Isograms
Isograms are words in which the letters turn up an equal number of times.
First order
In a first-order isogram, each letter appears just once. Examples:
- subdermatoglyphic (17)
- dermatoglyphics (15)
- hydropneumatics (15)
- uncopyrightable (15)
- ambidextrously (14)
- computerizably (14)
- copyrightables (14)
- dermatoglyphic (14)
- hydropneumatic (14)
- troublemakings (14)
- undiscoverably (14)
- conjugatedly (12)
First-order word sets
Another interesting challenge is to find a set of words that use each letter just once. This is useful when playing pencil and paper games such as Wordle and Word Bulls & Cows, so you can eliminate letters as efficiently as possible.
A possible set of four-letter words that use 24 of the 26 letters is:
- myth
- duck
- verb
- gasp
- jinx
- wolf
The best I've come up with for five-letter words is:
- black
- fight
- jumpy
- drown
- vexes
These use 24 of the 26 letters with one letter (e) repeated. If anyone can find five five-letter words with no letters in common I'd be interested to know.
Second order
In a second-order isogram, each letter appears twice. Examples:
- deed
- sees
- Vivienne
- Caucasus
- intestines
- couscous
Third order
Third-order isograms, in which each letter appears three times, are pretty rare. Examples:
- deeded (conveyed by deed)
- geggee (victim of a hoax)
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