ACCEDED, CABBAGE, BAGGAGE, DEFACED, EFFACED, and FEEDBAG are seven-letter words which can be played on a musical instrument. CABBAGED is an eight-letter one.

ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC is the longest acronym in the 1965 edition of the Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations Dictionary. It is a Navy term standing for Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command [Dickson]. Another acronym, PUMCODOXPURSACOMLOPAR, stands for "pulse-modulated coherent Doppler-effect X-band pulse-repetition synthetic-array pulse compression lobe planar array"

AEGILOPS (alternate spelling of egilops, an ulcer in a part of the eye) is apparently the longest word in W2 which consists of letters in alphabetical order. This word is not in W3. CHILLLOSS (the opposite of a heatloss) has its letters in alphabetical order, although this word may not be in any dictionary [Word Ways]. The title of the film EFIK MOVY was written abcdEFghIjKlMnOpqrstuVwxYz to show the alphabetical-order property. BEEFILY and BILLOWY are the longest such words in OSPD2+.

Six-letter words with their letters in alphabetical order include: ABBESS, ABHORS, ACCENT, ACCEPT, ACCESS, ACCOST, ADDERS, AFFLUX, ALMOST, BEGINS, BELLOW, BIJOUX, BIOPSY, CHILLY, CHIMPS, CHINTZ, CHIPPY, CHITTY, CHIVVY, CHOOSY, CHOPPY, EFFLUX, EFFORT, FLOORS, FLOPPY, FLOSSY, GHOSTY, GLOSSY, and KNOTTY

Mark D. Lew points out that BEVY not only has its letters in alphabetical order but is also symmetrical in its distribution over the alphabet (that is, B and Y are equidistant from the center; likewise E and V). BY and LO also meet this description.

ASTHMA and ISTHMI (alternate plural of isthmus) are perhaps the only six-letter words that begin and end with a vowel and have no other vowels between.

AGUE/VAGUE is a two-syllable word which becomes a one-syllable word by adding a letter or letters. Other examples: AGUE/PLAGUE, RUGGED/SHRUGGED, AGED/RAGED, AGED/STAGED.
 

Some common words which change from one to three syllables upon the addition of just one letter are: ARE/AREA, CAME/CAMEO, CRIME/CRIMEA, GAPE/AGAPE, HOSE/HOSEA, JUDE/JUDEA, LIEN/ALIEN, OLE/OLEO, RODE/RODEO, ROME/ROMEO, and SMILE/SIMILE. There are numerous other examples involving more obscure words.
Some words which change from one to two syllables when letters are removed are: SOURCE/SOUR, BOAT/BOA, HAVE/AVE, CAVE/AVE (etc.), WHOLE/OLE, SOLE/OLE (etc.) 

ANHUNGRY is one answer to the question, "What's the other word besides 'angry' and 'hungry' that ends in 'gry'?" This is the most frequently asked question of the editors of Merriam-Webster. Actually, "angry" and "hungry" are the only two words in common use ending in -gry, but quite a few obsolete or obscure words can be found in unabridged dictionaries. Among them are ANHUNGRY, used by Shakespeare, and AGGRY BEAD, both of which are in W3. The only -GRY words in RHUD2 are ANGRY, HUNGRY, HALF-ANGRY, OVERANGRY, and UNANGRY. Chambers has AGGRY (an adjective describing certain ancient West African beads) and AHUNGRY (oppressed with hunger). OSPD has PUGGRY (a variant form of the more usual PUGGAREE, a scarf wrapped around a sun helmet). The OED has angry, an-hungry, begry, conyngry, gry, higry pigry, hungry, iggry, meagry, menagry, nangry, podagry, skugry, unangry.
[An alternate solution this question is the word "language." The person actually says, "Think of words ending in -gry. Hungry and angry are 2 of them. There are three words in the english language. What is the third? You use it everyday. If you paid attention we have already told you the answer." More on the -gry question can be found at http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/gry.htm and at http://www.tempe.gov/library/netsites/gry.htm.]  

Beijing has three dotted letters in a row (in lower case). Other words with multiple dotted letters are remijia, bogijiab, pirijiri, kharijite (which are all in W2), gaijin (in OSPD3), Fiji, Hajji, hijinks, Ujiji (where Stanley found Livingstone in 1871), Ajijic and Pijijiapan (cities in Mexico) jinjili, ijijimòò (Nauruan for the adjective "lean," and Nauruan is a palindrome!), Shijiazhuang (Chinese city).
Niijima and Iijima are Japanese last names; Minoru Niijima is the artist who drew the cover graphic for Edward R. Tufte's book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
In Dutch, there are jij (you), pijjekker (pea-jacket), schrooiijzer (upstanding cutting iron for bars, rods), Sjiiet (follower of the Shia), snijijzer (cutting iron), uitdijing (expansion), and zijig (silky)
In Lithuanian, jiji is an archaic Lithuanian form of "him" consisting exclusively of dotted letters, and kraujijimas is archaic for "staining with blood"
In Swahili, jiji means "city" and kijiji means a small city or village .
A property development company in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the Katujjijiit Development Corporation, with six consecutive dotted letters 

The earliest known use of CATENARY in English is by President Thomas Jefferson. The earliest known use of MILEAGE is by Benjamin Franklin. 

CATERCORNER has eight spellings in W3: catercorner, cater-cornered, catacorner, cata-cornered, catty-corner, catty-cornered, kitty-corner, and kitty-cornered. Another dictionary has cater-corner.

In the translations of Hebrew to English there are   16 spellings for HANUKKAH (in alphabetical order): Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanukah, Hanukkah, Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanuka, Khanukah, and Khanukkah.
The name Muammar Khadafi has over 30 variants according to the Library of Congress.
The only countries in the world with one syllable in their names are CHAD, FRANCE, GREECE, and SPAIN  

CHINCHERINCHEE, which the OED2 describes as a common variant of chinkerinchee, has one letter occurring once, two letters occurring twice, and three letters occurring three times.
Among words consisting only of Roman numeral letters, the "highest scoring" Roman numeral words in English (e.g. MerCy = 1100) are MIMIC (2,102) and IMMIX (2012).

If U is allowed in Roman numeral words, there are ILLUVIUM, DILUVIUM (a coarse glacial deposit), MILLILUX (1/1000th of a lux), ILLICIUM (a genus of evergreen trees), and CULICID (mosquito family).
CONSERVATIONALISTS/CONVERSATIONALISTS (18 letters) is the longest non-scientific transposal (words which are anagrams of each other), according to Guinness. Another transposal is INTERNATIONALISM/INTERLAMINATIONS (16 letters).
The longest "well-mixed" transposals (no more than three consecutive letters in common) are BASIPARACHROMATIN/MARSIPOBRANCHIATA (17 letters) and THERMONASTICALLY/HEMATOCRYSTALLIN (16 letters).
The longest three-way well-mixed transposal is INTERROGATIVES/REINVESTIGATOR/TERGIVERSATION (14 letters).
The longest "perfectly mixed" transposals (no consecutive letter combinations) are NITROMAGNESITE/REGIMENTATIONS and ROTUNDIFOLIATE/TITANOFLUORIDE (both 14 letters)

CWM (a glacial hollow on a hillside) has the rare W as a vowel, as does CRWTH (a type of stringed instrument). Both words are in MWCD10. They are pronounced "koom" and "krooth" (rhyming with room and truth). Other such words, not in MWCD10, are TWP (stupid), AWDL (an ode written in the strict alliterative meters), and LLWCHWR (a city-district in Wales). These words are of Welsh origin. The OED includes numerous archaic spellings in which W or V is a vowel. 

DABCHICK (a small bird) is among the very few words that contain ABC. Some others: ABCOULOMB, ABCHALAZAL, ABCAREE, CRABCAKE, DRABCLOTH. Allowing intervening punctuation, there is SAB-CAT (a saboteur) in W2 and W3 [Susan Thorpe in WordsWorth]. Proper nouns include BABCOCK, ABCOUDE (city in the Netherlands), and ZABCIKVILLE (city in Texas). There are also ABCHASICA, ABCHASICUM, and ABCHASICUS, all three of which are botanical names for Paeonia Plants found in the Caucasus
DEEDED, GEGGEE (the victim of a hoax) and SESTETTES have each of their letters appearing three times.
 
