Although the Oxford English Dictionary records more than 600,000 English words, only an elite group of about 100 words (6 letters or more) have their letters arranged in alphabetical order. “Almost” is the shortest word. Aegilus (a grass genus), with eight letters, is often listed as the longest word; however, technically this is a Latin term. The distinction for longest word belongs to two seven-letter words: “beefily” and “billowy.” The next longest words contain six-letters: abhors, accent, access, almost, biopsy, billow, chintz, and effort.
In the world of numbers, there are two distinctions: “forty” is the only number that has its letters in alphabetical order, while “one” has them in reverse order.
This begs the anticipated question from logophiles: what is the longest word with letters in reverse alphabetical order? The honor goes to “spoon-feed” with nine letters.
Related to this, are words that have all five regular vowels in alphabetical order: abstemious, adventitious, and facetious. “eight” is often noted as the shortest word that contains all five regular vowels in alphabetical order; however the word less commonly-known word, “aerious” wins the honor with only 7 letters.
Read related post:
What is the Longest Word in English Language?
For further reading: A Curious Dictionary of Language Oddities by Chris Cole, Sterling (1999). www.rinkworks.com/words/oddities.shtml
http://listverse.com/2007/12/03/25-english-language-oddities/
May 16th, 2013 at 11:26 AM
the word “ghostly” is not in alphabetical order. it has a “L” after o s and t!!
May 17th, 2013 at 10:57 PM
Yes, excellent catch. I found this in one of my reference books which proves that even proofreaders and fact-checkers miss some obvious things. I have made the correction. Thanks so much for the keen eye and letting me know.
Alex