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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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consecutive u's
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1
2009/10/01 - 7:30pm

To settle a bet:Is vacuum the only English word spelled with consecutive u's? I hope so.

Guest
2
2009/10/01 - 8:43pm

In the continuum of English words, no.

(The OED also turns up "duumvirate", though their latest example of use is from 1894.)

Guest
3
2009/10/01 - 9:13pm

Thank you.

Guest
4
2009/10/02 - 12:30am

Many are archaic or foreign, and almost half are based on vacuum, but I get more than 100 hits from the OED. In addition to continuum, the better ones include muumuu, residuum, and Weltanschauung. Does pay-as-you-use count?

Guest
5
2009/10/02 - 5:42am

Not nearly as common as vacuum or continuum, are several -uu- words related to more familiar words:
residual – residuum "something residual"
triumvirate – duumvirate "two-person ruling body"
premenstral – premenstruum "the time during which wise men smile and say 'yes, dear'"

Ron Draney
721 Posts
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6
2009/10/02 - 7:51pm

I once used a spell-checker's dictionary to find words with each letter doubled. Some were easy (CC in "accept", OO in "moon"), others required compound words (HH in "hitchhike", WW in "glowworm") or words whose "Englishness" was questionable (JJ in "hajj", KK in "chukker"). Some were obvious once you had the answer but didn't fall into any of the obvious categories (II in "skiing").

The only letters I couldn't find doubled in any word that could be considered English were Q, X and Y. To this day I'm convinced there's some obscure compound word with a double Y that just wasn't in my word list, but I've never been able to find it.

Guest
7
2009/10/03 - 1:34am

Glenn said:

Not nearly as common as vacuum or continuum, are several -uu- words related to more familiar words:
residual – residuum "something residual"
triumvirate – duumvirate "two-person ruling body"
premenstral – premenstruum "the time during which wise men smile and say 'yes, dear'"


get real.this is a normal usage ?Thank you anyway

Guest
8
2009/10/03 - 10:11am

Duude!
Excuuse me.

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