English trivia
Some of these came through in chain emails, others I found on the net.
- Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters
mt. - Los Angeles’s full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la
Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula and can be
abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, L.A. - The symbol on the “pound” key (#) is called an octothorpe. See this thread in the forum.
- 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”.
