Five English Words That Are Utterly Unique

Syzygy

Amazingly, very few English words contain three Ys. One of them also happens to describe a rare astronomical event involving three heavenly bodies.

A syzygy is the alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line, commonly the Earth, the sun, and the Moon.

Now, what is the only common English word to end in -mt?

Dreamt

A poet would appreciate how this past tense of dream possesses such a special quality—might be the only verb in regular English to end with -mt.

We hear from people constantly who swear there must be another, yet no one has ever actually offered a second example. Perhaps, it exists in a dream.

The next word is the exact opposite of -mt.

Tmesis

A unique term in the English language to begin with tm- has an unusual meaning to match.

Tmesis is the insertion of one or more words between the words that make up a compound phrase, as in “what-so-ever” (so inserted in the middle of whatever).

You’ll never guess what’s next: the only word believed to contain X, Y, and Z.

Hydroxyzine

Only one word in all of English has an X, Y, and Z in order. Hydroxyzine is also the only word on this list that you may have swallowed at some point.

This medication developed in the 1950s can help calm you down, prevent sneezing, and impress you with unique linguistic qualities.

Our final word is more of a riddle: what is the English term pronounced the same if you remove four letters?

Queue

Before it meant a line, a queue referred to the tail of a beast in medieval pictures and designs.

The unusual spelling is reminiscent of its French origin, like many words that look a little odd in English. Prior to the Frenchification of queue, Latin spelled it simply as coda. The duplication of U and E often feels like waiting in line: Once you think you are almost there, the queue magically seems to repeat itself over and over.

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Word of the Day

Can you guess the definition?

augury

[ aw-gyuh-ree ]

Can you guess the definition?

Word of the day
augury

[ aw-gyuh-ree ]