Puzzle of the Day

Monday, May 11

Today's puzzle is a competition! What is the longest English word you can think of that has only one distinct vowel in it? As an example, PROOFSCHOOL would be a great submission... if it were one word.

I'll recognize the best entry/entries for each vowel tomorrow. (You can submit more than one.) No dictionaries or computer assistance allowed, and here's a pro tip: Y is a vowel when it makes a vowelly sound.

   


Check back tomorrow for the answer, a shoutout to all the solvers, and a new puzzle!


Previous puzzle:

You might not think "tooths" is a word, but, empirically, you'd be wrong. Google Ngram Viewer reports that, as of 2008, "tooths" occurred in books at a rate of about 1 per 100,000,000 words:

There's a perfectly good explanation. What is, overwhelmingly, the most likely word to appear directly before "tooths" in a sentence?

Answer:

The answer is "sweet". As Mr. Gregg put it: "Since I like desserts, I have a 'sweet tooth', and since my wife likes desserts too, the two of us have 'sweet tooths'."

Here are the top six results for "* tooths" in Google Ngram Viewer:

No, I can't explain most of these, but perhaps when dentists throw parties, they play Two Tooths and a Lie.

Congrats to solvers Peter M., Maddy, and Mr. Gregg! Atticus had two great guesses that happened to be wrong: "saber" and "not" (as in "it's not tooths, but teeth"). Leo's guess of "saw" was also quite reasonable (the Sawtooths are one word, however).