Word with No Vowels - Can You Guess It?

[DaveC426913]

I've come across a common(ish) English word that contains no vowels (not even 'y'). You all know the word. It's not slang, not misspelt, not abbreviated and not specialized. And it's in the dictionary.

Hm. Can't think of any other hints...

 

[mattmns]

Are you sure? I used google and could not find a single source that actually has a word with no vowels (including y). The only word I found was a welsh word, which I don't think we all knew.

 

[motai]

The closest one I could think of is "syzygy"... but then again that has the letter "y", but if it didn't have the letter "y" then it would be the longest word.

 

[Blahness]

1999!

Or any year, really. As a number, it has no vowels >_>

 

[DeadWolfe]

I say "nth"

 

[Smurf]

do onomatopoeia's count as words? If so "shhh!" "pssst!" "grr!" ect.

edit: Those arn't strictly onomatopoeia's are they?

 

[siddharth]

The closest one I could think of is "syzygy"... but then again that has the letter "y"

Same thing with "Lynch".

 

[brewnog]

Same thing with "Lynch".

And Rhythym.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Hebrew.

Extra text added to satisfy a curious criterion.

 

[LarrrSDonald]

I was thinking the answer was supposed to be the onomatopoetical "Hmm". But then perhaps I'm reading too much into the last part.

 

[Greg825]

"tsk" ?
lengthenizing my post :|

 

[DaveC426913]

(I'd file onomatopoeias under slang, but it's moot now...)


Dead Wolfe got it!

nth.

As in: "to the nth degree."

 

[JamesU]

>>cwm, crwth, and nth are three words without vowels.<<

do onomatopoeia's count as words? If so "shhh!" "pssst!" "grr!" ect.

edit: Those arn't strictly onomatopoeia's are they?

they're interjections

 

[whozum]

I don't think 'nth' is a word. There are a lot of things in the dictionary now that arent really words. What makes something a word anyway?

 

[bomba923]

And Rhythym.

NO! !

From where comes this spelling error?

It's spelled "rhythm."

(sorry, I'm very picky when it comes to spelling)

Also, from http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1029289/8966.htm:

The answer to this question is subject to debate – so much debate, in fact, that I became sorry I ever asked the question. The answer that I originally posted was:

If we refer to words that lack "true" vowels (a, e, i, o, and u), the answer is that a number of them do; among them are: hymn, rhythm, myth, sylph, and syzygy (the alignment of three celestial objects). These words contain the so-called semivowel y and none of the true vowels.

The debate is further complicated by the view held by some people that certain uttered sounds that have distinct meaning (e.g., Shhh! Grrr! Psst! Zzzz!) are true words and therefore qualify as words without vowels (or, for that matter, semivowels). If we disqualify these words and words ending in y (together with acronyms such as RSVP and abbreviations such as P.S. and P.M. ), every English word contains at least one of the principal vowels.

After I posted the above answer, several people disagreed. Among the dissenters were those citing cwm, a Welsh word for "valley," which does have a listing in some English dictionaries. Therefore, I probably needed to clarify further to rule out words that are strictly dialect, especially Gaelic or Welsj words in which w may have a vowel sound. Someone else suggested that nth was a word with no vowels. But the n in nth stands for any number, so then we might as well argue that 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on are vowel-less words.

The whole matter became silly and trivial, and I am now asking people not to send me suggestions of obscure vowel-less words. Having endured several such suggestions, my final answer to the question is: Who cares?

crwths?

 

[JamesU]

crwths, it's pronounced krooths. It's an old celtic intrument

Whozum, nth is reckognized as a word.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't think 'nth' is a word. There are a lot of things in the dictionary now that arent really words. What makes something a word anyway?

If it's not a word, what is it?

- 'hmph' is an onomatopoeia, as is 'tsk', and their spelling is debatable
- 'n' is really just a letter; pronouncing it doesn't make it a word
- '1999' is a number, not a word

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

For those of us who feel that the Oxford English Dictionary (oed) is the ultimate arbiter (especially when it agrees with us), the good news is that nth is a headword there. The bad news is that it is cross-referenced to the headword N. The good news is that N is also a headword in the oed. The bad news is that all of the letters are headwords in the oed. The good news is that in the definition of subsense a of the 4th sense of the headword N, the word nth is used:

4. a. In Math. used to indicate an indefinite number.
to the nth (power), to any required power; hence fig. to
any extent, to the utmost. Also used in place of bi-, di-,
tri-, etc., in words (e.g. n-ary).

 

[Cybersteve]

If it's not a word, what is it?
- 'hmph' is an onomatopoeia, as is 'tsk', and their spelling is debatable
- 'n' is really just a letter; pronouncing it doesn't make it a word
- '1999' is a number, not a word

I think to call "nth" a word is stretching things a bit.

Would you call 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. words?

 

[JamesU]

yes, I would call first, second, and third words ;)

 

[smaster]

nth- translatable in any language, it's the real world in other languages. Here are some examples:
Spanish and Portuguese - enésimo; French - énième; Russian - энный; German - n-t.

 

[K.J.Healey]

Pwnd.

 

[Doctoress SD]

I might not even necesarily be a literal word, or literal vowels. Also if it is an English word then it doesn't contain a z in place of an s. And by English, do you include Scottish?

 

[Doctoress SD]

Psst?

A. int. Used to attract attention or give warning, esp. surreptitiously. Also more generally: used to represent a hiss.

1875 A. DALY Big Bonanza III. i, in America's Lost Plays (1942) XX. 195 Bob (Gyrating) Pst! (Beckoning Mrs. Balder, she crosses to R.) Don't mention this to Jack. 1899 Cent. Mag. Feb. 526/2 ‘Psst!’ The peculiar hiss which Italians make to attract attention came sharp and distinct from among the low growth of the chestnut shoots. 1922 J. JOYCE Ulysses II. 278 What is she? Hope she. Psst! 1938 M. K. RAWLINGS Yearling xvi. 188 Buck hissed at him. ‘Psst. You got him. Leave him lay.’ 1972 W. M. ESTES Streetful of People i. 63 ‘Psst! You're going the wrong way,’ hissed Calvin Turnbough. 1975 New Yorker 13 Jan. 28/3 So now everybody is responding. Bresson is like that. Psst, psst, psstthe steam gathers, then the lid blows off. 1998 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 4 Jan. 17/4 Psst. Hey, kid, want to see some filthy pictures?
B. n. An utterance of ‘psst’; an instance of the sound ‘psst’.

1963 V. NABOKOV Gift v. 302 One could already hear the energetic ‘psst, psst’ of Shahmatov, who had been served the wrong order. 1996 Boston Globe (Nexis) 17 Feb. (Sports Section) 75 Someone tried to get M.L. Carr's attention by giving him a quick "psst." He didn't look up. 2003 ‘ZZ PACKER’ Drinking Coffee Elsewhere 212 All her mother did was make a sound not unlike the steamy psst of the iron she was wielding. -- OED.com

 

[binzing]

It's Hmm...He used it right before saying no more hints, tricky, but not that tricky.

 

[Doctoress SD]

I checked Hmm, it wasn't in OED and OED is the best British dictionary there is.