Unusual letter combinations

up vote
30
down vote

favorite

^{This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.}

English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely unpronounceable on their own.

I have listed a few such letter combinations below. Try to determine what word each combination is from.

The letters may appear at the beginning, middle or end of the word, but they are all consecutive (no other letters appear in between)

All words will be found in any reasonable dictionary. None are particularly obscure.

In cases where there may be 2 or 3 valid answers, an additional letter has been supplied to disambiguate. The additional letter must be found somewhere in the answer word.

Since using computers makes this challenge trivial, please try to work this one out using only your own brain (or those of your friends).

GNAG
PSTR (U)
KWH
NDTHS
GHTH (U)
CST
WKW
MBSTR (C)
CKKN (F)
RWAT (U)
NDTHR
LFTH
RTGA
XACE
APK
ESHOL

When you have all the words, their initials will spell something that English in general, or these words particularly, could use.

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

Nice puzzle! Might I ask: How did you come up with your words? A computer search for unique letter combinations, or something else? If you don't want to spoil the secret, you don't need to answer :)
– David Koelle
yesterday

@DavidKoelle I thought of most of them out of my head. I then used a computer to check the combinations and ensure that they were unique or almost unique. For a few of them, I googled "unusually spelled words", and picked a few appropriate words from those lists.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

There were quite a few other words I came up with, which turned out not to be so unique after checking. I probably went through about 50 words, and ended up with this list.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
30
down vote

favorite

^{This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.}

English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely unpronounceable on their own.

I have listed a few such letter combinations below. Try to determine what word each combination is from.

The letters may appear at the beginning, middle or end of the word, but they are all consecutive (no other letters appear in between)

All words will be found in any reasonable dictionary. None are particularly obscure.

In cases where there may be 2 or 3 valid answers, an additional letter has been supplied to disambiguate. The additional letter must be found somewhere in the answer word.

Since using computers makes this challenge trivial, please try to work this one out using only your own brain (or those of your friends).

GNAG
PSTR (U)
KWH
NDTHS
GHTH (U)
CST
WKW
MBSTR (C)
CKKN (F)
RWAT (U)
NDTHR
LFTH
RTGA
XACE
APK
ESHOL

When you have all the words, their initials will spell something that English in general, or these words particularly, could use.

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

Nice puzzle! Might I ask: How did you come up with your words? A computer search for unique letter combinations, or something else? If you don't want to spoil the secret, you don't need to answer :)
– David Koelle
yesterday

@DavidKoelle I thought of most of them out of my head. I then used a computer to check the combinations and ensure that they were unique or almost unique. For a few of them, I googled "unusually spelled words", and picked a few appropriate words from those lists.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

There were quite a few other words I came up with, which turned out not to be so unique after checking. I probably went through about 50 words, and ended up with this list.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
30
down vote

favorite

^{This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.}

English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely unpronounceable on their own.

I have listed a few such letter combinations below. Try to determine what word each combination is from.

The letters may appear at the beginning, middle or end of the word, but they are all consecutive (no other letters appear in between)

All words will be found in any reasonable dictionary. None are particularly obscure.

In cases where there may be 2 or 3 valid answers, an additional letter has been supplied to disambiguate. The additional letter must be found somewhere in the answer word.

Since using computers makes this challenge trivial, please try to work this one out using only your own brain (or those of your friends).

GNAG
PSTR (U)
KWH
NDTHS
GHTH (U)
CST
WKW
MBSTR (C)
CKKN (F)
RWAT (U)
NDTHR
LFTH
RTGA
XACE
APK
ESHOL

When you have all the words, their initials will spell something that English in general, or these words particularly, could use.

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

^{This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.}

English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely unpronounceable on their own.

I have listed a few such letter combinations below. Try to determine what word each combination is from.

The letters may appear at the beginning, middle or end of the word, but they are all consecutive (no other letters appear in between)

All words will be found in any reasonable dictionary. None are particularly obscure.

In cases where there may be 2 or 3 valid answers, an additional letter has been supplied to disambiguate. The additional letter must be found somewhere in the answer word.

Since using computers makes this challenge trivial, please try to work this one out using only your own brain (or those of your friends).

GNAG
PSTR (U)
KWH
NDTHS
GHTH (U)
CST
WKW
MBSTR (C)
CKKN (F)
RWAT (U)
NDTHR
LFTH
RTGA
XACE
APK
ESHOL

When you have all the words, their initials will spell something that English in general, or these words particularly, could use.

english no-computers spelling

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

asked yesterday

GentlePurpleRain♦

16.6k568136

Nice puzzle! Might I ask: How did you come up with your words? A computer search for unique letter combinations, or something else? If you don't want to spoil the secret, you don't need to answer :)
– David Koelle
yesterday

@DavidKoelle I thought of most of them out of my head. I then used a computer to check the combinations and ensure that they were unique or almost unique. For a few of them, I googled "unusually spelled words", and picked a few appropriate words from those lists.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