 

A list of words that are formed only of repetitive identically spelled syllables or syllable groups: ANGANG-ANGANG (a type of Javanese gong), BERBER, BERIBERI, BULBUL (Persian songbird), CANCAN, CHA-CHA, COCO, DODO, DUMDUM, GAGA, GOODY-GOODY, GRIS-GRIS, IHI'IHI, JUJU, LULU, MAHI MAHI, MAU MAU, MURMUR, MUUMUU, POM-POM, POOH-POOH, SING SING, SO-SO, TAM-TAM (tuned gong),TARTAR, TOM-TOM, TUK-TUK (3-wheeled transport), TUTU, KUKUKUKU (the name of a people in eastern New Guinea, in W3), PIPIPI (a small black Hawaiian bivalve).
Six-letter repeaters: ATLATL, BEEBEE, BONBON, BOOBOO, BOUBOU, BULBUL, CANCAN, CHICHI, COOCOO, CUSCUS, DIKDIK, DUMDUM, FURFUR, GRIGRI, GRUGRU, MOTMOT, MURMUR, MUUMUU, PALPAL, PAWPAW, POMPOM, SARSAR, TARTAR, TSETSE, TSKTSK, TZATZA, VALVAL, WEEWEE.  

Place names with the same property include: BADEN-BADEN (in Germany), BELLA BELLA (coastal town in British Columbia, Canada), BORA BORA (an island in French Polynesia), BUBUBUBU (a stream in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), FOFO FOFO (a town in Papua), KIRAKIRA (Solomon Islands), LOMALOMA (Fiji), NENGONENGO (Fr. Polynesia), PAGO PAGO (Am. Samoa), PAOPAO (Fr. Polynesia), PUAPUA (W. Samoa), PUEPUE (Solomon Islands), PUKAPUKA (Cook Islands), RABA RABA (Papua New Guinea), REKAREKA (Fr. Polynesia), SAVUSAVU (Fiji), SOMOSOMO (Fiji), WALLA WALLA (U. S.), and WAGGA WAGGA (Australia)
 

There are many scientific names for which the genus and species are the same; these are called tautonyms.

GOOGOL is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Mathematician Edward Kasner supposedly asked his nephew Milton Sirotta to suggest a name for the number, and he came up with this word, which is now found in many dictionaries. The million, billion, trillion, quadrillion system skips over this number. A googolplex is 1 followed by a googol of zeros. 

The three-syllable word HIDEOUS, with the change of a single consonant, becomes a two-syllable word with no vowel sounds in common: HIDEOUT 

HIV VIRUS is an obvious redundancy, since the "v" stands for "virus." Some other common redundancies which include an abbreviation are ATM MACHINE, SALT TALKS, START TALKS, VIN NUMBER, PIN NUMBER, AC CURRENT, DC CURRENT, ISBN NUMBER, DOS OPERATING SYSTEM, ABS BRAKING SYSTEM, and LCD DISPLAY 

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and consonants. (For information on this word, see the long words section.) Other such words are ALUMINOSILICATES, CYTOMEGALOVIRUS, DEPOLARIZABILITY, EPICORACOHUMERALER, HETEROZYGOSISES, HEXOSAMINIDASES, HYPOVITAMINOSISES, MYELOCYTOMATOSISES PARAMYXOVIRUSES, PARAROSANILINES, PARASITOLOGICAL, SUPEREROGATORILY, TENOSYNOVITIDES, TENOSYNOVITISES, UNIMAGINATIVELY, VERISIMILITUDES                               .
IMMUNOHEMATOLOGIC contains 8 pairs of alternating vowels and consonants.
Some words containing 7 pairs of alternating vowels and consonants are: ALUMINOSILICATE, AUTOMANIPULATIVE, DELIBERATIVENESS, GELATINIZABILITY, HYPEROXYGENIZES, IMAGINATIVENESS, INERADICABILITY, INOPERATIVENESS, MEGALOPOLITANISM, PHENOMENOLOGICAL, PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION, PRECIPITINOGENIC, PREFIGURATIVENESS, REMUNERATIVENESS, SEMIMINERALIZED, UNAPOLOGETICALLY, UNILATERALIZATION, UNILATERALIZES, VERISIMILITUDINOUS. 

