a. What is the longest English word that begins and ends with the same letter?

b. What letters do not provide even one qualifying candidate having this feature?

c. Same as a, but no repeated letters except the first and the last (none of the title's word qualify).

a: SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS (The 34-letter word
    can be found in the Unabridged Random House dictionary as
    an adjective).
b: Both the letters J and Q (given the beginning and ending letters
    are distinct, and the word is not a proper noun) have no
    qualifying candidate (found) for the feature of
    beginning and ending in the same letter. [Given proper nouns,
    the 7-letter palindromic English word Qaanaaq, and the
    name of an Indian town in West Bengal, Romanized as Jagtaj,
    otherwise provide candidates for these two letters].
c: MYXOBACTERIUM, SHOPBREAKINGS , STICKHANDLERS,
    STYLOGRAPHIES, SULPHONAMIDES, SUPERKINGDOMS,
    SYCOPHANTIZES, SYCOPHANTRIES

-----------------

Alphabetical list of longest words that begin and end with the same letter:
 (18) AGAMMAGLOBULINEMIA
 (10) BREADCRUMB
 (22) CINEANGIOCARDIOGRAPHIC
 (19) DEINSTITUTIONALISED / DEINSTITUTIONALIZED
 (27) ETHYLENDEDIAMINETETRAACETATE
 (12) FEEDINGSTUFF
 (17) GOVERNMENTALIZING
 (15) HYETOMETROGRAPH
 (13) IMPROVISATORI
 ( 1) J
 (12) KINNIKINNICK
 (18) LEPIDOPTEROLOGICAL
 (16) MESEMBRIANTHEMUM / MESEMBRYANTHEMUM /
      MULTICULTURALISM / MULINATIONALISM
 (18) NONDIFFERENTIATION
 (10) OCOTDECIMO
 (17) PRIMOGENITURESHIP
 ( 1) Q
 (16) RADIOBROADCASTER
 (34) SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
 (23) TRANSUBSTANTIATIONALIST
 ( 7) UMLUNGU
 ( 3) VAV
 (11) WAPPENSCHAW / WHEELBARROW / WINDLESTRAW /
      WOODSWALLOW
 ( 6) XEROX
 (12) YIELDABILITY
 ( 5) ZMUDZ

Alphabetical list of longest words that begin and end with the same letter, with all letters being distinct with the exception of the last letter being the same as the first.
 (10) ALCHERINGA / ARCHEGONIA / ASTHENOPIA
 ( 7) BETHUMB
 (12) CRYPTOMNESIC
 (11) DISANCHORED / DISAVOUCHED / DISBRANCHED /
      DISCOURAGED / DISCULPATED / DISFAVOURED /
      DISGRUNTLED / DISTROUBLED / DOWNSHIFTED
 (12) EDULCORATIVE
 ( 4) FIEF
 (12) GODFATHERING
 (11) HELICOGRAPH
 ( 8) IGNORAMI
 ( 1) J
 ( 9) KNOBSTICK
 (10) LUMISTEROL
 (13) MYXOBACTERIUM
  (10) NUCLEATION / NUMERATION
 ( 8) OBLIGATO
 (11) PLOWMANSHIP
 ( 1) Q
 (11) ROUGHCASTER
 (13) SHOPBREAKINGS / STICKHANDLERS / STYLOGRAPHIES /
      SULPHONAMIDES / SUPERKINGDOMS / SYCOPHANTIZES /
      SYCOPHANTRIES
 (11) THUNDERBOLT / TRANQUILEST
 ( 4) UNAU
 ( 3) VAV
 (11) WINDLESTRAW
 ( 5) XEROX
 ( 9) YOUNGTHLY
 ( 5) ZMUDZ

Edited on February 27, 2015, 4:43 am

Posted by Dej Mar on 2015-02-27 01:09:42