English trivia

I happened to see this page, thought it is interesting to know 🙂

 Interesting Facts:
1. The longest one-syllable word in the English
language is “screeched.”

2. “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends
in the letters “mt”.

3.  No word in English language rhymes with
“month,” “silver,” “purple,” or “orange.”

4. The symbol on the “pound” key (#) is called
an octothorpe. 

5.  The symbol used in many URLs (Web addresses)
is called a tilde. (~)

6. The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.

7. The word “set” has more definitions than any
other word in English.

8. “Underground” is the only word in English that
begins and ends with the letters “und.”

9. There are only four words in the English language
which end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous,
stupendous, and hazardous.

10. The longest word in the English language,
according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

11. The only other word with the same amount of
letters is its plural:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses.

12. The longest place-name still in use is
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwe-nuakit natahu,
the Maori name of a hill in New Zealand.

13. Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra
Senora la Reinade los Angeles de Porciuncula” and
can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, L.A.

14.  The verb “cleave” has definitions which are
antonyms of each other: to adhere and to separate.

15.  The verb “sanction” also has definitions which
are antonyms:  to sponsor and to ban.

16. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

17. There is a seven-letter word in English that
contains eleven words without rearranging any of its
letters, “therein”: the, there, he, in, rein, her,
here, ere, I, therein, herein.

18. ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest English word that
is typed with only the left hand.

19. The combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine
different ways; the following sentence contains them
all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman
strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling
into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.”

20. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without
repeating a letter is “uncopyrightable.”

21. “Facetious” and “abstemious” contain all the vowels in
the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing
arsenic.”

22. The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian
phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead.”

23.  Only three words have entered English from Czech: 
polka, pilsner, and robot.