There were quite a few other words I came up with, which turned out not to be so unique after checking. I probably went through about 50 words, and ended up with this list.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

add a comment |

Nice puzzle! Might I ask: How did you come up with your words? A computer search for unique letter combinations, or something else? If you don't want to spoil the secret, you don't need to answer :)
– David Koelle
yesterday

@DavidKoelle I thought of most of them out of my head. I then used a computer to check the combinations and ensure that they were unique or almost unique. For a few of them, I googled "unusually spelled words", and picked a few appropriate words from those lists.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

There were quite a few other words I came up with, which turned out not to be so unique after checking. I probably went through about 50 words, and ended up with this list.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

Nice puzzle! Might I ask: How did you come up with your words? A computer search for unique letter combinations, or something else? If you don't want to spoil the secret, you don't need to answer :)
– David Koelle
yesterday

@DavidKoelle I thought of most of them out of my head. I then used a computer to check the combinations and ensure that they were unique or almost unique. For a few of them, I googled "unusually spelled words", and picked a few appropriate words from those lists.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

There were quite a few other words I came up with, which turned out not to be so unique after checking. I probably went through about 50 words, and ended up with this list.
– GentlePurpleRain♦
11 hours ago

add a comment |

5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

up vote
18
down vote

accepted

The final answer is

SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT

(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)

formed by the words

- Signage (Parseltongue)

- Upstream (Parseltongue)

- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)

- Thousandths (Parseltongue)

- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)

- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)

- Awkward (Dorrulf)

- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)

- Jackknife (me)

- Underwater (Dorrulf)

- Spendthrift (kazi0)

- Twelfth (me, kazi0)

- Mortgage (Dorrulf)

- Exacerbate (kazi0)

- Napkin (kazi0)

- Threshold (Dorrulf)

_{I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.}

But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):

English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.

I found some remaining ones:

MBSTR:

duMBSTRuCk

CKKN:

jaCKKNiFe

LFTH:

tweLFTH

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

2

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

2

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
8
down vote

Partial answers so far:

1. Signage
2. Upstream
3. Buckwheat
4. Thousandths
5. Eighth (not quite correct, due to disambiguation)
6. Ecstatic
7.
8.
9.
10. Overwatch (not quite correct, due to disambiguation).
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

add a comment |

up vote
7
down vote

Partial:

1.

2. UPSTREAM

3.

4. THOUSANDTHS

5.

6.

7. AWKWARD

8.

9. ___CKKNIFE

10. UNDERWATER

11.

12.

13. MORTGAGE

14.

15.

16. THRESHOLD

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

add a comment |

up vote
6
down vote

Some of the words that haven't been found yet

MBSTR (C):

dumbstruck

NDTHR:

spendthrift

LFTH:

twelfth

XACE:

exacerbate

APK:

napkin

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

add a comment |

up vote
4
down vote

LIGHTHOUSE (thanks to the U)

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

add a comment |

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Name

5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

up vote
18
down vote

accepted

The final answer is

SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT

(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)

formed by the words

- Signage (Parseltongue)

- Upstream (Parseltongue)

- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)

- Thousandths (Parseltongue)

- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)

- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)

- Awkward (Dorrulf)

- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)

- Jackknife (me)

- Underwater (Dorrulf)

- Spendthrift (kazi0)

- Twelfth (me, kazi0)

- Mortgage (Dorrulf)

- Exacerbate (kazi0)

- Napkin (kazi0)

- Threshold (Dorrulf)

_{I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.}

But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):

English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.

I found some remaining ones:

MBSTR:

duMBSTRuCk

CKKN:

jaCKKNiFe

LFTH:

tweLFTH

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

2

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

2

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
18
down vote

accepted

The final answer is

SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT

(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)

formed by the words

- Signage (Parseltongue)

- Upstream (Parseltongue)

- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)

- Thousandths (Parseltongue)

- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)

- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)

- Awkward (Dorrulf)

- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)

- Jackknife (me)

- Underwater (Dorrulf)

- Spendthrift (kazi0)

- Twelfth (me, kazi0)

- Mortgage (Dorrulf)

- Exacerbate (kazi0)

- Napkin (kazi0)

- Threshold (Dorrulf)

_{I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.}

But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):

English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.

I found some remaining ones:

MBSTR:

duMBSTRuCk

CKKN:

jaCKKNiFe

LFTH:

tweLFTH

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

2

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

2

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
18
down vote

accepted

The final answer is

SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT

(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)

formed by the words

- Signage (Parseltongue)

- Upstream (Parseltongue)

- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)

- Thousandths (Parseltongue)

- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)

- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)

- Awkward (Dorrulf)

- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)

- Jackknife (me)

- Underwater (Dorrulf)

- Spendthrift (kazi0)

- Twelfth (me, kazi0)

- Mortgage (Dorrulf)

- Exacerbate (kazi0)

- Napkin (kazi0)

- Threshold (Dorrulf)

_{I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.}

But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):

English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.

I found some remaining ones:

MBSTR:

duMBSTRuCk

CKKN:

jaCKKNiFe

LFTH:

tweLFTH

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

The final answer is

SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT

(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)

formed by the words

- Signage (Parseltongue)

- Upstream (Parseltongue)

- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)

- Thousandths (Parseltongue)

- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)

- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)

- Awkward (Dorrulf)

- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)

- Jackknife (me)

- Underwater (Dorrulf)

- Spendthrift (kazi0)

- Twelfth (me, kazi0)

- Mortgage (Dorrulf)

- Exacerbate (kazi0)

- Napkin (kazi0)

- Threshold (Dorrulf)

_{I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.}

But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):

English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.

I found some remaining ones:

MBSTR:

duMBSTRuCk

CKKN:

jaCKKNiFe

LFTH:

tweLFTH

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

answered yesterday

Glorfindel

12.1k34576

2

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

2

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

add a comment |

2

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

2

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

Really nice answer :)
– ABcDexter
yesterday

Really nice puzzle :)
– Glorfindel
yesterday

But it doesn't contain an F...
– Glorfindel
13 hours ago

add a comment |

up vote
8
down vote

Partial answers so far:

1. Signage
2. Upstream
3. Buckwheat
4. Thousandths
5. Eighth (not quite correct, due to disambiguation)
6. Ecstatic
7.
8.
9.
10. Overwatch (not quite correct, due to disambiguation).
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

add a comment |

up vote
8
down vote

Partial answers so far:

1. Signage
2. Upstream
3. Buckwheat
4. Thousandths
5. Eighth (not quite correct, due to disambiguation)
6. Ecstatic
7.
8.
9.
10. Overwatch (not quite correct, due to disambiguation).
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

add a comment |

up vote
8
down vote

Partial answers so far:

1. Signage
2. Upstream
3. Buckwheat
4. Thousandths
5. Eighth (not quite correct, due to disambiguation)
6. Ecstatic
7.
8.
9.
10. Overwatch (not quite correct, due to disambiguation).
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

Partial answers so far:

1. Signage
2. Upstream
3. Buckwheat
4. Thousandths
5. Eighth (not quite correct, due to disambiguation)
6. Ecstatic
7.
8.
9.
10. Overwatch (not quite correct, due to disambiguation).
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

answered yesterday

Parseltongue

43618

add a comment |

up vote
7
down vote

Partial:

1.

2. UPSTREAM

3.

4. THOUSANDTHS

5.

6.

7. AWKWARD

8.

9. ___CKKNIFE

10. UNDERWATER

11.

12.

13. MORTGAGE

14.

15.

16. THRESHOLD

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

add a comment |

up vote
7
down vote

Partial:

1.

2. UPSTREAM

3.

4. THOUSANDTHS

5.

6.

7. AWKWARD

8.

9. ___CKKNIFE

10. UNDERWATER

11.

12.

13. MORTGAGE

14.

15.

16. THRESHOLD

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

add a comment |

up vote
7
down vote

Partial:

1.

2. UPSTREAM

3.

4. THOUSANDTHS

5.

6.

7. AWKWARD

8.

9. ___CKKNIFE

10. UNDERWATER

11.

12.

13. MORTGAGE

14.

15.

16. THRESHOLD

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

Partial:

1.

2. UPSTREAM

3.

4. THOUSANDTHS

5.

6.

7. AWKWARD

8.

9. ___CKKNIFE

10. UNDERWATER

11.

12.

13. MORTGAGE

14.

15.

16. THRESHOLD

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

answered yesterday

Dorrulf

1,1097

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

add a comment |

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

rot13(ahzore 9 vf cebonoyl wnpxxavsr)
– JR_M
yesterday

add a comment |

up vote
6
down vote

Some of the words that haven't been found yet

MBSTR (C):

dumbstruck

NDTHR:

spendthrift

LFTH:

twelfth

XACE:

exacerbate

APK:

napkin

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

add a comment |

up vote
6
down vote

Some of the words that haven't been found yet

MBSTR (C):

dumbstruck

NDTHR:

spendthrift

LFTH:

twelfth

XACE:

exacerbate

APK:

napkin

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

add a comment |

up vote
6
down vote

Some of the words that haven't been found yet

MBSTR (C):

dumbstruck

NDTHR:

spendthrift

LFTH:

twelfth

XACE:

exacerbate

APK:

napkin

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

Some of the words that haven't been found yet

MBSTR (C):

dumbstruck

NDTHR:

spendthrift

LFTH:

twelfth

XACE:

exacerbate

APK:

napkin

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

answered yesterday

kazi0

813

New contributor

kazi0 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a comment |

up vote
4
down vote

LIGHTHOUSE (thanks to the U)

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

add a comment |

up vote
4
down vote

LIGHTHOUSE (thanks to the U)

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

add a comment |

up vote
4
down vote

LIGHTHOUSE (thanks to the U)

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

LIGHTHOUSE (thanks to the U)

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

answered yesterday

JonMark Perry

15.7k52975

add a comment |

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