GORAN IVANESEVIC (a top tennis player) may be the longest name of a relatively famous person that alternates consonants and vowels.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES is the longest name of a country consisting of alternating vowels and consonants.
HYPoThAlAmICoHYPoPHYSeAlS is the longest word that can be spelled using chemical symbols. Other such words include NONRePReSeNTaTiONAlISmS, BrONCHOEsOPHAgOSCOPIEs, ThErMoPHOSPHOReSCeNCe, HYPSIBRaCHYCePHAlISm, HYPErPHOSPHOReSCeNCe, SUPErCoNdUCTiVITiEs, PARaPrOFeSSiONaLS, and SUPErSOPHISTiCAtE              .
HYDROXYZINE (a prescription drug) is the only word in RHUD2 and the only word in OED2 containing XYZ. Allowing scientific names in biology, there is XYZZORS (a nematode worm) [Stuart Kidd]. XYZAL (Levocetirizine) is a prescription drug introduced in England in 2001.

The most commonly used words in spoken English are I, YOU, THE, and A.
The most commonly used words in written English, according to the 1971 American Heritage Word Frequency Book are: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on, are, as, with, his, they at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, had, not, but, what, all, were, when, we there, can, an, your, which, their, said, if, do.
The most commonly occurring words in Shakespeare's plays and poetry (with frequencies) are: the 29854, and 27554, I 23357, to 21075, of 18520, a 15523, you 14264, my 12964, that 11955, in 11842, is 9734, not 8871, with 8269, s 8160, for 8100, it 8080, me 8059, 7357 his, 7228 be, 7120 he. In Shakespeare, 8598 words (abaissiez, abash, abatements, abates, abbeys, ..., zo, zodiac, zodiacs, zone, zwaggered) are used only once.
The most commonly occurring sound in spoken English is the sound of a in alone, followed by e as in key, t as in top, and d as in dip. 

Some words with horizontal symmetry (they reflect themselves across a horizontal line) are: BEDECKED, BOOHOOED, CEBID (a type of monkey), CHECKBOOK, CHOICE, CODEBOOK, COOKBOOK, DECIDED, DIOXIDE, DOBCHICK, EXCEEDED, HIDE, HOODOOED, ICEBOX, KEBOBBED, OBOE, OKEECHOBEE.
Some words with vertical symmetry are MOM, WOW, OTTO, MAAM, MA'AM, TOOT, AHA, AA, AHA, AIA, AMA, AVA, AWA, HAH, HOH, HUH, MAM, MIM, MM, MUM, OHO, OO, OXO, TAT, TIT, TOT, TUT, UTU, VAV, WAW.
All of the letters of these words have vertical symmetry: AUTOMATA, AUTOTOMY, HIMATIA, HOITY-TOITY, HOMOTAXIA, MAHATMA, MAHIMAHI, MAMMATI, MAMMOTH, MATAMATA, MOTIVITY, MOUTH-TO-MOUTH, MYOMATA, MYXOMATA, OUTWAIT, TATOUAY, TAXIWAY, THATAWAY, TIMOTHY, TOMATO, TOWAWAY, WITHOUT, YAWATAHAMA (a city in Japan), and YOUTH. 

SWIMS has 180-degree rotational symmetry. If written in lower-case cursive, chump comes very close to having 180-degree rotational symmetry.
These words with 6 or more letters have all letters rotationally symmetrical: NINONS, ONIONS, SISSOOS, SOZINS, ZOONOSIS, ZOOZOOS.
All of the letters of these words have both horizontal and vertical symmetry: HI, OH, IO, OHIO, OHO, and IHI'IHI (rare Hawaiian fern that now exists only in three populations, two of which are inside volcanoes). 

IFF is a word invented to mean "if and only if." According to MWCD10, it can be pronounced three ways: "if and only if," like "if," and like "if" but with a prolonged "F." There are 118 conjunctions in MWCD10; IFF is the only "new" conjunction, first seen in print in 1955. 

