Virtually everyone uses the English language on a daily basis but there are many surprises buried underneath the surface of this seemingly basic language. X2 has dug up some of the more interesting peculiarities of the language and thought it worthwhile to share with you.
*The word “set” has more definitions than any other word in the English language. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it has 192 definitions.
*The word “queue” is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
*There are only four words in the English language which end in “-dous.” They are tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
*”Underground” is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters “und.”
*There is no synonym for “thesaurus.”
*”Feedback” is the shortest word in English that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E and F.
*When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g. motor + hotel = motel, breakfast +lunch = brunch) the new word is called a “portmanteau.”
*The word “queuing” is the only English word with 5 consecutive vowels!
*One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing multiple uses of letters) is ‘typewriter.’
*The most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E.
*The least used letter in the alphabet is Q.
*Skiing is the only word with double I.
*The first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON.
*The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English alphabet.
Sources: Didyouknow.net and Transaralingo.com.