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Word of the Day:
PANGRAM (n. pl. -S)
Definition(s):
- (n.) a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet
Useful info for word game players:
- Front hooks: (none)
- Back hooks: -S
- Anagrams: (none)
- Longer extensions: (none)
- Wraparounds: (none)
- Other Spellings: (none)
- Related Forms: (none)
Current theme:
Language & Words
Epilogue:
Writers have always played with words, and PANGRAMS have been concocted in many different languages, from ancient times to the present, as have other word games such as anagrams and palindromes. PANGRAM, if you were just quizzically debating the exact origin, is derived from Greek roots. It is a combination of pan (“all”) and gramma (“letter”). The latter root is also a part of a few other words pertaining to letters, such as ANAGRAM and MONOGRAM.
Crafting pangrams can be challenging and addicting. True purists will seek to create a meaningful pangram with exactly the same number of letters as the alphabet, but this is exceedingly difficult to do in English, with perhaps the best example being:
- Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz.
Those are all legitimate English words (and all acceptable in Scrabble), but the meaning is, admittedly, obscure. If abbreviations, proper nouns, or creative punctuation is allowed, other fine 26-letter examples include:
- Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx.
- Quartz glyph job vex'd cwm finks.
Clearly, though, the meanings still tend to be fanciful or nonsensical. If a few letters are repeated, short English pangrams start to resemble natural language, and many people find these to be more fun and interesting. You may have seen “the quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog,” since it is often used as filler text in documents. A few other excellent short pangrams include:
- How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. (30 letters)
- Two driven jocks help fax my big quiz. (30)
- The five boxing wizards jump quickly. (31)
- Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. (32)
- Fake bugs put in wax jonquils drive him crazy. (37)
- Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. (40)
For even more of a challenge, you can try to compose pangrams with a theme, such as, say, Scrabble. After a lot of thinking and scribbling, here are my best original contributions to the genre so far:
- Joyful word maven picks tough quiz box. (32)
- Joky wiz vanquished expert scrabble game foe. (38)
Can you do better? Let’s have a pangram contest! If you would like to play along, please send your best scrabble-themed pangram compositions to me, and I will compile and publish them. The contest rules are as follows:
- Please submit no more than three entries per person
- Each entry must be a sentence or phrase that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet at least once; letters may be repeated as needed, but aim for entries that are fewer than 50 letters in length (ideally, fewer than 40 letters)
- Each entry must have a meaning loosely related to our favorite word game or to the activities surrounding it (words, word study, tournaments, etc.)
- Each entry should, ideally, utilize only words acceptable in the North American word list, that is the Official Tournament and Club Word List (TWL) (for home players, the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th edition, may be used as a guide, since it is nearly identical to the TWL list)
- I will publish your name along with your entry, unless you advise me that you wish to remain anonymous
- Send entries directly to me at tilehead@gmail.com by Wednesday June 6th
Entries will be judged on originality, meaning, and brevity. No real prize is being offered — other than the joy of composition and, of course, eternal scrabble pangram glory.
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