PANVOWELS
Words Using Every Vowel Once


A panvowel might be a word that uses every vowel at least once, such as enunciation, - but let's be stricter, and require that a panvowel use each vowel exactly once. There are lots of these:

        ambidextrous
        cauliflower
        enunciator
        exhaustion
        mustachioed
        omnisexual
        postneuralgic
        sulphogermanic
        tambourine
        troublemaking
        ulceration
        unisolated
        undisprovable
        unproblematic
      

The shortest (though obscure) such word is apparently eunoia, which comes scarcely altered from the Greek, and means "beautiful thinking" or "well mind" (perhaps). Christian Bok wrote a book with this title, containing 5 chapters, each of which used words containing only one of the five vowels. This is harder than a lipogram, a text which omits one letter (not necessarily a vowel).

A panvowely is a word that uses every vowel just once, including the ambiguous Y (but don't get me started about W!):

        ambidextrously
        dermatoglyphics
        hydropneumatic
        omnisexually
        pseudomythical
        semivoluntary
        undiscoverably
      

A regular panvowel is a word that uses every vowel just once and in order:

        abstemious
        facetious
      

A regular panvowely is a panvowel that uses every vowel and Y just once and in order:

        abstemiously
        facetiously
      


Last modified on 04 May 2006.