Silent English alphabet

A silent English alphabet is an alphabetic list of English words containing silent letters from A to Z. As the English language has many words with silent letters, it is possible to create numerous variations on this alphabet with the help of loan words and names from other languages. It is also sometimes referred to as a silent letter alphabet.
One possible origin for this alphabet goes back to a 1969 meeting of the Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, when discussion arose as to how the association's acronym, TESOL, should be pronounced. The association subsequently adopted the following tongue-in-cheek pronunciation guide, composed entirely of words with silent letters: T as in castle, E as in give, S as in island, O as in people, and L as in calm. The American linguist John Higgins subsequently spent some time constructing a complete such alphabet. By 1983, his alphabet lacked only words for the letters J, M, Q, V and X.
Because some words have two versions of the given letter, one pronounced and one silent, in every case the silent letter is indicated in boldface type.
List of English words with silent letters
A: aesthetic, bread
B: , debt, plumber
C: indictment, muscle, science, cnidarian
D: , handkerchief, Wednesday
E: give, like, name (the 'e' here is also known as the 'magic e')
F:
G: gnat, gnaw, , , high, phlegm, sign, though
H: daughter, echo, heir, honest, hour, orchid
I: friend, business
J: marijuana,
K: knee, knife, knight, knot, know
L: calf, could, talk, yolk
M:
N: autumn, column, damn, hymn, solemn
O: colonel, leopard, people
P: corps, coup, pneumonia, psalm, psyche, receipt
Q: (Scottish name),
R: , sarsaparilla (GA)
S: aisle, bourgeois, debris, island, isle
T: ballet, castle, rapport, listen
U: colleague, guard, guess, tongue
V: (Scottish town),
W: answer, , sword, two, wrist, wrong
X: , faux,
Y: (Scottish island), , gray
Z: chez, , rendezvous

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu