# It's time for another round of....SOLVE THAT RIDDLE!!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 16, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613 "2001-10-16T00:48:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![moe.ron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@moe.ron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moe.ron)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613/1 "2001-10-16T00:48:27Z")

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OK, I searched the archives for this and could honestly not find the answer, so here goes:

What is the only word in the english language whose pronounciation is clear when the letters are in lower case, but ambiguous when in capital letters?

The first thing I thought of was ‘Ally’, as in the proper name and a group of persons, countries, etc. united for a common purpose. I was told this was wrong though, the word is not a proper name. By this logic, US is wrong as well

Then I thought of ‘A’, as in the different sounds it makes. But one of the pronounciations isn’t a word, nor are there more than one letter. Scratch that.

Someone riddled this to me last wednesday, and I still haven’t come up with the answer, though I’ve really not given it that much thought. Anyone else wanna give it a go?

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**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613/2 "2001-10-16T01:31:59Z")

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Sounds like any acronym that is also an english word.

so or  
SO which could be pronounced so, ess o, or significant other.

If this isn’t the case, then why is the second version capitalized or all caps? AFAIK, only proper nouns are capitalized, and only acronyms are all upper case.

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**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613/3 "2001-10-16T01:49:39Z")

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Polish, polish, POLISH.

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613/4 "2001-10-16T02:06:54Z")

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Yeah, but what is the third word that ends in “gry”? Kidding!!!

Kidding!!!

Calm down.

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**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-time-for-another-round-of-solve-that-riddle/87613/5 "2001-10-16T03:11:00Z")

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Not to mention all the words you absolutely cannot be sure of pronouncing correctly unless you have a contextual clue – examples include read, lead and wind. There’s lots more, but I can’t think of any right now.