Is there a word that has no vowels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters ⟨a, e, i, o, u⟩, as well as ⟨y⟩, which may also be a consonant depending on context. However, outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds.

Words without written vowels[edit]

There are very few lexical words (that is, not counting interjections) without vowel letters. The longest such lexical word is tsktsks,^[1] pronounced /ˌtɪskˈtɪsks/. The mathematical expression nth /ˈɛnθ/, as in delighted to the nth degree, is in fairly common usage.^[2] Another mathematical term without vowel letters is ln, the natural logarithm. A more obscure example is rng /ˈrʌŋ/, derived from ring by deleting the letter ⟨i⟩.
Vowelless proper names from other languages, such as the surname Ng, may retain their original spelling, even if they are pronounced with vowels.

In the Middle English period, there were no standard spellings, but ⟨w⟩ was sometimes used to represent either a vowel or a consonant sound in the same way that Modern English does with ⟨y⟩, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. This vocalic ⟨w⟩ generally represented /uː/,^[3][4] as in wss («use»).^[5] However at that time the form ⟨w⟩ was still sometimes used to represent a digraph ⟨uu⟩ (see W), not as a separate letter. This practice exists in modern Welsh orthography so that words borrowed from Welsh may use ⟨w⟩ this way, such as:

• The crwth^[6] (pronounced /ˈkrʊθ/ or /ˈkruːθ/, also spelled cruth in English) is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin)^[7]

He intricately rhymes, to the music of crwth and pibgorn.^[8] in the Welsh alphabet W is a vowel so this word should not be counted.

• cwtch (a hiding place or cubby hole) is also from Welsh (albeit a recent word influenced by English, and used almost exclusively in the variant of English spoken in Wales, not in standard English), and crwth and cwtch are the longest English dictionary words without ⟨a, e, i, o, u, y⟩ according to Collins Dictionary.^[9] in the Welsh alphabet W is a vowel so this word should not be counted.
• A cwm^[10] (pronounced /ˈkuːm/) is used in English in a technical geographical or mountaineering context to mean a deep hollow in a mountainous area, usually with steep edges on some sides, like a corrie or cirque, such as the Western Cwm of Mount Everest. It is also sometimes used, by way of more recent borrowing from Welsh, in a more general sense of a valley. The spellings coombe, combe, coomb, and comb come from the Old English cumb,^[11] which appears either to be a much earlier borrowing from a predecessor of modern Welsh, or to have an even earlier origin, given that there was an ancient Greek word κὑμβη (kumbē) meaning a hollow vessel.^[12] In English literature, one can find the spellings combe (as in Ilfracombe and Castle Combe), coomb (as in J. R. R. Tolkien) or comb (as in Alfred, Lord Tennyson).

There are also numerous vowelless interjections and onomatopoeia found more or less frequently, including brr (brrr is occasionally accepted^{[clarification needed]}), bzzt, grrr, hm, hmm, mm, mmm, mhmm, sksksksk,^[13][14] pfft, pht, phpht,^[7] psst, sh, shh, zzz.

Alphabetical list of words without vowels A, E, I, O, U[edit]

B

Brr

Brrr

By(s)

Byrl(s)

Bzzt

C

Ch

Chynd

Cly

Crwth(s)

Cry

Crypt(s)

Cwm(s)

Cyst(s)

D

Dry(ly)(s)

F

Fly

Flyby

Fry

Fy

Fyrd(s)

G

Ghyll(s)

Glycyl(s)

Glyph(s)

Grrl

Grrr

Gyp

Gyppy

Gyp(s)

Gypsy

H

Hm

Hmm

Hwyl(s)

Hymn(s)

Hyp(s)

J

Jynx

K

Ky

L

Lym(s)

Lymph(s)

Lynch

Lyncx

M

Mhmm

Mm

Mmm

My

Myrrh(s)

Myth

N

Nth

Ny(s)

Nymph(ly)(s)

P

Pfft

Ph(s)

Phpht

Pht

Ply

Pry(s)

Psst

Psych

Pygmy

Pyx

R

Rhy

Rhythm(s)

Rng

Rynd(s)

S

Scry

Sh

Shh

Shrthnd

Shy(ly)

Sknch

Sksksksk

Sky

Skyr

Sly(ly)

Spry(ly)

Spy

Sty

Stymy

Swy

Sylph(s)

Syn

Sync(s)

Synch(s)

Synd(s)

T

Thy

Thymy

Try

Tryp(s)

Tryst(s)

Tsk(s)

Tsktsk(s)

Twp

Tyg(s)

Typp(s)

V

Vly

W

Wyn(s)

Wynn

Why(s)

