A word pronounced like letters

Question

Can you give me a word that when pronounced, sounds exactly like pronouncing some of the letters of the alphabet.

For example

The word TEEPEE sounds exactly like the letters T and P so TP, just as if you pronounced the two letters.

Or Ziti which sounds like ZT. Two letters pronounced.

Entity : N T T

I am looking for a word that when pronounced, uses at least 4 separate letters. All the word must be pronounced with the condition above. No partials. Special kudos to anyone who comes up with a 5 or 6 letter pronounced word. (I only have a 4 letter solution)

Please only dictionary approved words and pronunciation. No abbreviations or acronyms or proper names.

With many fine answers I will just put my solution here instead of in the answers:

Obesity O B C T

Note that one of your examples (ZT) is dialect-dependent, the name of the letter Z differing between American and British English. — rjpond, Dec 03 '17 at 23:52
I remember reading a book like this when I was a kid called CDB!: Wikipedia Amazon — AAM111, Dec 04 '17 at 04:02
There was some discussion about pronunciation of excellency, but entity definitely doesn't sound like N T T. — Lolgast, Dec 04 '17 at 14:10
@rjpond Actually, in the UK, we pronounce the pasta "zedtee", so it still works. OK, possibly some parts of this comment don't fact-check. — David Richerby, Dec 04 '17 at 14:19
Fun fact, there's a band who sorta does this with their name. Their name is INXS, but it's pronounced "in excess". — Lord Farquaad, Dec 04 '17 at 14:30
I am disappointed that the 4 letter rule disqualifies the best one of all: queue (Q) — lPlant, Dec 04 '17 at 19:35
This is pretty cool. My friends and I used to write the name of our friend Emily as "MLE". Never knew there was a name for this! — user428517, Dec 04 '17 at 19:38
I'm curious why you tagged this no computers; I'd think requiring computers would actually be a harder problem. — Foon, Dec 04 '17 at 22:13
@LordFarquaad: Fun fact, the band Zed Zed Top also has this property. — Eric Lippert, Dec 04 '17 at 22:24
@sgroves I've also seen REL for Ariel. One example would be 'Icon For Hire's lead singer which also has a youtube channel called 'the REL show'. — Tim Couwelier, Dec 05 '17 at 13:08
N-T-T is not a "dictionary approved" pronunciation of "entity". — ZX9, Dec 05 '17 at 19:44
Just realised because ‘The Last Jedi’ just released here - OB1KNOB (you need to stretch your mind a bit). Also I added this here because of the ’1’. — Napoleon of Puzzling, Dec 19 '17 at 13:07

score 35 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 03 '17 at 16:36

35

Two five-letter ones:

Obediency and expediency (OBDNC, XPDNC)

and three 4s:

excellency, arcadian, anemone (XLNC, RKDN, NMNE)

In general, these are called "grammagrams". There are several lists available online, including this one and this questionable one.

answered Dec 03 '17 at 16:36

Deusovi

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The second site wouldn't happen to be your site, would it? :P – Quintec Dec 03 '17 at 17:55
I dont know Deusovi about the list. Enemy for example. Isnt it pronounced N-E-Mee? Not N-EM-E? Like Expediency : Isn't that pronounced X-P-D-Yun-C? Instead of XPDNC? There is a Y sound somewhere? – DrD Dec 03 '17 at 20:37
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@DEEM Multiple syllables run together in English speech. Whether it's /ɛn ɛm i/ or /ɛn ɛ mi/, the pronunciation is the same. As for the latter, Wiktionary gives no /y/ sound. – Deusovi Dec 03 '17 at 21:13
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The vowel sounds in anemone are different from the one in N, I'm not sure that fits. – ffao Dec 03 '17 at 22:05
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@DEEM That seems very based around accents. Enemy at least here is definitely can be pronounced N EM E. Same with XPDNC. – Rob Dec 04 '17 at 09:18
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anemone is not pronounced much like NMNE – jwg Dec 04 '17 at 10:34
Is 'obediency' actually a word? – jwg Dec 04 '17 at 10:36
I still have not seen my solution which I thought was very obvious. So I will wait till I accept your answer Deusovi – DrD Dec 04 '17 at 13:05
@jwg Then how is it pronounced? – GrumpyCrouton Dec 04 '17 at 14:08
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@GrumpyCrouton It is conventionally uh-nem-uh-nee not in-em-in-ee (NMNE). – ZX9 Dec 04 '17 at 21:28
Wikipedia agrees with @ZX9. The rest you mention are very good, but that first list is quite questionable as well. (E.g., "empty" is not pronounced as "em-pee-tee"; it's pronounced as "emp-tee".) – jpmc26 Dec 04 '17 at 23:19
@jpmc26 - "empty" is pronounced as "MT": the p is often left out. And because of the blending together of syllables, the only difference is that two vowel sounds are replaced with schwas (a less significant difference than the example OP gave). – Deusovi Dec 04 '17 at 23:46
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@Deusovi Yes, if you fail to enunciate, you can make more words fit into this pattern. However, I've never heard of any kind of wide recognition of a silent p in empty being the normal pronunciation. – jpmc26 Dec 05 '17 at 00:42

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 03 '17 at 15:03

12

This probably works:

Excellency

...pronounced as

X-L-N-C.

