Tuesday, October 09, 2012

...words!




WORDS are sooo cool! i love finding out things about them. just for fun heres some cool word stuff. did you know???


“ough" can be pronounced in 9 different ways! dont believe it?? read this! “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.” WOUGH! hough cool is that!

"rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest words without vowels. syzygy??? huh???

theres no words that rhyme with "orange" or "purple" or "silver" or "month"

if you spell out every number from 0 to 999 youre gonna find all the vowels except for "a" til you get all the way to one thousAnd!

wanna win at scrabble?? play the word "quartzy!" its the highest scoring word you could make! and...on a triple word score...yikes!

the most frequently used lettr at the beginning of a word is the letter "S." and...the most frequently used word in the english language is the word "the." yikes! i just wrote "the" 7 times.! ack!

the book gadsby written by ernest vincent wright has 50,110 words in it and NOT ONE word has the letter "e." yikes! who counted??!! and...whos gonna check to see if thats true?? not me!!

shakespeare invented the words "assissination" and "bump"

of all the words in the english language the word "set" has the most definitions!

the word "therein" contains 10 words without rearranging any of its letters. check it out! therein...the...there...he...in...rein...her...here...ere.
..herein.

a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet is called a "pangram." heres an example: "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs."

the symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

"go." is the shortest complete sentence in the english language!

oh...i know youre just dying to know... the longest place name still in use in the world is:
taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipu
kakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitnatahu. its a hill in new zealand. if i lived there for sure id hate someone to ask ...where you from lenny? arrrgh!

know any cool word stuff?

...houghs from lenny  :)

71 comments:

  1. That's really cool about all the different "ough" pronunciations. I'd never really thought about it!

    Great post. :)

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  2. Wow, what a great post! I love words too. :) I'm hooked on bookworm and words with friends. I was surprised by the first "a" being in a thousand!

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  3. Wow! This is amazing. I learned so much I didn't know about words. I'm always amazed at how much information you share about any topic you post about.

    Hope you're having a great Fall!

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  4. I'm such a word nerd and I LOVE this post, Lenny!! How fun! Errr, I mean, hough fun. ;)

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  5. Hey Lenny!
    How cool of you to make mention of all those usages and pronunciation of words. And here's one for you, "Queue", which is pronounced as a "Q" or "Cue" or "Kew" :) Take kare, I mean care, little buddy.
    Gary and yes indeed, Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet star! :)

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  6. Awesome collection as usual, Lenny!

    I didn't know hardly any of these, except that bit about "the" being so common. That was actually used as a code-breaker in Poe's "The Gold Bug," which was one of the very first detective stories.

    And I'll be sure to remember to save up my Scrabble letters for quartzy!

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  7. I totally loved reading this post! I love words too. They make me happy!

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  8. Love this! I'm a word lover too. I was just talking about 'ough' in my classroom a couple of weeks ago. I'll have to show them that sentence!

    I never realized that the 'a' hardly shows up in numbers - how bizarre!

    Thanks for the smiles - hope you're keeping well *hugs*

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  9. What an awesome post!! Great job, Lenny! I had no idea of all the ways you could say "ough"!

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  10. syzygy -- is that the word for when all the planets line up?

    And I heard about the book that doesn't use the letter e, and I want to know, who would want to read it?!? I mean, who decides to do such a thing?

    Thanks for the post, Lenny!

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  11. Hi, Lenny! This was an AWESOME post! I definitely learned some new things today. : )

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  12. Wow, what a list of cool facts about words. I knew about Shakespeare inventing lots of different words but I never thought about how there are not 'a' vowels in any of the numbers until one thousand! That's cool!

    Thanks for the scrabble tip! I'm excited to use it now.

    Jai

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  13. Hi Lenny! Words are very cool and I love how you put them into perspective that's fascinating.

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  14. Hi Lenny .. those are amazing words and most I didn't know about ... yes, if I lived in that place in NZ - I'd be moving I agree with you. I love your oughs ... fun point ..

    Great you're enjoying all these words - and quartzy in scrabble sounds a very good idea ...

    I'd heard of that book ... strange but true - the book, not that I knew it!

    Have a lovely happy weekend .. big hugs Hilary

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  15. I always learn so much when I read your posts, Lenny. I did know that Shakespeare invented a lot of words.

    Did you know Lewis Carroll also made up words? So did Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss. Although you won't find their playful words in the dictionary! Twas brillig and the slithy toves...