Wry (ly)

Wss

Wych

Wyn

Wynd(s)

Wynn(s)

X

Xlnt

Xylyl(s)

Xyst(s)

Y

Ympt

Z

Zzz

Alphabetical list of words without vowels A, E, I, O, U, and Y.[edit]

B

Brr

Brrr

Bzzt

C

Ch

Crwth(s)

Cwm(s)

Cwtch

G

Grrl

Grrr

H

Hm

Hmm

M

Mhmm

Mm

Mmm

N

Nth

P

Pfft

Ph(s)

Phpht

Pht

Psst

R

Rng

S

Sh

Shh

Sknch

Sksksksk

T

Tsk(s)

Tsktsk(s)

Twp

W

Wss

X

Xlnt

Z

Zzz

Words without vowel sounds[edit]

Weak forms of function words may be realized without vowel sounds, as in I can go [aɪ kŋ̍ ˈɡoʊ] and I must sell [aɪ ms̩ ˈsɛl].^[15] Some of these forms are reflected in orthography as contractions, such as ‘s, ‘ll, ‘d, and n’t.

See also[edit]

• Wiktionary:List of words that comprise a single sound
• Disemvoweling – Removal of vowels from a text
• Words without vowels in other languages

References[edit]

It’s a question that just about every English learner has asked: “Are there any English words that have no vowels?”

The answer to this depends what you mean by “vowel” and “word.”

In this article, we explain what vowel means and how English words without vowels can—and do!—exist. We also talk about the examples that some people may or may not believe are actually words.

Are there words with no vowels?

There are two things we mean by the word vowel: a speech sound made with the vocal tract open, or a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken vowel.

Cwm and crwth do not contain the letters a, e, i, o, u, or y, the usual vowels (that is, the usual symbols that stand for vowel sounds) in English. But in those words the letter w simply serves instead, standing for the same sound that oo stands for in the words boom and booth. Dr., nth (as in “to the nth degree”), and TV also do not contain any vowel symbols, but they, like cwm and crwth, do contain vowel sounds.

Shh, psst, and hmm do not have vowels, either vowel symbols or vowel sounds. There is some controversy whether they are in fact “words,” however. But if a word is “the smallest unit of grammar that can stand alone as a complete utterance, separated by spaces in written language and potentially by pauses in speech,” then those do qualify. Psst, though, is the only one that appears in the Oxford English Dictionary.

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Words with no vowels. Cwm and crwth do not contain the letters a, e, i, o, u, or y, the usual vowels (that is, the usual symbols that stand for vowel sounds) in English. But in those words the letter w simply serves instead, standing for the same sound that oo stands for in the words boom and booth.

Which words have no vowels?

English Words without Vowels with Meanings

Dry	Gym	Psst
Cry	Hmm	Lymph
Brr	Cysts	Drys
Cyst	Dryly	Ply
Fly	Lynch	Sylph

What 7 letter word has no vowels?

Not including plurals, there is only one seven-letter word which has none of the five vowels. That word is nymphly, which is a rare variation of ‘nymphlike’. However, two six-letter words, glycyl and rhythm, can have an ‘s’ added in the plural to make a seven-letter word without a vowel.

What 6 letter word has no vowels?

Answer: A popular word is RHYTHM.

What word has all 26 letters?

An English pangram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. The most well known English pangram is probably “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. My favorite pangram is “Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes.”

Is TV a word?

TV is an abbreviation for `television’.

Eunoia, at six letters long, is the shortest word in the English language that contains all five main vowels. Seven letter words with this property include adoulie, douleia, eucosia, eulogia, eunomia, eutopia, miaoued, moineau, sequoia, and suoidea. (The scientific name iouea is a genus of Cretaceous fossil sponges.)

Does y count as vowel?

What is special about the letter y is that it can represent both kinds of speech sounds—depending on its position and the letters surrounding it in a word. Y is considered to be a vowel if… The word has no other vowel: gym, my. The letter is at the end of a word or syllable: candy, deny, bicycle, acrylic.

What is the longest word that has no vowels?

RHYTHMS. RHYTHMS is perhaps officially the longest word without vowels which can not only be used in Scrabble, but which also can be used every day in common speech. It’s a noun and is most widely defined as the recurring or repeated notes or elements which create a balanced flow, particularly in music or verse.

Is there a word without a consonant?

Words without the use of consonants ( Only with the use of vowels ) – These words are few in numbers. They are just pronoun and some interjections and maybe other words. Interjections – O !, Ai, !, Ou !

How many English words have no vowels?

Found 88675 words without vowels for Scrabble, Words With Friends, WordHub, and Crosswords.

Are there any words with only vowels?

