Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a brain-stretching challenge to think of the longest word that begins and ends with a particular pair of letters. For example, what’s the longest word you can think of that starts with A and ends with A? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Longest Word Brain Stretcher”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette, and joining us now is our quiz guy, Mr. John Chaneski.
Hi, John.
Hi, John.
Hi, Martha.
Hi, Grant.
When I can’t sleep, I don’t count sheep. I construct word puzzles. All in my head, I first try to think of the longest word I can that starts with A and that ends with A.
Now, see if you can think of one, a word that starts with A and ends with A, the longest word that you can.
Have a cadabra.
That’s really good. I was going to say anaconda, but that’s not as long.
That’s the exact word.
That’s not that long.
That’s the word I came up with.
That’s how it works. You try to come up with a long word.
That’s eight letters. We’re looking for common words. I’ll give you a clue to the longest word I can find if you can’t think of one.
But you guys can just shout out your words and see which of you gets the longest one.
What’s the longest word you can think of that begins with A and ends with B?
Adlib?
That’s only five, though.
That’s only five.
Okay, I only found actually two words, two longest words, and they’re both six letters. See if you can think of any of them.
I want something from Arabic.
Oh, that’s a good guess.
A to B.
A to B.
Here’s a clue to the first word I came up with. A confident, relaxed manner when dealing with difficulty.
That does not help.
All right. Here’s an easier one. Here’s an easier one.
What a sponge does.
Absorb.
Absorb is six, yeah. But the confident, relaxed manner is when you deal with things with aplomb.
Aplomb, yes. Very good.
Okay. How about what’s the longest word you can think of that begins with A and ends with C?
Oh, that’s going to be something I see at the end probably, I’m thinking.
Oh. By the way, we’re not using extreme technical or scientific term.
Anticlimactic.
Anticlimactic is 13 letters. That’s fantastic, Grant. Good on you. Very good.
I thought of apathetic. That’s only nine. But how about a word like a memoir, for example, related to a story about a person told by that person?
Autobiographic?
Autobiographic. Yes, that’s 14 letters.
14. Very good.
Okay. Okay. How about starting with A and ending with D?
Ooh. Well, simple stuff like accelerated or.
That’s pretty good.
Oh, that’s good. How about a word that means given human form or personality to?
Oh, anthropomorphized.
Yes. Ooh, that’s good. Like that’s 17 letters. Like when I say my dog is a pretty princess, and she is.
So I think we’ll stop with those. And like I said, by now you’re hopefully asleep.
I was going to say, now we know what you do.
That’s what I do in my head at night, yes.
John, thank you for the quiz.
A little game for you to play.
Yeah, we really appreciate it.
We’ll talk to you next week.
Thank you, guys.
Talk to you then.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
877-929-9673. Or share your ideas with us on Twitter @wayword.