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  16. What an awesome post, Lenny! You teach me stuff over here all the time! Now I'm gonna teach this in homeschool tomorrow. You are SUPERCALAFRAGALISTIC, ya know that?? I love words too. I guess all writers do?? Words make me smile. Huge hugs Lenny!

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  17. Wow...I mean, wow! where do u get this stuff?
    Jasmyne:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

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  18. I know some cool word stuff... but I'm tired.
    Jasmyne:D

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  19. My kids and I play Scrabble all the time - I'm going to have to remember "quartzy"!

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  20. Ha! LOVE this! Thanks, Lenny.

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  21. I know how to say "rhythm", but "syzygy"????

    This was great!

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  22. Amazing post, Lenny! You have done some great research to learn all those facts and share them. Words are fascinating, and I love Scrabble. I've made quartz before but never quartzy. Two words people can make when they have a q but no u are qi and qat.

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  23. Awesome post, Lenny! I'm a total word nerd and you still found stuff I'd never even heard of! I'm totally going to have to remember that Scrabble word -- that'll impress my friends. Or make them mad :)

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  24. Words are so much fun! I like octothorpe -- never knew that # had a name!

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  25. I knew about Quartzy, because I am a big time scrabble buff, but Shakespeare created the word, Bump? I never knew that!! Seriously, you are the smartest kid ever. You know a ton of trivia--I bet you are really good at those types of games. :)

    Angela

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  26. Everyone loves a boy who reads! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I'm here from Klahanie's blog....and I probably mis-spelled his name.

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  27. Happy birthday Lenny! I saw a post from Penny-her human's name is Gary. Penny said to come over and so I did. My name is Maggie Mae, a black Labrador retriever. My human says she likes your blog and learned alot from reading it.

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  28. Hi, Lenny! Happy Birthday! Woohoo, Happy 13th Birthday!! (a little birdie told me. Okay, Penny told me. BOL)
    Tail thumps,
    CindyLu xx

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  29. Happy Birthday Lenny from all here in Eastbourne ... Hardwick, Muddy Hippo and me ... big hugs - so many congratulations have a wonderful day with family and friends ... xoxoxo from us!!! Miss Hilary

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  30. Happy Birthday Lenny. Penny the SuperStar sent me.
    How do you pronounce ghoti? Give up? Fish. That's right, fish.
    gh as in tough equals f
    o as in women equals i
    ti as in station equals sh
    Fish.
    English is a very strange language. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful birthday.

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  31. Love this post! Happy Birthday, Lenny! I hope you have a fantastic day! Thanks for making the blogosphere a brighter place. :o)

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  32. Hi, Lenny! Today is your special day!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

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  33. Happy, Happy Birthday Lenny! Enjoy your special birtdhay!

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  34. Words are always fun- happy birthday!

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  35. Happy Birthday Tidings Lenny! I am a NEW follower (I am fairly turtle like with this bloggy stuff) however that does not diminish one itsy bit of my heartfelt wishes for you on your special day! I am looking forward to reading your posts (past and future!)
    With Much Metta,
    the mirliton (aka Laura) or miss mooty

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  36. That's an awesome list, Lenny. I love learning about words!
    Hope you have an amazing birthday!

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  37. Very awesome post! I want to wish you a Happy Birthday!!! 13 wow! I hope you get to do something fabulous today! enJOY~ :D

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  38. What an awesome post! That is amazing about ough! The English language is so crazy that I just love it. And I'm super grateful it's my native language so I didn't have to try to figure out all the craziness of it. :)

    And Happy Birthday Lenny!

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  39. Hi Lenny. I heard from Gary and Penny that you just had a birthday. Happy Birthday! I hope your day was all you wanted and more. It's nice to meet you

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  40. Happy birthday, Lenny! Hope you have a fabulous day!

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  41. Happy birthday, Lenny Lee!! Welcome to the world of being a teenager!!

    xoxo-

    Shelley

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  42. Hey Lenny, I'm new to your blog and am loving it. This is such a great post and I learned so much, thank you for sharing!

    Also, Happy Birthday =)

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  43. Happy Birthday, Lenny! #13 is a great time to be young. New opportunities will come your way if you are open to learning. Enjoy your day.




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  44. Not as much as you do!

    Myrna Foster just sent me over to meet you and wish you a happy birthday. Glad I came. This was cool.

    =)

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  45. Just stopped by to wish you happy birthday. I see your name a lot on Gary's blog Klahanie, but today it looks like there's a party across half the blogosphere!

    I love words, too. Wonderful facts you've unearthed.

    The letter "a" in numbers I can see making sense to Americans. Did you know that when they get to a hundred, Brits usually then say "one hundred and one"?