Words (found in major English dictionaries) consisting entirely of vowels include AA (a type of lava), AE, AI, AIEEE, IAO, OII, EAU, EUOUAE, OE, OO, I, O, A, IO, and UOIAUAI, the last of these being the longest vowel-only word (seven letters).

What word takes 3 hours to say?

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

What is the 27th letter of the alphabet?

The ampersand often appeared as a character at the end of the Latin alphabet, as for example in Byrhtferð’s list of letters from 1011. Similarly, & was regarded as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, as taught to children in the US and elsewhere.

What is the most longest word?

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word entered in the most trusted English dictionaries.

How do you spell PC?

Other definitions for pc (2 of 7)
personal computer.

Is TV OK in scrabble?

No, tv is not in the scrabble dictionary.

Is IV a scrabble word?

No, iv is not in the scrabble dictionary.

What is the smallest word?

‘i’ and ‘a’ are the smallest words. we can even use ‘an’ if the next word starts with vowel.

What are the 7 vowels?

In writing systems based on the Latin alphabet, the letters A, E, I, O, U, Y, W and sometimes others can all be used to represent vowels.

What is the longest and shortest word?

Longest_Shortest_Words. The word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is often cited as the longest word in the English language. It is the longest word found in a standard dictionary, but the full name for Tryptophan synthetase is longer, but not in a common dictionary. The shortest word is a.

Words with no vowels Cwm and crwth do not contain the letters a, e, i, o, u, or y, the usual vowels (that is, the usual symbols that stand for vowel sounds) in English. Shh, psst, and hmm do not have vowels, either vowel symbols or vowel sounds.

What are some of the longest German words?

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän

Which is the largest word without vowel?

RHYTHMS

What 7 letter word has no vowels?

Not including plurals, there is only one seven-letter word which has none of the five vowels. That word is nymphly, which is a rare variation of ‘nymphlike’. However, two six-letter words, glycyl and rhythm, can have an ‘s’ added in the plural to make a seven-letter word without a vowel.

What 6 letter word has no vowels?

6 letter words without vowels: Rhythm, Crypts….

• Brrr or brr. An expression of being cold.
• Crypt. A crypt contains a grave.
• Ghyll. A deep ravine, especially a wooded one.
• Hymn.
• Lynx.
• Myrrh.
• Myth.
• Nth.

What is the only 9 letter word with one vowel?

Strengths

What is the shortest 2 syllable word?

Io

What is the shortest three syllable word?

w.

What’s the longest word with only 1 consonant?

EUOUAE

Requesting silence. Asking people to keep silent.

Which is the longest English word?

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis

What is the hardest hangman word?

Jazz

What is a 3 letter word?

3-letter words

• aba.
• abs.
• ace.
• act.
• add.
• ado.
• aft.
• age.

What’s a good hangman word?

9 Words to Make You a Boss at Hangman

• Chthonic. adjective : of or relating to the underworld : infernal.
• Squush. verb 1 : to squash or crush (something) 2 : to emit a sucking sound : to squish.
• Kickshaw. noun 1 : a fancy dish : delicacy 2 : trinket, gewgaw.
• Zugzwang.
• Ytterbium.
• Randkluft.
• Yclept.
• Diphthong.

What is the best hangman word?

Hangman Words

• yummy.
• zephyr.
• zigzag.
• zigzagging.
• zilch.
• zipper.
• zodiac.
• zombie.

What are some weird words?

Here are the fifteen most unusual words in the English language.

• Serendipity. This word appears in numerous lists of untranslatable words.
• Gobbledygook.
• Scrumptious.
• Agastopia.
• Halfpace.
• Impignorate.
• Jentacular.
• Nudiustertian.

How many guesses do you get in hangman?

The number of incorrect guesses before the game ends is up to the players, but completing a character in a noose provides a minimum of six wrong answers until the game ends. The first player to guess the correct answer thinks of the word for the next game.

How do you guess hangman?

11 Strategies For Dominating Hangman

1. 1 | Aim for a simple Hangman.
2. 2 | Don’t bring up minimum word length.
3. 3 | Hustle the other person in by curbing early cleverness.
4. 4 | Now play a short word with obscure letters.
5. 5 | After one or two turns, get off the Z words.
6. 6 | Prepare for the switch to longer words.

• #1

I was wondering… is there any language, with or without western alphabet, that has word(s) without any vowels? Only consonants? Just for curiosity

• #2

In most Arabic texts the vowels are omitted so the word itself must be recognized by the consonants. I have heard that certain Arabic words do not have any vowels(which is not so hard to imagine seeing as their are so many guttural and other complex phonemes) at all..

• #3

You should define what you mean by «vowels» and «consonants». Would you count in semivowels and semiconsonants?

For instance, there is a German verb (conjugated) that consists of consonants only (but there’s a semivowel in it):

er lyncht
(he lynches)

There are several Slavic words that has no vowel; I just want to mention the Czech words krk, smrt, krb, or plst (plsť).

• #4

Just for clarification, are you including the letter ‘Y’ in this exercise? It’s sometimes considered as a half-vowel.

If ‘Y’ is excluded, the only word used in English that I can think of is CWM. I remember it from my geography lessons. We had to learn all three terms for this glacial feature — cwm, cirque or corrie. The word ‘cwm’ is actually from Welsh though.

If you include the letter ‘Y’ then I can think of quite a few words in English:

hymn, sphynx, nymph, lymph, why, sky…… etc

There must be lots of others though.

• #5

I think Russian has small words like v and k. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.

• #6

Outsider said:

I think Russian has small words like v and k. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.

This is true for all the Slavic languages.

In most Arabic texts the vowels are omitted so the word itself must be recognized by the consonants. I have heard that certain Arabic words do not have any vowels(which is not so hard to imagine seeing as their are so many guttural and other complex phonemes) at all..

I think it is hard to find Arabic words in which not a single vowel is pronounced. Of course, there are thousands of words you don’t spell with a vowel, but nevertheless Arabs pronounce vowels between the consonants. If there were a single Arabic word that does not contain any vowel, there’d have to be sukoons only.

• #7

A rule that is generally true for German: No syllable without at least one consonant.

It is interesting though, that this rule includes «y» to be a vowel unless it is classified in the German alphabet to be a consonant.

I always wondered about this and actually, I never really understood this classification — I would rather see «y» to be a vowel.
It seems even more crazy to me when I think of French or Swedish: here, «y» is a vowel…

Weird, isn’t it?!

• #8

I think this is a hard topic for Chinese . In Thai sometimes vowels can be omitted ( the same goes to Sanskrit)

In Sanskrit AHM (ahama) (the A in this case is a consonant A not the vowel AA)
= I am
GM = to go (gama)
TVM (tavama) = You are
TT= (tata) It is
VYM= We all are

In Thai:

KRRM (กรรม) = Karma
MNTR(มนตร์) = Mantra
VN (วน) = to revolve
DhRRM (ธรรม) = Dharma
RTh (รถ) = car

• #9

What about onomatopoeic words?

«Psssssst», «Pfffffff» or «Krrrrrrzzz», you mainly encounter them in comics.

• #10

MrMagoo said:

A rule that is generally true for German: No syllable without at least one consonant.

It is interesting though, that this rule includes «y» to be a vowel unless it is classified in the German alphabet to be a consonant.

I always wondered about this and actually, I never really understood this classification — I would rather see «y» to be a vowel.
It seems even more crazy to me when I think of French or Swedish: here, «y» is a vowel…

Weird, isn’t it?!

In French «y» is even a complete word. But this has nothing to do with words without vowels, as this is a word only consisting of a vowel.

• #11

Henryk said:

What about onomatopoeic words?

«Psssssst», «Pfffffff» or «Krrrrrrzzz», you mainly encounter them in comics.

Do you call such interjection (they are not even interjections!) words? I would not count them in.

I think it is relatively rare to come across a word without a vowel in Romance languages. Don’t ask me why, but even words like «sphynx» in English become «sphinx» or «esfinge» in Romance languages.

• #12

Whodunit said:

I think it is relatively rare to come across a word without a vowel in Romance languages. Don’t ask me why, but even words like «sphynx» in English become «sphinx» or «esfinge» in Romance languages.

It’s impossible, unless you count «y» as a vowel, or contracted forms such as French d’ as words. Every syllable must have a vowel phoneme, in Romance languages.

• #13

In the game of Scrabble these are the valid English words without any vowels:

Two-letter words:
HM intj. expressing thought
MM intj. expressing satisfaction
SH intj. used to urge silence

Three-letter words:
BRR intj. used to indicate coldness
CWM Glacial feature — a circular basin with steep walls
HMM intj. expressing thought
NTH pert. to item number n
PHT intj. used as an expression of mild anger or annoyance
SHH intj. used to urge silence
TSK to utter a scolding exclamation

Four-letter words:
PSST intj. used to attract someone’s attention

Five-letter words:
CRWTH Gaelic musical instrument

• #14

Tresley said:

CWM Glacial feature — a circular basin with steep walls

…

CRWTH Gaelic musical instrument

What are the pronunciations of these words. I can’t claim to know much about Welsh and Gaelic, but it it possible that the ‘w’ represents a ‘u’ sound.

Going along with Welsh terms used in geography I found «bwlch» which means «a pass»

Even if words are not spelled with vowels I would venture to say that very few words, if any, are pronounced without vowels because there needs to be a liaison between sounds of consonants for ease of pronunciation. Granted some consonants are easily pronounced next to each other — such as ‘s’ and ‘t’ — but most are not.

• #15

CWM / CRWTH

Josh Adkins said:

What are the pronunciations of these words. I can’t claim to know much about Welsh and Gaelic, but it it possible that the ‘w’ represents a ‘u’ sound.

CWM is pronounced KOOM (‘oo’ as in the word ‘soon’, NOT as in ‘foot’)
CRWTH is pronounced KROOTH

• #16

I believe Japanese has a syllabic «n». I don’t know if there is a word read as nnnn though.

Some dialects of the Cantonese language say «ng» as a word. Here the ng is the same as the last sound in the English word «playing». The word for not/don’t (唔) is read as «m», no vowel.

• #17

There is this classical sentence of the Czech language:

Strč prst skrz krk.

This sentece means «stick a finger through your throat»… lol I took some time to be able to pronounce that correctly

• #18

Obviously, in Czech the r functions as a vowel.

• #19

Brioche said:

Obviously, in Czech the r functions as a vowel.

Could you elaborate on this claim?

Jana

• #20

Jana337 said:

Could you elaborate on this claim?

Jana

My Language Acquisition teacher told me the same thing, that the -r- may function as a vowel. In any case you just have to pronounce some sort of vowel in a word as ‘krk’, even if it’s the shortest possible form of a ‘sjwa’, it seems to me. If it’s written or not, is not really relevant. It’s possible in a word like ‘psst’ to not pronounce a vowel, but not with a ‘r’ I think. I don’t know how you pronounce a word like this, it could be possible if you pronounce the ‘r’ double so it can belong to the first k as well as the second (kr-rk). But I don’t know, so I guess the final word is up to a Native speaker of Slavic languages concerning this.

Also saying that a word as ‘lynx’ consists of only consonants is cheating of course There clearly is a vowel in that word.

• #21

optimistique said:

My Language Acquisition teacher told me the same thing, that the -r- may function as a vowel. In any case you just have to pronounce some sort of vowel in a word as ‘krk’, even if it’s the shortest possible form of a ‘sjwa’, it seems to me. If it’s written or not, is not really relevant. It’s possible in a word like ‘psst’ to not pronounce a vowel, but not with a ‘r’ I think. I don’t know how you pronounce a word like this, it could be possible if you pronounce the ‘r’ double so it can belong to the first k as well as the second (kr-rk). But I don’t know, so I guess the final word is up to a Native speaker of Slavic languages concerning this.

Hm, I just thought I’d throw in something interesting regarding the Czech languages: In Czech it’s not unusual to say «v krku» (in the throat) and the Czech are able to pronounce the four consonants without any vowel in between. However, sentences like

Vlk zmrzl, zhltl hrst zrn.

can’t be pronounced without a single «schwa». It’s hard for me to say «vlk», let alone the rest of the sentence.

What about the Spanish «ll» at the beginning? I found it extremely difficult when I stated learning Spanish: «un llanero» is almost as hard as some Czech words.

• #23

Tresley said:

CWM / CRWTH

CWM is pronounced KOOM (‘oo’ as in the word ‘soon’, NOT as in ‘foot’)
CRWTH is pronounced KROOTH

In Welsh ‘w’ functions as a vowel in words such as cwm (pronounced KOOM with ‘oo’ as in the word ‘foot’, NOT as in ‘soon’, i.e. a short vowel sound) and as a consonant in words such as gwaith. Thus the common misconception that a lot of Welsh words are devoid of vowels is completely untrue.

• #24

In Serbo-Croate and Slovene,there are a lot of such words: smrt-death,
prt-tablecloth, krst-cross, mrk-eclipse, srd-anger, trs-cane,vrh-summit,
krš-rocky region, srž-quintessence, krt-mole, brz-fast, prst-finger,
sprt-to be quarrel, strd-coagulum, Krf-Corfù, Trst-Trieste;
They are more, but all with

semi

vowel «r».

• #25

Kabyle has one-letter words which aren’t vowels.

d = it is
s = with
eg:
D acu yellan? = What do you suggest/propose?
S laglas = with ice

• #28

Berbers I’ve heard of.
Sorry not to research it more.. I understand now. Thanks.

