-110)

78. The longest words spelled with chemical element symbols (TiNTiNNaBULaTiON) or state abbreviations (CaCoGaLaCtIa) (76-42, 91).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Ed Wolpow and Tom Pulliam gave the 22-letter NI2 hyperconscientiousness (later shown spurious: no E symbol); Wolpow added psychopannychy for one-letter symbols. (12-217, 47-310)
  • Chris Cole's NI3 records give conscientiousness (17) as the longest word from chemical symbols, and alkylamine (10) from state abbreviations. (23-83)
  • Mike Keith found the 19-letter superconductivities (Brit. overcapitalisations) and, with no symbol repeated, the 18-letter irresponsibilities. (32-288)
  • Tristan Miller found the 23-letter nonrepresentationalisms and, using flerovium (Fl, 2012), the 29-letter floccinaucinihilipilification. (47-310)
  • Anil reports that no one, nor the wordnik site, has found a state-abbreviation word longer than cacogalactia (12). (48-183)

Found here:

  • element symbols: floccinaucinihilipilifications° (30), floccinaucinihilipilification° (29), floccinaucinihilification† (25), hypothalamicohypophyseals† (25)
  • state abbreviations: cacogalactia† (12), alkylamine° (10), calamondin° (10), cascarilla° (10)

79. Non-numerical meanings for the numbers 0 to 50: 37 and 47 missing (75-10, 78-46).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article was found giving non-numerical meanings for 37 or 47.

80. A 5x5 array of 25 letters with no word along king's moves (70-148).

Later in Word Ways:

  • No later Word Ways article was found giving a 5x5 array with no word along king's moves.

81. A seven-letter word girder (badger/sunlit to budlet/sangir) (76-150).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Chris Cole formed seven-letter girders with no shared letters: finback/lumpers to funpark/limbecs (fun park Chambers, rest NI3); also 9/8 cavatinas/tiderode. (35-268)

Found here:

  • seven letters: candies/forglut† to congius°/fardlet†; congius°/fardlet† to candies/forglut†

82. Words made of one, two or three invariant subgroups, longer than ghi, spurs, anode, abode, operative (72-140).

Later in Word Ways:

  • Ross Eckler, from Chris Cole's list, found only six letters matching one alphabet (inoperative, cooperatively, unspiritually...), no larger invariant subgroup. (26-9)