Find the word with the greatest vowel to consonant ratio. Exclude words like a, I, and aa, that have only vowels. English language words only!

Note: Consider Y a vowel

(In reply to from computer list by Charlie)

I can't think of a word to match or have a better ratio than your 6:1 word -- "ouguiya", the main unit of Mauritanian currency.  But, how about "yo-yoed".  Though hyphenated, it has a 5:1 vowel-consanant ratio.  And I believe may be considered a more common word than many of the words of your list, to include the "ouguiya" and the tropical American aroid, the "yautia". 

With a little research I found a word that has an equal ratio, 6:1, to "ouguiya" -- "euouaes".  The word in its singular form, "euouae", (a type of cadence in mediæval music), is officially an English word and recognized by many as the longest English word with no consanants.  The plural can supposedly be found in some dictionaries and in the 4th edition of the Official Scrabble Word book.  In addition, this word does not use the consanant "y" to be counted as a vowel.

Another good possibility is "aeaeaes".  I did not find a reference for the plural of "aeaeae", but the word is an English word, as a noun, meaning "magic" and as an adjective, "magical".  As the usual plural for English words is to add an "s", this would give another word as a 6:1 ratio. 

Edited on October 21, 2006, 1:18 pm

Posted by Dej Mar on 2006-10-21 00:40:33