Cyr I believe is a Gaelic word

• #29

wmjwatkins said:

In Welsh ‘w’ functions as a vowel in words such as cwm (pronounced KOOM with ‘oo’ as in the word ‘foot’, NOT as in ‘soon’, i.e. a short vowel sound) and as a consonant in words such as gwaith. Thus the common misconception that a lot of Welsh words are devoid of vowels is completely untrue.

Yes that’s what I was thinking. It would be like trying to say that some Latin words have no vowels.

BIBO, ERGO SVM.

• #30

Whodunit said:

Hm, I just thought I’d throw in something interesting regarding the Czech languages: In Czech it’s not unusual to say «v krku» (in the throat) and the Czech are able to pronounce the four consonants without any vowel in between.

If you say so. It’s probably being a Native Dutch speaker that it’s hard to imagine: if this word were in Dutch hands it would be pronounced like «vu kiriku» I’m really curious to hear someone pronounce it the right way.

Whodunit said:

What about the Spanish «ll» at the beginning? I found it extremely difficult when I stated learning Spanish: «un llanero» is almost as hard as some Czech words.

And what about the Dutch word ‘herfstschrift’ . There! Eight consonants in a row!
If only Dutch people were not such lazy speakers. We cheat all the time: we even say [mellik] or [melluk] instead of ‘melk’ (milk).

• #31

Well, at present, I can only think of one Romanian word I’ve seen and that is the abbreviation for the word dumneavoastrã, which is dvs.

• #32

In French, there are words like d’, j’, m’, n’, l’, etc… But the last vowel is replaced by an apostrophe only if the following word begins with a vowel.

• #33

Čtvrthrst (= a quarter of handful) and Scvrnkls are supposed to be the most longiest Czech words without vowels. «Scvrnkls» is a colloquial form of verb «scvrnknout» (=shrivel). I think the prefix «s-» in this verb could be also replaced by prefix «vz-«. The verb «vzcvrnknout» is a little strange but it is created in right way. It means something like «flip/flick upwards».

• #34

In Serbian:

The only one that crosses my mind at the moment is «HRT» (greyhound). If I think of more, I’ill post them!

Pozdrav!

• #35

Juri said:

In Serbo-Croate and Slovene,there are a lot of such words: smrt-death,
prt-tablecloth, krst-cross, mrk-eclipse, srd-anger, trs-cane,vrh-summit,
krš-rocky region, srž-quintessence, krt-mole, brz-fast, prst-finger,
sprt-to be quarrel, strd-coagulum, Krf-Corfù, Trst-Trieste;
They are more, but all with

semi

vowel «r».

More in Serbian: «krv» — blood.
Although «mrk» — means brown, dark; «vrh» — also peak, top; «krt» — brittle, breakable, tender (mole is «krtica»).

Are «prt, srd, trs, sprt, strd from» Slovenian? They are so interesting!!! I know of «srdit» (or «besan» — angry), but I don’t think I heard of those other words.

Pozdrav!

• #36

In Hindi :
Words like Kar (To do)
Mar (To die)
Dar (To fear)
and many more

• #37

‘m’ can mean ‘him’ in Dutch, short for ‘hem’
‘k’ can mean ‘I’, short for ‘ik’

But there are not many examples.. we are really keen on our vowels

• #38

Dminor said:

‘m’ can mean ‘him’ in Dutch, short for ‘hem’
‘k’ can mean ‘I’, short for ‘ik’

But there are not many examples.. we are really keen on our vowels

Oh! and ‘t for «het» (it): ‘t is goed = it’s good.
No vowel there! (so same goes for English ‘‘s‘ of ‘is’).

But I admit that it’s cheating, because they are stuck to another word. If pronounced separately, you would have a vowel.

• #39

Outsider said:

I think Russian has small words like v and k. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.

They’re are actually prepositions. But we aren’t talking about prepositions here, are we? It seems a bit strange to me.

• #40

In Hindi, words like greh, krm, svar (all words from sanskrit).

• #41

Would you be so kind to translate in English the Hindi words?
(They exist in slavic languages)

• #42

Certainly!
greh (गृह)- means home (but used more formally…like a domestic minister would be a «greh mantri» or गृह मंत्री.
krm (क्रम)- I had to look this one up to be certain. According to the Oxford Hindi-English dictionary, 1. a step, pace. 2. degree, stage; posisition in a series. 3. uninterrupted or regular process; order, succession, sequence.

I honestly have no idea how to use krm, or which of these meanings is the most known. I’ll ask my dad tonight.
svar (स्वर)-a sound or noise

• #43

Thanks. But krm,greh and svar,have quite different meanings.
Greh is sin; krma is forage and stern;Svarun,is a pagan god; svariti is to worn.

• #44

i dont think it is possible to pronouce any word without using vowel sound.

say for instance n, was a word in a lanuguage. if you going to pronouce n, you must use vowels.
in english, the pronouciataion would be,

i

n.

when sounding out things phonetically, you have to use a vowel.

• #45

maybe4ever said:

i dont think it is possible to pronouce any word without using vowel sound.

say for instance n, was a word in a lanuguage. if you going to pronouce n, you must use vowels.
in english, the pronouciataion would be,

i

n.

when sounding out things phonetically, you have to use a vowel.

As far as I can remember from my Serbian studies, R in this language is quite specific, it’s a syllabic consonant. Look at posts by Juri and Maja, they adduced examples of words with this R.

• #46

In Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian the letter »S‘‘ means with.There are no vowels at all not even the the sylabic r or l just s.
Eg.
s njim=with him
s is both a word and a phoneme

• #47

i was only talking about, i dont think it is possible to pronounce anything without using a vowel. You may just not realize you are using them.

r is prounoced ar
s would be pronounced es
those of course would be english pronounciations though.

• #48

Juri said:

Thanks. But krm,greh and svar,have quite different meanings.
Greh is sin; krma is forage and stern;Svarun,is a pagan god; svariti is to worn.

Talking about Indic- Slavic cognates…. In Indic languages and languages influenced by Sanskrit the word Svarga means heaven. lol I wonder how do they it in Polish, Russian, and other languages.

• #49

Swarg means heaven in Hindi. Narak is hell. I believe in telegu they have a -am ending. (in urdu its jannat and jahnum, respectively)

• #50

panjabigator said:

Swarg means heaven in Hindi. Narak is hell. I believe in telegu they have a -am ending. (in urdu its jannat and jahnum, respectively)

In Thai, the word Narak is pronounced Narok in Thai, and Svarga is pronounced Swan in Thai although they are both written the same ways as Hindi and Sanskrit.

Lets start a topic on IE cognates !!!

Sanskrit’s daanta = Spanish diente
danna = French Donner
Deva= Dios

etc….. we should try to gather them, there are lots.

Word games like Wordle are dominating the internet, and they can be really tricky.

Most English words have vowels, but there are a few that don’t contain the letters A, E, I, O, or U. In fact, there are over 120 words without vowels in the English language. It’s easy to overlook such words when you’re playing a game.

Why would you need to know 5-letter words with no vowels?

If you’re playing a game like Wordle or Quordle, and you’ve tried all five vowels to no avail, it’s time to guess words without vowels.

Or maybe you know which vowels are in the word, but you need to eliminate several consonants at a time to help fill in the blanks. Guessing 5-letter words with no vowels is a great way to rule out letters.

Or maybe you’re playing a good old-fashioned game of Scrabble, and you have no vowels in front of you.

Knowing some 5-letter words with no vowels is a great way to dominate at both new and classic word-based games.

You might wonder if 5-letter words without vowels actually exist. The letter Y often functions as a vowel in English words. But Y isn’t one of the five main vowels, so the bulk of the list includes the letter Y.

Almost every 5-letter word with no vowels in English contains at least one Y.

In fact, there are only five words on this list without a Y. Crwth and cwtch are Welsh words that English has adopted.

Grrrl and grrls are slang words, and phpht is a commonly accepted onomatopoeic word.

Studying word lists like this one can help improve your overall vocabulary, whether you’re a Wordle addict or Words with Friends fanatic.

Worldle, Quordle, and Octordle all use 5-letter words for each clue. Five-letter words are also a great way to clear out several tiles on Scrabble.

Since The New York Times took over Wordle, they’ve gathered followers for their other daily games like Spelling Bee.

Spelling Bee requires you to guess words with at least four letters but gives you more points for bigger words.

So if you love al types of word puzzles, this list of words without vowels is for you.

List of 5-Letter Words With No Vowels

Let’s dive into the list. Without further ado, here are 53 ultimate 5-letter words without vowels for you to use in your next word game.

• Byrls
• Chynd
• Crwth
• Crypt
• Cwtch
• Cysts
• Dryly
• Flyby
• Fyrds
• Ghyll
• Glyph
• Grrls
• Grrrl
• Grypt
• Gymps
• Gynny
• Gyppy
• Gypsy
• Hwyls
• Hymns
• Hyphy
• Kydst
• Kynds
• Lymph
• Myrrh
• Myths
• Mythy
• Nymph
• Phpht
• Psych
• Pygmy
• Rynds
• Shyly
• Skyfs
• Skyrs
• Slyly
• Stymy
• Sylph
• Synch
• Syncs
• Synds
• Synth
• Syphs
• Thymy
• Tryps
• Tryst
• Tymps
• Typps
• Wryly
• Wynds
• Wynns
• Xylyl
• Xysts

Some of these 5-letter words are more common than others. It’s a good idea to guess words like lymph or syncs before guessing tryps or xylyl.