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  46. hey Lenny! just stopped by to wish you a very happy birthday!!!!!!!

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  47. Hiya Lenny, Penny and Gary told me it was your birthday so just had to call in and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope you are having a fun day.

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  48. Happy Birthday, Lenny!

    Interesting blog, loved all the trivia about words and the alphabet!

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  49. Happy birthday, Lenny! You're an old fart now! :D

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  50. Happy birthday, Lenny.

    I agree that words are cool.

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  51. Happy birthday, Lenny! I was waiting to see if you were putting up a birthday post before commenting, but now I can see you must be having too much fun. Did the Kindle arrive yet? I hope you enjoy it!

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  52. Happy happy happy birthday, Lenny. Sending you lots of hugs. :)

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  53. Happy Birthday Lenny! Your blog is great! Mr. Gary sent me- he's cool too. :D

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  54. I loved all that info about words. Most I didn't know! Happy birthday, Lenny-the-Teen!!!!

    Hugs,
    Jackee

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  55. Happy birthday, Lenny! Glad you like the poem I wrote for you. Sure hope you are having a great birthday. It's so nice to see all the great posts in your honor, isn't it!

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  56. Hey Lenny!

    Yes, it's me, Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet star, now evidently, a superstar! :)

    I know my human, Gary, who I so kindly allow to live with me, commented on your pawesome, sorry, awesome, post.

    And thus, my young human friend, here's wishing you a really happy birthday. You are well cool! Arf! Arf!

    Penny and her human, Gary :)

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  57. Can you believe I forgot to stop by your blog to say an extra Happy Birthday? Happy Birthday to the best cp in the blogosphere!

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  58. Hi Lenny .. Muddy Hippo has just reminded me it's not Possum O'Possum is it?! It is Rocky the Raccoon .. I really should get my details right! Poor old Rocky - hope he and his young master forgive me?!

    Have a wonderful Sunday and enjoy that Kindle when it arrives ...

    Happy Birthday and One Day Older ... hugs from us all across the pond - Hilary

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  59. Happy Birthday, Lennie. I'm so happy to "meet" you. Hope your birthday was great!

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  60. You had me at words! I'm a word nerd - used to be an English (and math, that's my degree actually, I was one class away from a minor in English) teacher. I study the Bible a lot, and one of my favorite activities is studying the words in the original Greek or Hebrew. I have lots of reference books. I love book - have way too many and need to get organized.
    I'm here because Hilary Melton-Butcher and Gary Pennick both did birthday tributes to you, so I had to meet you. I am now you're adoring fan - that was an AMAZING post with so many fun facts. Good work.
    I'm your new follower and so glad we met.
    Tina @ Life is Good
    http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com/
    P.S I have a boy who will be 13 on Saturday. I call him YellowBoy on my blog. Put that in my search box and you'll know why...

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  61. Hi Lenny:
    I found out about your blog from that famous Jack Russell, Penny!!! I love what you've created!!! Penny also told me that its your birthday!!
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
    Make it the best year ever!!!
    Suzanne

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  62. I just found out that yesterday was your birthday, Lenny. Happy Belated Birthday! May all your dreams come true and all your hopes fulfilled.

    Best wishes and big hugs,

    Your friend, Jai x

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  63. Happy Belated Birthday. Thank you for being such a positive force in the universe.

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  64. Hi Lenny! Sorry I didn't make it here over the weekend, but happy late birthday, bud!

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  65. Happy Belated Birthday! Hope it was great! I'm all for making it a "Birthday Week", so if you want to celebrate all week, I think you should!

    Blessings to you! :)

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  66. First of all: Happy birthday!!! Read about it on Hilary's blog.

    Wow, this is really interesting what you know about words. Lots of things I haven't known. And finally I know how to win at Scrabble ;)

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  67. I have read so many amazing things about you through my fellow writers that I decided to pop over. I love the Scrabble tip, btw!
    Happy Birthday! It is so great to finally meet the person behind all the positive comments out there!

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  68. Happy Birthday Lenny. I hope that you had a lot of fun and lots of goodies. May God Bless you Ameen.

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  69. Wow that is an amazing lot of information.
    Yes there are many more vowel sounds in the English language than there are traditional spellings for them. :O)
    So quartzy is a word then? Hmmm, (scratches chin thoughtfully)
    Happy Birthday BTW

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  70. Happy Belated Birthday, Lenny! I learned of you from Robyn Campell.
    This was a wonderful post- so full of cool info! Thanks!

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Whatever wonderful, witty and wise words you manage to come up with!