All about flooble | fun stuff | Get a free chatterbox | Free JavaScript | Avatars    
perplexus dot info

Home > General > Word Problems
Words with tripled letters (Posted on 2015-04-30) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Aaadonta is a genus of air-breathing land snails, illlit means having poor or inadequate lighting...

Provide at least 5 examples of non-esoteric words with the same letter appearing 3 times in sequence.

Only non-proper words of 6 or more letters qualify.

See The Solution Submitted by Ady TZIDON    
No Rating

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
Solution answer Comment 1 of 1
The word illlit is ill-lit with the hyphen dropped. Though rare,
the dropping of the hyphen is found occasionally in written works,
and can be likened to the removal of diacritics. In some older words where presently a hyphen is usually employed, an adjective formed from the combination of two or more words would be combined, but separated by an apostrophe. Like the hyphen, it too can be found occasionally dropped.

The following are several words where a dropped hyphen (or apostrophe)  can (and occassionally does) present a word with the same letter appearing three times in sequence:

ball-less, bell'libone, bull-like, burgess-ship, cliff-face, countess-ship, cross-selling, cross-shaped, cross-stitch, duchess-ship, free-er, free-est, frill-less, full-length, gill-less, goddess-ship,  governess-ship, headmistress-ship, hill-like, hostess-ship, ill-looking, laparohysterosalpingo-oophorectory, miss-stay, mistress-ship, off-form, pall-like, press-stud, salpingo-oophorectomy, shell-less, shell-like, skill-less, small-leaved, still-life, wall-less, will-less,
and will-lessness.

Several interjections, and onomatopoeia (nouns and verbs), are also noted to allow a letter or letters to appear multiple times in sequence. The presence of of the multiple letters in often due to elongation of the vowel or vowel-like sound. The following elongated English words of six or more letters (many that are presented in various elongated lengths) that can be found in the English Wiktionary are:

aaaaah, ahhhhh, aaahing, brrrrr, hmmmmm, mmmmmm, looooove, ooohing, ooohed, pleeease, sooooo, verrry, and zzzing. 

Edited on May 2, 2015, 1:12 am
  Posted by Dej Mar on 2015-05-01 06:18:21

Please log in:
Login:
Password:
Remember me:
Sign up! | Forgot password


Search:
Search body:
Forums (1)
Newest Problems
Random Problem
FAQ | About This Site
Site Statistics
New Comments (10)
Unsolved Problems
Top Rated Problems
This month's top
Most Commented On

Chatterbox:
Copyright © 2002 - 2024 by Animus Pactum Consulting. All rights reserved. Privacy Information