What is the shortest word you can find with the most letters of the alphabet in order (Not necessarily together)

eg.
aback ABC
defrosting DEFG

What about in reverse?

eg.
feedback FEDC

Try to maximise the number of letters while minimizing the word length

(In reply to A B C by RandyOrton)

By the examples shown in the puzzle, the letters are to be consecutive in the alphabet, even though possibly separated in the word.  "Aegilops" has only op in consecutive order (they also just happen to be together in the word, though that wasn't required), so the count is only 2.

Posted by Charlie on 2005-01-20 14:06:33