We hope this list of 5-letter words with no vowels helps you win your word puzzles and games—and impress your friends with your exceptional vocabulary skills.

---

Try ProWritingAid’s Editor for Yourself

Have you tried  ProWritingAid  yet? What are you waiting for? It’s the best tool for making sure your copy is strong, clear, and error-free!

Page 1: ch, sh, ck, sky, my, BR, Cr, cl, by, fly, try, cry, hm, BB, mm, BS, cp, sty, rhythm, sly, gym, shy, bt, BD, CD, bbs, sync, cc, CF, MVP, dry, why, nth, Bk, Gypsy, cb, THC, bm, cm, PhD, TNT, DVD, bp, std, bg, spy, GPS, bz, LSD, and cyst

You are searching for all words that do not have vowels. Since a vowel is a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y, you might want to search for words with no vowels that do not have the letter y! But, You Go Words provides abbreviations for the most common word/phrases which makes it difficult to find words with no vowels and no y. What to do, is view the words with no vowels (no aeiou) and determine which words would not classify the letter y as a vowel.

Word	Length	Consonants	Vowels	Syllables	Origin	Favourite
Ch	2	2	0	1	Old English
Sh	2	2	0	1
Ck	2	2	0	1
Sky	3	3	0	1	Middle English
My	2	2	0	1	Middle English
BR	2	2	0	1
Cr	2	2	0	1
Cl	2	2	0	1
By	2	2	0	1	Old English
Fly	3	3	0	1	Old English
Try	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Cry	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Hm	2	2	0	1
BB	2	2	0	1	English
Mm	2	2	0	1
BS	2	2	0	1
Cp	2	2	0	1
Sty	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Rhythm	6	6	0	1	Latin
Sly	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Gym	3	3	0	1
Shy	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Bt	2	2	0	1
BD	2	2	0	1
CD	2	2	0	1	English
Bbs	3	3	0	1
Sync	4	4	0	1
Cc	2	2	0	1
CF	2	2	0	1
MVP	3	3	0	1
Dry	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Why	3	3	0	1	Middle English
Nth	3	3	0	1
Bk	2	2	0	1
Gypsy	5	5	0	2	Middle English
Cb	2	2	0	1
THC	3	3	0	1
Bm	2	2	0	1
Cm	2	2	0	1
PhD	3	3	0	1
TNT	3	3	0	1
DVD	3	3	0	1	English
Bp	2	2	0	1
Std	3	3	0	1
Bg	2	2	0	1
Spy	3	3	0	1	Middle English
GPS	3	3	0	1
Bz	2	2	0	1
LSD	3	3	0	1	Latin
Cyst	4	4	0	1	Latin

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Our recent discussions about syllabicity («Readings» below) made me wonder whether it’s possible to have syllables, words, and whole sentences without vowels.  That led me to this example from Nuxalk on Omniglot:

Sample

clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ / xłp̓χʷłtłpłłskʷc̓

IPA transcription

xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ

Translation

Then he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant.

This is an example of a word with no vowels, something that is quite common in Nuxalk.

Souce: Nater, Hank F. (1984). The Bella Coola Language. Mercury Series; Canadian Ethnology Service (No. 92). Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.

If you want to hear what the above sample sounds like, listen here.  The slides following the first one have words, phrases, and sentences meaning:

2. shape; style

3. bent; curved

4. bunchberry

5. he already arrived

6. little boy

7. saliva

8. northeast wind

9. cut with a knife

10. animal fat

11. that’s my animal fat over there

12. seal fat

13. strong

14. go to the shore

15. bent; curved — a synonym of #3

16. then you saw me pass by on a path

Information about the Nuxalk Language (from Omniglot):

Nuxalk [nuχalk] is a Salishan language spoken in Bella Coola in British Colombia in Canada. In 2014 there were 17 Nuxalk speakers, all of whom were elderly. The language is also known as Bella Coola, although Nuxalk is the preferred name, particularly for the Nuxalk Nation government. The name Bella Coola comes from bḷ́xʷlá, which means «stranger» in Heiltsuk, a Wakashan language also spoken in British Colombia.

Links

Wikipedia

Native Languages of the Americas

Ethnologue

Acwsalcta

First Voices

Selected readings

• «Syllables» (2/24/20)
• «English syllable detection» (2/26/20)

[Thanks to Diana Shuheng Zhang]

March 2, 2020 @ 1:58 am
· Filed by Victor Mair under Orthography, Parsing, Phonetics and phonology

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