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

Of the words with 5 consecutive letters of the alphabet in order, the most common of the shortest (length 9) words is absconded:

5   absconded               a-e
5   absconder               a-e
5   absconders              a-e
5   abstractedness          a-e
5   abstractednesses        a-e
5   ambuscade               a-e
5   ambuscaded              a-e
5   ambuscader              a-e
5   ambuscaders             a-e
5   ambuscades              a-e
5   firefighting            e-i
5   firefightings           e-i
5   lymphadenopathies       l-p
5   lymphadenopathy         l-p
5   lymphangiographic       l-p
5   lymphangiographies      l-p
5   lymphangiography        l-p
5   prizefighting           e-i
5   prizefightings          e-i
5   reconstructive          r-v
5   redistributive          r-v
5   refighting              e-i

In reverse order there is polynomial:

5   pharmacodynamically     p-l
5   phonemically            p-l
5   phonogramically         p-l
5   phonogrammically        p-l
5   photodynamically        p-l
5   physiognomical          p-l
5   physiognomically        p-l
5   polynomial              p-l
5   polynomials             p-l
5   pronominal              p-l
5   pronominally            p-l
5   protonemal              p-l
5   protonematal            p-l
5   pseudonymously          p-l
5   psychodynamically       p-l
5   toponymical             p-l
5   treponemal              p-l

DECLARE SUB evaluate (w$, posn!, ctSoFar!)
CLEAR , , 5000
DIM SHARED highCt, highWd$
OPEN "\words\words.txt" FOR INPUT AS #1
DO
 LINE INPUT #1, w$
 FOR i = 1 TO LEN(w$)
  evaluate w$, i, 0 ' word, up to position, ct so far
 NEXT
LOOP UNTIL EOF(1)

SUB evaluate (w$, posn, ctSoFar)
 cLet$ = MID$(w$, posn, 1)
 foundOne = 0
 IF cLet$ < "z" AND posn < LEN(w$) THEN
 'IF cLet$ > "a" AND posn < LEN(w$) THEN
   nLet$ = CHR$(ASC(cLet$) + 1)
 ' nLet$ = CHR$(ASC(cLet$) - 1)
   ix = INSTR(posn + 1, w$, nLet$)
   IF ix THEN
     foundOne = 1
     evaluate w$, ix, ctSoFar + 1
   END IF
 END IF
 IF foundOne = 0 THEN
   IF ctSoFar >= highCt THEN
     highCt = ctSoFar
     highWd$ = w$
     PRINT highCt + 1; TAB(6); w$; TAB(30); CHR$(ASC(cLet$) - highCt); "-"; cLet$
   '  PRINT highCt + 1; TAB(6); w$; TAB(30); CHR$(ASC(cLet$) + highCt); "-"; cLet$
   END IF
 END IF
END SUB

The program shown is for the forward direction. If the commented lines (with apostrophes) are uncommented, and the lines above each commented, this becomes the reverse sequence.

Posted by Charlie on 2005-01-20 15:55:31