pangram
noun

- a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet, if possible with each letter only being used once

Cambridge DIctionary

—
ORIGIN

From Ancient Greek παν (“everything”) + γράμμα (“letter”), thus “all letters”.

A pangram or ‘holoalphabetic sentence’ is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding.

The best-known English pangram is “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. It has been used since at least the late 19th century, was utilized by Western Union to test Telex data communication equipment for accuracy and reliability, and is now used by a number of computer programs (most notably the font viewer built into Microsoft Windows) to display computer fonts.

—
The best-known German pangram is “Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich” - DeepL translates this as “Twelve boxers chase Viktor across the great Sylt dyke”, which sadly does not qualify as a pangram!

—
CONSONANT FREE WORDS

The English dictionary word with the most consecutive vowels (six) is EUOUAE. Words with five consecutive vowels include QUEUEING, AIEEE, COOEEING, MIAOUED, ZAOUIA, JUSSIEUEAN, ZOOEAE, ZOAEAE.

The Hawaiian word HOOIAIOIA (meaning certified) has eight consecutive vowels and is listed in the 1976 Guinness Book of World Records.

OUENOUAOU (a stream in the Philippines) has nine letters but only one consonant. It is the longest known place name with only a single consonant.

—
VOWEL FREE WORDS

The longest common word without any of the five vowels is RHYTHMS, but there are longer rare words: SYMPHYSY, NYMPHLY, GYPSYRY, GYPSYFY, and TWYNDYLLYNGS. WPPWRMWSTE and GLYCYRRHIZIN are long words with very few vowels.

The longest word in dictionaries having only one vowel is STRENGTHS. The longest word with only one vowel (if repeats are allowed) is CHRONONHOTONTHOLOGOS (twenty letters). STRENGTHLESSNESSES contains only Es and is just two letters shorter.

—
WEIRD WORDS

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and consonants. Other such words are ALUMINOSILICATES, EPICORACOHUMERALER, HEXOSAMINIDASES, ICULANIBOKOLAS, PARAROSANILINES, PARASITOLOGICAL, VERISIMILITUDES.

GORAN IVANESEVIC (a top tennis player) is the longest known celebrity name that alternates consonants and vowels.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES is the longest name of a country consisting of alternating vowels and consonants.

ULTRAREVOLUTIONARIES has each vowel exactly twice. The shortest such word is CUBOIDEONAVICULARE, and the longest, USSOLZEWIECHINOGAMMARUS (a small crustacean)

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Did you know that ‘Mr Pagan’ is an anagram of PANGRAM?”

—
HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith