Math Is Fun Forum

Helmetgurus

Novice

Registered: 2024-10-29

Posts: 1

Can u find the word?

Consider the set of vowels, V={a,e,i,o,u}. can u find a word that contains all of these vowels in the order they are listed? ( the vowels may be separated by other letters)

Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,702

Re: Can u find the word?

hi Helmetgurus

Welcome to the forum.

Bob

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Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob

paulb203

Member

Registered: 2023-02-24

Posts: 378

Re: Can u find the word?

When is a word not a word? When is a non-word a word?

I've just thought of this.

During a game of Scrabble someone puts down, 'anertious'.

The other players shake their head, look it up in the Scrabble dictionary. It's not there. Nor is it in any othere dictionary.

They all agree that it's not a word.

But the player is a writer. And he weaves the anecdote into a short story, which gets published.

The relevant sentences in the story are;

"Sixty five points down with no tiles left in the bag, he put down 'anertious' in a desperate hope that it was a word."

"'Anertious' is not a word," she said, with a smile that bordered on gloating, now she knew she had all but won their first encounter.

Is it now a word? They went on to agree that it's not a word, in the story, but now that it has appeared in a story, a published one at that..?

Last edited by paulb203 (2024-12-24 06:59:30)

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bettyking

Novice

Registered: 2024-12-08

Posts: 1

Re: Can u find the word?

Another word that meets this criterion is "abstemious."

Both words showcase the vowels in the specified order, separated by other letters

punhub85

Novice

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 2

Re: Can u find the word?

Another fun one: facetious
Just like abstemious, it contains a, e, i, o, u in order — and sounds like someone politely making a pun at the wrong moment. Perfect word for PunHub ?

Any chance there's a word that has a, e, i, o, u, y in order?

punhub85

Novice

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 2

Re: Can u find the word?

Thanks for the fun challenge!
Just found out "educationalyours" isn’t a real word (yet), but hey — it almost nails the full vowel+“y” order ?
Any other near-misses or coined words that sneak them all in?

phrontister

Real Member

From: The Land of Tomorrow

Registered: 2009-07-12

Posts: 4,904

Re: Can u find the word?

Hi punhub85;

Any chance there's a word that has a, e, i, o, u, y in order?

Yes...the adverbial forms of the two adjectives you mentioned ('facecious' & 'abstemious') fit: 'faceciously' & 'abstemiously'.

For hyphenated words, there's also the adverb 'half-seriously' (from the adjective 'half-serious').

Collins Dictionary (a British dictionary) has 'halfseriously' but not 'halfserious', only the hyphenated 'half-serious'!

The unhyphenated 'halfseriously' is valid in Scrabble games where British words are used.

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