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 re: 6 letter reverse solution by Penny)

Actually, it's not too bad to pronounce.  I guess I taught myself how to pronounce it when I was in high school because I wanted to be quick to reply whenever someone claimed that "antidisestablishmentarianism" was the longest word in the dictionary. 

If you just break it up, you get:

"pneu"   (like you're saying pneumonia)
"mono"  (like monochromatic)
"ultra"
"microscopic"
"silica"
"volcano"
"koniosis"

Give it a couple tries - it's not too bad at all.

Posted by David Shin on 2005-01-21 14:59:50