The following list of twelve common English words have at least one other thing in common. What is it?

strengths        angstrom       birthplace   dumbstruck
eighths          heartthrob     warmths      lengths
postscript       thumbscrew     witchcraft   twelfths

Of the given word list, each of the words have a string of five consecutive consonants. The title of the problem, "Word Oddity (6) Some have six", indicates the words are not limited to five, but have at least five consecutive consonants (and, possibly, be limiting the words to only "common" words.)  

Some of the other words with five consecutive consonants are angsts, backsplash, backstretch, backstroke, borscht, breaststroke, downstream, downthrust, erstwhile, lightproof, matchstick, nightclothes, nightclub, nightdress, and thousandths.

Some of the words with six consecutive consonants are borschts, catchphrase, eschscholtzia, latchstring, watchstrap and weltschmerz.

Of the more "uncommon" words, a SEVEN consecutive consonants word, tsktsks, is formed by adding an s (forming the plural of the noun or forming the third person singular form of the verb) to the six consecutive consonants word, tsktsk -- a word found in the 2006 edition of the Random House Unabridged Dictionary.

Edited on December 10, 2007, 6:45 pm

Posted by Dej Mar on 2007-12-10 15:23:11