UNSAID Play the Daily

Guide

Unusual letter patterns in English

Lists of words with rare shapes: Q without U, no vowels, long runs of consonants, doubled doubles and more. Each list is split into words most people know and deeper cuts that word game players collect.

Every word here is in the dictionary Unsaid uses (see where the words come from), so some spellings are variants. Terms are explained in the glossary.

Q without U

In English, Q is almost always followed by U. The exceptions are mostly borrowed from Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese, where the sound written as Q is different. They are the best way to use a Q when no U is around.

Several have more than one accepted spelling, such as QAID and CAID, or QINTAR and QINDAR, an Albanian coin.

For word game players

Words with no A, E, I, O or U

These words use Y as their only vowel. RHYTHMS, at seven letters, is the longest common one.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words with no vowels, not even Y

A small group of words get by with consonants alone. Some are sounds (HMM, BRR, PSST), one is a mathematical term (NTH), and two come from Welsh, where W can be a vowel (CWM, a mountain hollow, and CRWTH, an old stringed instrument).

Everyday words

For word game players

Long words with only one vowel

Each of these has a single A, E, I, O or U and no Y. STRENGTHS packs nine letters around one E.

Everyday words

For word game players

All five vowels, once each, in order

These words contain A, E, I, O and U exactly once and in alphabetical order. FACETIOUS and ABSTEMIOUS are the classic examples.

For word game players

Short words with all five vowels

Seven letters or fewer, with every vowel at least once. SEQUOIA is the shortest everyday one.

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Four or more vowels in a row

QUEUEING, a spelling of QUEUING, has five vowels in a row. Most of these words come from Latin, Greek or Hawaiian.

Everyday words

For word game players

Five or more consonants in a row

Counting Y as a vowel, these words have runs of five or more consonants, usually where two blends meet, as in the TCHSTR of LATCHSTRING.

Everyday words

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Three double letters in a row

BOOKKEEPER and its relatives are the famous ones: OO, KK and EE back to back.

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Two double letters in a row, seven letters or fewer

Shorter words with back-to-back doubles, like BALLOON and COFFEE.

Everyday words

For word game players

Palindromes of five letters or more

Words that read the same in both directions. See palindrome.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words that spell another word backward

Pairs of everyday words of five letters or more that reverse into each other. See semordnilap.

Long words with no repeated letter

The dictionary used here stops at 10 letters, so these are the longest isograms it holds. Longer ones exist: UNCOPYRIGHTABLE and DERMATOGLYPHICS have fifteen letters each and no repeats.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words ending in I

Endings in I usually mark a borrowing from Italian, Japanese, Hindi or Latin plurals.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words ending in U

Endings in U are rare in English and often come from French, Hawaiian or Chinese.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words ending in V

Almost no English words end in V. These are short forms, slang and borrowings.

Everyday words

For word game players

Words ending in J

J at the end of a word is rarer still.

Everyday words

For word game players

Short words with two of J, Q, X or Z

Five letters or fewer with two of the rarest letters. Games that reward rare letters pay well for these.

Everyday words

For word game players