latrocinate
v. to engage in highway robbery

Think of any number and write it out in words. Count the number of letters and write that out in words. And so on:

• SEVENTY-SEVEN (12 letters)
• TWELVE (six letters)
• SIX (three letters)
• THREE (five letters)
• FIVE (four letters)
• FOUR (four letters)

If your spelling is good, you’ll always arrive at FOUR.

A familiar nursery rhyme rewritten to omit the letter s:

Mary had a little lamb,
With fleece a pale white hue,
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb kept in her view;
To academe he went with her,
Illegal, and quite rare;
It made the children laugh and play
To view a lamb in there.

— A. Ross Eckler

Number of years of formal education required to understand selected magazines, according to the Gunning-Fog readability index:

• Atlantic Monthly: 12
• TIME, Harper’s: 11
• Newsweek: 10
• Reader’s Digest: 9
• Ladies’ Home Journal: 8
• True Confessions: 7
• comic books: 6

tomomania
n. irrational predilection for performing surgery

A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet:

• John P. Brady, give me a black walnut box of quite a small size. (48 letters)
• Quixotic knights’ wives are found on jumpy old zebras. (44)
• By Jove, my quick study of lexicography won a prize. (41)
• Sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives. (36)
• Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. (31)
• Foxy nymphs grab quick-jived waltz. (29)
• Brick quiz whangs jumpy veldt fox. (27)

The 26-letter ones are nearly incomprehensible:

• Nth black fjords vex Qum gyp wiz.

Or “An esteemed Iranian shyster was provoked when he himself was cheated: an alleged seaside ski resort he purchased proved instead to be a glacier of countless oil-abundant fjords.”

petrichor
n. pleasant smell accompanying the first rain after a dry spell

A man, a plan, a caret, a ban, a myriad, a sum, a lac, a liar, a hoop, a pint, a catalpa, a gas, an oil, a bird, a yell, a vat, a caw, a pax, a wag, a tax, a nay, a ram, a cap, a yam, a gay, a tsar, a wall, a car, a luger, a ward, a bin, a woman, a vassal, a wolf, a tuna, a nit, a pall, a fret, a watt, a bay, a daub, a tan, a cab, a datum, a gall, a hat, a fag, a zap, a say, a jaw, a lay, a wet, a gallop, a tug, a trot, a trap, a tram, a torr, a caper, a top, a tonk, a toll, a ball, a fair, a sax, a minim, a tenor, a bass, a passer, a capital, a rut, an amen, a ted, a cabal, a tang, a sun, an ass, a maw, a sag, a jam, a dam, a sub, a salt, an axon, a sail, an ad, a wadi, a radian, a room, a rood, a rip, a tad, a pariah, a revel, a reel, a reed, a pool, a plug, a pin, a peek, a parabola, a dog, a pat, a cud, a nu, a fan, a pal, a rum, a nod, an eta, a lag, an eel, a batik, a mug, a mot, a nap, a maxim, a mood, a leek, a grub, a gob, a gel, a drab, a citadel, a total, a cedar, a tap, a gag, a rat, a manor, a bar, a gal, a cola, a pap, a yaw, a tab, a raj, a gab, a nag, a pagan, a bag, a jar, a bat, a way, a papa, a local, a gar, a baron, a mat, a rag, a gap, a tar, a decal, a tot, a led, a tic, a bard, a leg, a bog, a burg, a keel, a doom, a mix, a map, an atom, a gum, a kit, a baleen, a gala, a ten, a don, a mural, a pan, a faun, a ducat, a pagoda, a lob, a rap, a keep, a nip, a gulp, a loop, a deer, a leer, a lever, a hair, a pad, a tapir, a door, a moor, an aid, a raid, a wad, an alias, an ox, an atlas, a bus, a madam, a jag, a saw, a mass, an anus, a gnat, a lab, a cadet, an em, a natural, a tip, a caress, a pass, a baronet, a minimax, a sari, a fall, a ballot, a knot, a pot, a rep, a carrot, a mart, a part, a tort, a gut, a poll, a gateway, a law, a jay, a sap, a zag, a fat, a hall, a gamut, a dab, a can, a tabu, a day, a batt, a waterfall, a patina, a nut, a flow, a lass, a van, a mow, a nib, a draw, a regular, a call, a war, a stay, a gam, a yap, a cam, a ray, an ax, a tag, a wax, a paw, a cat, a valley, a drib, a lion, a saga, a plat, a catnip, a pooh, a rail, a calamus, a dairyman, a bater, a canal — Panama!

— A 544-word palindrome composed in 1984 by Dan Hoey (with computer assistance)