What word has the most silent letters in a row?
language/english/pronunciation/silent.most Added material
Problem
What word has the most silent letters in a row?
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BROUGHAM (4, UGHA) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. see also entry "silent.letter" see also entry "homophones.letter"
Additional material
[ Editor: an unattributed answer (apparently from a web question-and- answer site) to "What English word has the most silent letters?"; the Wikipedia list it refers to is "List of places in England with counterintuitive pronunciations". ] British place names, of course. When you have a group of people who live in a particular place for a long time, they’ll spend that time twisting and shifting and pulling and shortening the name in all manner of ways. Place names also tend to be more resistant to changes in spelling. Considering these factors, especially that Britain is the place where English has been spoken the longest, you end up with a lot of beautifully counterintuitive pronunciations - to the point that the Wikipedia article “List of places in England with counterintuitive pronunciations” is split into two parts, A–L and M–Z. From the British place names lists given above and here, I’ve chosen the most extraordinary. Their pronunciations here are given in pseudo-phonetic English and then IPA. Auchinleck: AFF-leck /ˈaflɛk/ Great Barugh: “Great Barf” - not to be confused with the nearby Barugh, pronounced “Bark”. Cholmondely: CHUM-lee /ˈtʃʌmli/ Featherstonehaugh: FAN-shaw /ˈfænʃɔː/ Loughborough: LUFF-bruh /ˈlʌfbrə/ Lympne: LIM /lɪm/ Magdalen Hill: MAWN Hill /mɔːn/ Puncknowle: PUN-ul /ˈpʌnəl/ Ravenstruther: REN-stree /ˈrɛnstri/ And, finally, my personal favourite and the clear winner: Woolfardisworthy, pronounced “Wulzy” /ˈwʊlzi/.