CURRENT RaysENGLISH101.com FACTOIDS
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- Category: Current RaysENGLISH101.com FACTOIDS
- Published on Saturday, 01 January 2011 00:00
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Here are some FACTS about the ENGLISH language:
No words rhyme with "month", "silver" or "purple".
"orange" rhymes with "syringe".
“Jack” is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
"Dreamt" is the only word that ends in the letters "mt".
"unkempt", "exempt", "prompt" are the words that end in “mpt”.
The word "set" has more definitions than any other word.
"underground" is the only word that begins and ends with the letters "und."
There are only four words that end in"dous":
"tremendous", "horrendous", "stupendous", and "hazardous".
The longest word (45 letters) according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis”which describes a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of volcanic matter
or a similar fine dust.
The only other word with the same amount of letters (45) as “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” is its plural: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses”.
“Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only your left hand
(all of these letters are on the lefthand side of the QWERTY keyboard).
"squirrelled” is the longest one-syllable word; the second longest is "screeched"
"Almost" is the longest word with all the letters in alphabetical order.
"Rhythm" is the longest word without a vowel (except "y").
”Floccinaucinihilipilification”, the declaration of an item being useless,
is the longest non-medical term (29 letters).
Lake “Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg” is
the world’s longest named lake with 45 letters.
It is also known as Webster Lake located
in the town of Webster, Massachusetts, USA, near the Connecticut border.
"therein" is a seven letter word that contains ten words
without rearranging any of its letters including:
"the", "there", "he", "in", "rein", "her", "here", "ere", "herein", "therein".
The word combination using "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways as follows:
"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode
through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" has two synonyms that are antonyms of each other:
“to adhere” or “to separate”.
The word "clip" has synonyms that are antonyms of each other:
“to fasten” and “to cut off/out”;
it also refers to pacing (pace) as in doing something or moving at a fast clip.
The noun "sanction" has two synonyms that are antonyms of each other:
"to allow" and "to prohibit".
" I am " is the shortest complete sentence.
English is an Anglo-Frisian language brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by
Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany.
The word "queue" is the only word that is still pronounced the same as its letter "q"
when the last four letters are removed.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."
The six official languages of the United Nations are:
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
More than 1,000 different languages are spoken on the continent of Africa.
The most used letter in the English alphabet is ‘E’, and ‘Q’ is the least used!
“Goddessship” is the only word with a triple letter, “sss”.
The following sentence uses every letter of the alphabet:
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
The following sentence uses every letter of the alphabet and
uses the least number of letters to do so:
“Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”
There are only three words that have a letter that repeats six times:
“Degenerescence” ("e"), “Indivisibility” ("i"), and “Nonannouncement” ("n").
The only three words that have 2 consecutive "u" are:
“vacuum”, “residuum”, and “continuum”.
The word “alphabet” is derived from the combination of
the first two letters in the Greek alphabet:
“alpha” and “beta”.
The only word that has 4 sets of double letters in a row (consecutively) is “balloonneer”.
A moment is defined as zero seconds long.
The only words with all the vowels listed in order (“a” “e” “i” “o” “u” and “y”) are:
“facetiously” and “abstemiously”.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is “uncopyrightable”.
The only word with all the vowels in reverse order (“u” “o” “i” “e” and “a”) is : “subcontinental”.
“Q” is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear
in any State names of the United States!
Ernest Vincent Wright (1872–October 7, 1939[1]) was an American author
known for his book, Gadsby a 50,000 word novel which,
except for the Introduction and a Note at the end,
did not use the letter "e".
"hungry" and "angry" are the only two words that end in "ngry".
There are over 600,000 English words…