The following words have 75% of their letters the same: IIWI (a Hawaiian bird), BIBB, FAFF, LALL, LILL, LOLL, LULL, MUMM, SASS, SESS, SISS, SOSS, TATT, ZIZZ, ÉÉPÉÉE (a fencing sword), and SUSS ("Suss out" is British slang for "figure out").
IMPETICOS is an example of a nonce word (a word which has been found to have been used only once). The word is spoken by the clown in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. W2 says perhaps it means "impocket."  

INTERCHANGEABILITY contains the words THREE, EIGHT, NINE, TEN, THIRTEEN, THIRTY, THIRTY-NINE, EIGHTY, EIGHTY-NINE, NINETY, and NINETY-EIGHT.
INTESTINES has each of its letters occurring twice. Some other such words: APPEASES, ARRAIGNING, BERIBERI, BILABIAL, CAUCASUS, CHOWCHOW, CONCISIONS, COUSCOUS, ESOPHAGOGRAPHERS, FROUFROU, GENSENGS, GREEGREE, GUITGUIT, HAPPENCHANCE, HORSESHOER, HOTSHOTS, JIPIJAPA, MAHIMAHI, MESOSOME, MILLIEME, MIMETITE, RAPPAREE, REAPPEAR, SCINTILLESCENT, SHAMMASH, SHANGHAIINGS, TEAMMATE, UNSUFFICIENCES, VETITIVE.

The shortest word with six letters appearing at least twice is METASOMATOSES.
IO (an interjection in Chambers and one of the moons of Jupiter), AI (the three-toed sloth), EO, OK, and AA (rough volcanic rock) seem to be the shortest two-syllable words.
IRAQ is one of the very few words ending in Q. Obscure words ending in Q are: SHOQ, PONTACQ, INUPIAQ (an Eskimo people), SUQ, ZAQAZIQ (or ZAGAZIG, a city in Egypt), ZIA-UL-HAQ (a proper name), and N'ASTALIQ. Chambers has TALAQ and TZADDIQ (which can also be spelled TSADDIQ). OSPD has TRANQ although this word is not in W2 or W3. KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ is an Inuit village in Quebec. KUUJJUAQ is a Canadian city. UMIAQ is apparently a variant spellling of UMIAK, an Eskimo boat, which is in W2 and W3.) SADIQ is a city in India. ABQAIQ is a city in Saudi Arabia.

HH is found in withhold, bathhouse, beachhead, bushhammer, fishhawk, fishhook, highhanded, hitchhike, roughhouse, washhouse, watchhouse, aarrghh, hashhead, roughhew, fleshhood, roughhewn, touchhole, youthhood, youthhead, sleuthhound, Pochhammer symbol, the German cities Forchheim and Lauchhammer, Hohhot in eastern Inner Mongolia, and the Machhu River in India.

JJ is found in AVIJJA, ZU'L-HIJJAH or DHU'L-HIJJAH (the twelfth month of the Muslim calendar), HAJJ (the Muslim pilgrimage), HAJJI, UJJAIN (one of the holy cities of India), CRIGLER-NAJJAR SYNDROME, KUUJJUAQ (Canadian city), and KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ (an Inuit village in Quebec).
QQ appears in HOOQQA (variant of hookah in the OED), HUQQA (a water pipe for smoking tobacco), RIQQ (an Egyptian tambourine) SAQQARA (a village in Egypt), ZAQQUM (a tree with bitter fruit, mentioned in the Koran), ZIQQURAT (an alternate spelling of zikkurat or ziggurat used in past editions of Guinness), BURUQQU (town in India), QQUEA and QQUERO (place names in Peru)

UU occurs in carduus, continuum, duumvir, duumviral, duumvirate, equuleus, Equus, ignus fatuus, individuum, intermenstruum, lituus, menstruum, mutuum, muumuu, obliquus, praecipuum, residuum, sadalsuud, semicontinuum, Smectymnuus, squush(y), triduum, vacuum, weltanschauung, zuurveldt.
UU is very common in Dutch and in Polynesian place names.

