[net.nlang] Words in Alphabetical Order

stock@uwvax.UUCP (06/30/83)

Here are twenty-one six-letter words each of which has all its
letters in alphabetical order:

accent accept access accost adders almost begins
bellow billow biopsy bloops chills chilly chimps
choosy choppy effort floors floppy glossy knotty

Almost all these words were found by using egrep on /usr/dict/words.
The regular expression that was used is left as an exercise for the
interested reader.  No longer such words were found by this method.

			-- daniel stock
			   Computer Sciences
			   University of Wisconsin - Madison
			   stock@uwisc
			   ...!seismo!uwvax!stock

dje@5941ux.UUCP (07/05/83)

There is a SEVEN-letter word with its letters in alphabetical order:

ovyybjl 

(ROT 13 so as not to spoil)

(p.s. here's a quick and easy, albeit manual way to decode ROT 13:
write the letters from A-M in a row, and line up the letters from N-Z
directly below.  To encode/decode, look up the letter and its ROT 13 will be
directly above or below it.)

Dave Ellis / Bell Labs, Piscataway NJ
...!harpo!npoiv!npois!houxm!houxf!5941ux!dje
...!{ariel,lime}!houti!hogpc!houxm!houxf!5941ux!dje

jdd@allegra.UUCP (07/06/83)

Only 21 6-letter words with their letters in alphabetical order, eh?
Looking in Webster's Fifth, I find 50:

abbess	afflux	bijoux	chitty	efflux
abdest	agnosy	billot	choosy	effort
accent	almost	billow	choppy	egghot
accept	beefin	biopsy	clotty	ellops
access	befist	blotty	dehors	floppy
accloy	behint	chillo	dehort	flossy
accost	behoot	chilly	Deimos	ghosty
achill	beknow	chinny	deinos	glossy
acknow	bellow	chintz	dikkop	knoppy
adipsy	bhikku	chippy	dimpsy	knotty

I even find six 7-letter ones:

Adelops
alloquy
beefily
begorry
billowy
egilops

Cheers,
John ("It Pays To Increase Your Word Power") DeTreville
Bell Labs, Murray Hill

dje@5941ux.UUCP (07/07/83)

According to Dmitri Borgmann, author of "Beyond Language," there is
an eight-letter word in alphabetical order.  Although he does not cite
a specific dictionary, he claims that "aegilops" is an acceptable alternate
spelling for "egilops" (whatever that is -- there's no entry for it in
either my American Heritage Dictionary or my department secretary's
Webster's Collegiate).

bill@utastro.UUCP (07/16/83)

My Oxford English Dictionary doesn't even list "egilops";
However, it does list "Aegilops", and gives four definitions:
	1) (Med) An ulcer or fistula in the inner angle of the eye;
	2) (Herb) The wild-oat or other grass found as a corn-weed;
	3) (Bot) A genus of grasses, native to the south of Europe;
	4) A species of oak (Quercus aegilops)
It spells it with the A and E fused into one character; I don't know
if they "count" as two or not, since there are also entries where
the A and E are not fused.

		Bill Jefferys, Astronomy Dept, University of Texas
		Austin TX 78712
			ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill		(uucp)
			utastro!bill@utexas-11		(ARPA)