GREAT CRESTED GREBE is typed entirely with the left hand.
Language
Auto-Antonyms
More self-contradicting words:
- AUGHT (“anything” and “nothing”)
- BULL (“edict” and “nonsense”)
- ENJOIN (“prescribe” and “prohibit”)
- KICK OFF (“begin” and “die”)
- NERVY (“brash” and “timid”)
- RAVEL (“tangle” and “disentangle”)
- TEMPER (“harden” and “soften”)
- UNBENDING (“rigid” and “relaxing”)
- WEATHER (“withstand” and “wear away”)
Zing is appeal, but zinging is criticism.
In a Word
spoffle
v. to make oneself very busy over a matter of very little consequence
“An Eastern Counties word.” — Charles Mackay, Lost Beauties of the English Language
Two in One
This Morse code square reads the same across as down:
As it contains no spaces, each line can be read in two ways.
Love/Hate
SENSUOUSNESSES contains only two consonants.
THERE’S NO LOVE LOST BETWEEN THEM contains only two vowels.
In a Word
gongoozler
n. an idler who stares at activity on a canal
Apropos
How many letters are in ACE KING QUEEN JACK TEN NINE EIGHT SEVEN SIX FIVE FOUR THREE TWO?
Fifty-two.
(This also works in Spanish.)
Extensive Mutation Pair
The word EXTENSION can be rearranged into the words ONE, TEN, and SIX.
String together the numbers 1, 10, and 6 and you get 1106.
Add them and you get 17.
The word EXTENSIVELY can be rearranged into the words SIXTY and ELEVEN.
String together the numbers 60 and 11 and you get 6011.
Add them and you get 71.
In a Word
lucubrate
v. to study at night
Thou Whoreson Zed!
What’s unique about this poem?
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.
It’s the only one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet.