"10
0 Cool English Facts You May Not Know About" If you think you know everything there is to know about the English language, think again. Here are 100 cool facts about the English language that you probably haven't heard of before. 1. The word "set" has the most definitions of any word in the English language. 2. The shortest sentence in English is "I am" or "I do." 3. "E" is the most commonly used letter in the English language. 4. "Queueing" is the only word with five consecutive vowels. 5. "Mouses" is an acceptable plural form for computer "mice." 6. "Almost" is the longest English word with all the letters in alphabetical order. 7. The word "sarcasm" comes from the Greek word "sarkazein," which means "to tear flesh." 8. The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originates from the belief that animals were stirred up by the wind and became airborne during heavy storms. 9. The longest one-syllable word in English is "screeched." 10 The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss in his book "If I Ran the Zoo." 11. A "pangram" is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. 12. The word "dreamt" is the only English word that ends with "mt." 13. There are more English words starting with the letter "S" than any other letter. 14. "Skepticisms" is the longest word with only alternating consonants and vowels. 15. The longest word in the English language is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis," which refers to a lung disease caused by inhaling small particles of silica. 16. The word "bookkeeper" is the only word with three consecutive double letters. 17. The letter "E" is never used in the spelling of "Moscow" in Russian. 18. The word "crisp" originally meant "curly." 19. The longest one-word palindrome in the English language is "deified." 20. The word "unfriend" was first used in the English language in 1659. 21. "Feisty" is the shortest English word with all the vowels in alphabetical order. 22. "Muhammad" is the most common name in the world. 23. "Funky" is the only word in the English language that rhymes with "spunky." 24. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed using only the left hand. 25. The word "goodbye" originated from the phrase "God be with ye." 26. The letter "Q" is the only letter in the English language that doesn't appear in any U.S. state name. 27. The word "onomatopoeia" comes from the Greek words "onoma," meaning name, and "poiein," meaning to make or create. 28. The longest English word without repeating any letters is "uncopyrightable." 29. The word "mauve" comes from the French word for the mallow flower. 30. "Tickle" is the only word in the English language with three pairs of double letters. 31. "Anagram" comes from the Greek word "ana," which means "back," and "graphein," which means "to write." 32. The shortest word that contains all five vowels in alphabetical order is "eunoia," which means "beautiful thinking." 33. "Symbiotic" is the shortest word with all the vowels in order, but not necessarily in alphabetical order. 34. "Bimonthly" can mean both "twice a month" and "every two months." 35. The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. 36. The word "ricochet" comes from the French word "ricocher," which means "to skip rocks." 37. The word "boondocks" comes from the Tagalog word "bundok," which means "mountain." 38. "Sesquipedalian" means "given to using long words." 39. "Esplanade" means "a long, open, level area, typically beside the sea." 40. "Facetious" means "treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor." 41. The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want. 42. The word "Helvetica" is the only word with every letter in a different quadrant of the QWERTY keyboard. 43. The letter "O" can represent both a number and a letter in English. 44. The word "terrific" originally meant "causing terror." 45. The word "quixotic" comes from the character Don Quixote, who is described as impractical and visionary. 46. The word "segue" means "to move without interruption from one song or piece of music to another." 47. "Ambidextrous" means "able to use both hands equally well." 48. "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" is the fear of long words. 49. "Sasquatch" is a North American folklore term for a large, hairy humanoid creature. 50. "Inflammable" and "flammable" mean the same thing. 51. "Bison" is the only English word that ends in "-ison." 52. "Slang" is an abbreviation of "short language." 53. "Sweater" comes from the Old Norse word "sveitra," meaning "to sew." 54. The word "hipster" originally referred to jazz enthusiasts in the 1940s. 55. The word "swimming" is the only English word with two consecutive "m's." 56. The word "typewriter" is the longest word that can be typed on only one row of a standard English keyboard. 57. The word "ampersand" comes from the phrase "and per se and," which means "and by itself and." 58. The word "karaoke" comes from the Japanese words for "empty orchestra." 59. The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek word "gymnasion," which means "a place to exercise naked." 60. "Squawk" is an example of a "onomatopoeia," a word that imitates the sound it describes. 61. "Artificial" and "superficial" are the only English words that end in "-cial." 62. The word "marijuana" comes from the Mexican Spanish word "marihuana." 63. The word "bungalow" comes from the Hindi word "bangla," meaning "of Bengal." 64. The word "chick" was originally a slang term for a prostitute. 65. "Palindrome" means a word, phrase, or sequence of letters that reads the same backward as forward. 66. "Gobbledygook" is a term for language that is nonsensical and difficult to understand. 67. "Filibuster" means "to obstruct or delay the passage of a bill in the U.S. Senate by making long speeches or introducing irrelevant issues." 68. "Discombobulate" means "to confuse or disconcert." 69. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a nonsensical word used in the 1964 Disney film "Mary Poppins." 70. "Queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed. 71. The word "cliché" comes from the French word "clicher," which means "to stereotype." 72. The word "serendipity" means "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way." 73. The word "bizarre" comes from the Basque language, spoken in Spain and France. 74. The word "gargoyle" comes from the French word "gargouille," which means "throat." 75. "Uxorious" means "having or showing an excessive or submissive fondness for one's wife." 76. "Philanthropy" means "love of mankind." 77. "Lexicographer" means "a person who compiles dictionaries." 78. "Pulchritude" means "beauty." 79. "Solecism" means "a grammatical mistake in speech or writing." 80. "Sycophant" means "a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage." 81. "Cacophony" means "a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds." 82. "Tatterdemalion" means "a person dressed in ragged clothing." 83. "Heteronym" means "a word spelled the same as another but having a different pronunciation and meaning." 84. "Flotsam and jetsam" are terms for debris that washes ashore after a shipwreck. 85. "Chattel" means "a movable item of personal property, typically one that is not of great value." 86. The phrase "pass the buck" originated from poker, where a marker or object would be passed to indicate whose turn it was to deal. 87. "Grok" is a science-fiction term used to describe a deep understanding of something. 88. "Denouement" means "the final part of a play or literary work, in which the plot is drawn to a close and matters are resolved." 89. "Panacea" means "a solution or remedy for all problems or difficulties." 90. "Lummox" means "a clumsy, stupid person." 91. "Ecdysiast" is a fancy word for "stripper." 92. "Plethora" means "a large or excessive amount of something." 93. "Effervescent" means "bubbling, fizzy, or lively." 94. "Misanthrope" means "a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society." 95. "Furtive" means "attempting to avoid notice or attention." 96. "Gourmand" means "a person who enjoys good food and often eats too much." 97. "Curtailment" means "the action of reducing or restricting something." 98. "Demagogue" means "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument." 99. "Emanate" means "to originate from." 100. "Perfidious" means "deceitful and untrustworthy." So there you have it, 100 cool English language facts that you probably didn't know before. Keep them in mind and impress your friends with your newfound knowledge.
