# Pangrams, but not sentence pangrams. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 1, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657 "2010-04-01T22:24:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/1 "2010-04-01T22:24:09Z")
A pangram, for those who don’t know, is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet once. Probably, the most famous pangram is “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” although my favorite is “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.” Anyway, a perfect pangram uses every letter exactly once, but these sentences usually aren’t very good. Some examples from [http://www.joe-ks.com/pangrams.htm](http://www.joe-ks.com/pangrams.htm) : Fly, vex whiz: jam struck bong PDQ. Bronx TV JFK quiz aged cwm sylph. TV quiz J.K. McGaw fed Bronx sylph. B, C, F, G, H, I, J, K, M, O, P, Q, S, T, V, W, X, Y, and Z rule! Jew Zack Fox bumps DQ RV nightly. My challenge to you is to think of lists of words that use each letter of the alphabet exactly once (or at least with very few repeats), omitting the criterion that they form a grammatical sentence. I would prefer no acronyms that aren’t pronounced as words (so, technically, no initialisms), so NATO is fine, but ATM isn’t and no initials to names and whatnot. Also, I would like the words to be used to be words that can be used in a variety of contexts (in other words, “common words,” not like cwm and sylph). Using fewer words is better than using more words, all else being equal. A first attempt for me: \*\*quiz, sphinx, jowls, stem, frog, back, avidly \*\* It’s not that good: 33 letters, of which 2 A’s, 3 I’s, 2 L’s, 2 O’s, and 3 S’s. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/2 "2010-04-01T22:29:45Z")
I think that this would go better in “More Pointless than MPSIMS,” or rather, the “Game Room.” Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/3 "2010-04-01T23:03:46Z")
The best perfect pangram I’ve seen is “Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx”. “TV” and “PhD” don’t meet your criterion against initialisms, but all of the words are familiar, and the sentence is grammatical and makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/4 "2010-04-02T00:28:32Z")
The best perfect (again allowing initialisms) pangram that I have seen is “my kind zap FOX-TV, squelch GWB Jr”, which was posted on alt.anagrams a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/5 "2010-04-02T01:01:15Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > A first attempt for me: > > \*\*quiz, sphinx, jowls, stem, frog, back, avidly \*\* > > It’s not that good: 33 letters, of which 2 A’s, 3 I’s, 2 L’s, 2 O’s, and 3 S’s. I was struck by the fact that it _does_ form a grammatical sentence (commas aside). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/6 "2010-04-02T01:18:14Z")
Wordplay stuff goes in the Game Room, so I’ll move this thither. **twickster,** Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/7 "2010-04-04T11:53:08Z")
The best perfect pangram I have seen was created by wordsmith Peter Newby, which is: “Qwyk bitch vox jumps glaz’d fern.” But that is not what the OP is asking for as it does make sense, and contains archaic spellings. How about “waltz, nymph, vex, quick, fords, beg”, which is obviously based on the well-known pangram “Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex”, and only has one extra letter “e”. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/8 "2010-04-04T18:44:11Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > a perfect pangram uses every letter exactly once, but these sentences usually aren’t very good. Dwarf mobs quiz lynx.jpq, kvetch! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/9 "2010-04-07T15:27:23Z")
Just adapting one of the perfect pangrams in the OP, you can get down to 28 letters, with A used three times: Fly, vex whiz: ruck jams Qat pad bong Qat is a plant used as a narcotic particulary in the Arab world, as any crossword fan knows. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/10 "2010-04-07T15:35:59Z")
Or, to better meet the No Obscure Words criterion: Fly, vex whiz: rack jams quad bong tap 29 letters, A used four times. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/11 "2010-04-07T17:47:55Z")
I still like mine: Dwarf mobs quiz lynx.jpg, kvetch! _No_ rare words whatsoever (since “.jpg” is so common nowadays), and a perfect 26 letters. (Oops, I see that earlier I typo’ed a “q” for the “g” in jpg.) ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/12 "2010-04-08T06:59:16Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > I was struck by the fact that it _does_ form a grammatical sentence (commas aside). It does? I still don’t see it, but if it’s there, I officially declare myself smarter than I think I am. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/13 "2010-04-08T07:02:36Z")
I’ve been trying at home to come up with some better things, but it appears that there are not enough vowels in the alphabet to make these sorts of pangrams easily. Goes a long way toward explaining why _lynx_ is so common. It has an x and no “real” vowel. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/14 "2010-04-08T12:54:39Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > "waltz, nymph, vex, quick, fords, beg I was wondering why everyone seemed to be ignoring this one, when I noticed I had left out “j”. So I’ll have to go with: “waltz, nymph, vex, quick, jogs, barfed”, which has 28 letters (additional “a” and “e”). > [@septimus](#): > > I still like mine: > > Dwarf mobs quiz lynx.jpg, kvetch! > > _No_ rare words whatsoever (since “.jpg” is so > common nowadays), and a perfect 26 letters. > > (Oops, I see that earlier I typo’ed a “q” for the “g” in jpg.) The OP specified no abbreviations. I think given the constraints in the OP, less than 28 letters is going to be very difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/15 "2010-04-08T17:42:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve been trying at home to come up with some better things, but it appears that there are not enough vowels in the alphabet to make these sorts of pangrams easily. A problem that’s only made worse by the need to waste the U on the Q, while still needing some other vowel in that word. Are proper nouns OK? The only common word I can think of with a Q but no U is “Iraq”. But even then, I suppose, you’re still using two vowels to get only two consonants. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/16 "2010-04-08T19:13:16Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > I was wondering why everyone seemed to be ignoring this one, when I noticed I had left out “j”. Fjords? From the novel _Ella Minnow Pea_: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.” 32 letters, but a plausible sentence. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangrams-but-not-sentence-pangrams/534657/17 "2010-04-08T20:44:43Z")
Here’s a perfect 26: qth frowzy bucks geld jinx vamp One can make a perfect sentence (sort of) if a profane word is allowed: Qth jinx: blowzy vamp fucks dreg! (I’m sure no one will object to qth. 🆒 “nth degree” is well-known but mathematicians may need a little more than this, for example to take the qth derivative of the pth root of an nth degree polynomial.) I worked on a similar puzzle once upon a time: Find five 5-letter words that use 25 different letters. The only known solution is: fjord gucks nymph vibex waltz (Vibex is missing from many dictionaries.)