Everyone knows that the letter "E" can be "silent". That is, instead of playing its usual role of indicating directly a vowel sound, it is used instead to indicate a modification of another vowel sound, or is just hanging around doing nothing.
But English has many pockets of illogical disorganization, and many other letters can be silent. Can you think of words that illustrates the silence of the other letters of the alphabet?
| A | algae |
| B | lamb |
| C | indict |
| D | edge |
| E | height |
| F | halfpenny |
| G | sign |
| H | herb |
| I | business |
| J | rijsttafel |
| K | knot |
| L | should |
| M | mnemonic |
| N | damn |
| O | country |
| P | psychic |
| Q | ? |
| R | forecastle |
| S | island |
| T | whistle |
| U | built |
| V | ? |
| W | who |
| X | Sioux |
| Y | ? |
| Z | rendezvous |
(This puzzle was posed in an issue of Civilization magazine, with answers given in the April/May 2000 issue. I only looked at their answers after I gave up.)