answered Dec 03 '17 at 15:03

Ankoganit

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Isn't it X-E-L-"e"N-C – prog_SAHIL Dec 03 '17 at 15:07
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@prog_SAHIL X-L-N-C ~ eks-el-en-si~ excellency sounds close enough to me. I don't see where you're getting the extra 'e's from. – Ankoganit Dec 03 '17 at 15:09
Dont think it is pronounced X El En C. El is pronounced more like ul I think – DrD Dec 03 '17 at 15:16
18

How you pronounce it largely depends where you are from. Personally, I think X L N C is valid. – micsthepick Dec 03 '17 at 16:05

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 04 '17 at 14:03

3

Does this qualify?

cupidity

Letters :

QPDT (Although the word does not contain Q)

answered Dec 04 '17 at 14:03

rvd

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Not sure I'd count it, since I pronounce the second and third syllables "pih-dih", not "pee-dee" – Adam V Dec 04 '17 at 21:19

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 03 '17 at 14:40

1

One 4-letter one might be

apiary

which I think sounds sufficiently like

A-P-R-E

though I don't find it 100% convincing because

the R sound isn't really quite right (it's more "er" where we need "ar").

answered Dec 03 '17 at 14:40

Gareth McCaughan

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Gareth . Close but...... – DrD Dec 03 '17 at 15:17
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The question seeks "a word that when pronounced, sounds exactly like pronouncing (some of) its own letters" (emphasis added). The last of your four letters doesn't fit this criterion. – David Dec 03 '17 at 23:39
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That condition was edited into the question after I wrote this answer. – Gareth McCaughan Dec 04 '17 at 00:01

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 03 '17 at 17:23

1

Perhaps

ACIDITY

fits the bill. It can be represented as

A-C-D-T

answered Dec 03 '17 at 17:23

Mea Culpa Nay

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I pronounce that AH-SI-DI not ACD – Beastly Gerbil Dec 03 '17 at 17:30
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I tend to pronounce it UH-sih-dih- which is similar to Merriam-Webster's ə-ˈsi-də-. I didn't know realize there was such variation in how this is said. – ZX9 Dec 04 '17 at 01:48
i don't really know the exact pronunciation of this one, but i find this very good ;) – Neil Dec 04 '17 at 15:57

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 04 '17 at 12:40

1

I’m not sure if this strictly counts as a word, but there’s a poem with it and it comes many times in Wodehouse.

Excelsior!

Which can be pronounced (probably) as

X-L-C-R

answered Dec 04 '17 at 12:40

Napoleon of Puzzling

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"R" has an "ar" pronounciation to me, not "or". – Adam V Dec 04 '17 at 21:20
First thing I thought of. There was a game called XLCR back in the day. Unlike this link google just found, the copy I had included some blurb about an "Excelsior Yu". http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1816 – Steve Sep 08 '20 at 13:24

Lawrence · Answer 7 · 2017-12-05T06:37:43.197

1

Would you accept as a 6-letter word an extension of your 4-letter one?

Anti-obesity - as in anti-obesity medication.

Letters:

NTOBCT

edited Dec 05 '17 at 06:37

answered Dec 05 '17 at 00:59

Lawrence

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ZX9 · Answer 8 · 2017-12-04T04:24:29.830

0

Here's a decent "4-letter" word:

Beauteous (B-U-T-S)

which can become a "6-letter" word:

Beauteousness (B-U-T-S-N-S)

EDIT: Any reason for the downvote? Both words are on Merriam-Webster and match the pronunciation of the letters as long as you say it a little quickly.

edited Dec 04 '17 at 04:24

answered Dec 04 '17 at 01:24

ZX9

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ISTM that pronouncing the last syllable of the second word as two letters (and hence, two syllables) is not justifiable, and especially not if you’re saying it quickly. Pronouncing “ous” as S is also a stretch. – Peregrine Rook Dec 04 '17 at 06:59
@PeregrineRock For me, it sounds right when running the syllables together, but I can see it does not exactly match the dictionary pronunciation. – ZX9 Dec 04 '17 at 13:22
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"beauteous" is pronounced BYOO-tee-uss, not bee-yoo-tee-ess. – David Richerby Dec 04 '17 at 14:21
Bee-yoo becomes BYOO when said together. I admit that the "ess" sound should be "us". There may also be some freedom here with regards to dialect. I still think this example is worthwhile as I believe it fits the OP's requirements more closely than some other examples. – ZX9 Dec 04 '17 at 15:35
The OP's example of entity as NTT shows there is some flexibility in pronunciation (in-tih-tee vs in-tee-tee). – ZX9 Dec 04 '17 at 15:48

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:22

0

Chris Cole's "Taxonomy of Wordplay" lists

elementarily (LMNTRLE)

and

eosinophilous (ESNFLS)

as being the longest, but I find these to be unsatisfying.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:22

Community

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answered Dec 05 '17 at 03:09

noneuclideanisms

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score -1 · Answer 10 · edited Dec 05 '17 at 15:56

-1

I got this one from school when I was a kid:

XLR8 -> Accelerate

edited Dec 05 '17 at 15:56

D. Mellow

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answered Dec 05 '17 at 14:19

stu

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8 is not a letter of the alphabet. – Herb Dec 05 '17 at 15:10

A word pronounced like letters

10 Answers10