VV. The complete list from the UKACD: civvy, divvy, navvy, savvy, bovver, chivvy, luvvie, revved, skivvy, spivvy, chivved, civvies, divvied, divvies, flivver, luvvies, navvied, navvies, revving, savvied, savvies, shivved, chivvied, chivvies, chivving, divvying, flivvers, navvying, savvying, shivving, skivvies, bovver boy, chivvying, bovver boys, steam-navvy, bovver boots, civvy street, improvvisatore. Other words with a double V not in that dictionary are bivvy (slang for bivouac) and bivver (a variant of bever). Chambers has devvel, bevvy, bivvy, and crivvens.

WW occurs in arrowweed, arrowwood, arrowworm, bowwoman, bowwood, bowwow, cowweed, cowwheat, dewworm, glowworm, lowwood, mallowwort, meadowwort, pillowwork, plowwise, plowwoman, plowwright, powwow, powwower, powwowism, rainbowweed, sawway, sawworker, sawwort, screwwise, screwworm, shawwal, showworm, showworthy, skewwhiff, skewwise, slowworm, sparrowwort, squawweed, strawwalker, strawweight, strawworm, swallowwort, tallowweed, throwwort, viewworthy, whitlowwort, willowware, willowweed, willowworm, willowwort, windowward, windowwards, windowwise, yawweed, yellowware, yellowweed, yellowwood, yellowwort, Cirkewwa (city in Malta), and Tsawwassen (city in Canada), Oewwgger (island in Indonesia).

XX does not occur in any words found in ordinary dictionaries. However, W3 has XX-DISEASE and the OED has WAXXEN (an old form of the verb, to wax, to increase in size). Proper nouns containing xx include EXXON, FOXX, MAXXAM, BEXXAR (a therapeutic antibody), and LEXXEL and VIOXX (new prescription drugs). ZAXXON was a popular arcade game in the 1980s [Fred Schneider]. According to an article in Time, the name Exxon was chosen partly because it meant nothing in any language and the article reported researchers concluded that XX occurs in no language. However, the double X is common in the Maltese language.

YY occurs in AL FAYYUM, AL-UBAYYID, AYYUBID, CUBBYYEW, DUBAYY, FAYYUM, GAYYOU, GROZNYY (variant of Grozny), HAYYAN, IYYAR (an alternate spelling of Iyar, a month in the Jewish calendar), JABIR IBN HAYYAN, KHAYYAM, KRYVYY RIH, KRYVYY ROG (a city in Ukraine), MAYYALI, NABEREZHNYYE CHELNY (an alternate spelling for the name of a Russian port), OMAYYAD or UMAYYAD, PIYYUT (a liturgical poem in Judaism), SAYYID (a descendant of Muhammad through Hussein), SNARLEYYOW (slang for "dog"; found in W2), YABLONOVYY (a Russian mountain range), and ZAKIYYA (an alternate spelling for a female given name.)
In addition, in the American Heritage Dictionary on CD-ROM, BODYBUILDER is misspelled as BODYYBUILDER.

The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.

The word "set" has the highest number of separate definitions in the English Language (192 definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary.)

The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.

The word "coach" is derived from the village of Kocs, Hungary, where coaches were invented and first used.

The word "karate" means "empty hand."

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."

The word gargoyle comes down from the Old French: gargouille, meaning throat or gullet. This is also the origin of the word gargle. The word describes the sound produced as water passes the throat and mixes with air. In early architecture, gargoyles were decorative creatures on the drains of cathedrals.

The word 'news' did not come about because it was the plural of 'new.' It came from the first letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions.

The word quisling comes from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who collaborated with the Germans during their occupation of Norway. The word now means "traitor."

The world's largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters.

The world's most widely spoken language is the Mandarin dialect of Chinese, with 500 million speakers.

"Aroma therapy" is a term coined by French chemist Renéé Maurice Gattefosséé in the 1920's to describe the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers roots, seeds, etc., in healing.

"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

"Long in the tooth," meaning "old," was originally used to describe horses. As horses age, their gums recede, giving the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without vowels.

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.