# The third "-gry" word, revisited **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 16, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455 "2025-05-16T19:01:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/1 "2025-05-16T19:01:19Z")
[Column](https://www.straightdope.com/21341917/what-are-the-three-english-words-ending-in-gry) on the odd case that there’s someone not familiar with it. And, no, there’s still no common “third word.” Anyway. . . some stuff I found in 1970s newspaper archives, still with no published reference predating 1975. Frome one newspaper, the question was supposedly asked. . . and answered. . . on a recent Mike Douglas Show: _A phone call to Douglas production headquarters in Philadelphia and one to their latest production site in norther California only resulted in driving the show’s producer up the wall since no on on the staff can remember the answer. If there is one, it’s an obscure one, either archaic or polysyllabic, or one big fat pun."_ --Buffalo Evening News, Oct. 30, 1975 (Maybe the tapes had been taped over by that time, so they couldn’t replay. They did stuff like that back in the day.) Then, just a few days later two people answered the riddle, such as it was. One was [Norm Holland of State University of Buffalo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_N._Holland) and 12-year-old Nadine Dulkiewicz of East Seneca High School, Buffalo NY, who both offered “aggry.” Maybe they had seen the Mike Douglas show, since they both gave the same answer? This was only about six months when the riddle first started appearing. --Buffalo Evening News, Nov. 4, 1975. And, FWIW, the writer’s last option for the answer “one big fat pun” is the version accepted in the SD column, which Cecil answers as “three.” Marilyn vos Savant accepted the pun version, too, although the reader who sent it in said that the correct phrasing was “‘g’ or ‘y’,” and in the verbiage of the riddle, the only other word that ended in ‘g’ or ‘y’ was “say.” --Parade Magazine, March 9, 1997. Both of these pun versions seem a little far fetched, JMO. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/2 "2025-05-16T19:17:02Z")
From 2018 > **[Hangry is officially a word in the Oxford English Dictionary](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/hangry-officially-word-oxford-english-dictionary/story?id=52869807)** > > Hangry: bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger, has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/3 "2025-05-17T15:23:50Z")
If you are speaking the question, the third word can be “pedigree,” unless you specify how the word must be spelled. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/4 "2025-05-17T17:33:41Z")
You don’t even need to fish that deep: agree is the obvious one; then disagree. Then degree. If we’re trawling deeper waters, filigree. I believe the question is always spoken as “ending in G-R-Y.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/5 "2025-05-19T21:24:39Z")
For a word that both begins **and** ends in “gry” (phonetically) there’s “gris-gris”. > **[Gris-gris (talisman)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gris-gris_(talisman))** > > Gris-gris (/ˈɡriːˌɡriː/, also spelled grigri, and sometimes also "gregory" or "gerregery") is a Voodoo amulet originating in West Africa which is believed to protect the wearer from evil or bring luck, and in some West African countries is used as a purported method of birth control. It consists of a small cloth bag, usually inscribed with verses from an ancestor and a ritual number of small objects, worn on the person. Although the exact origins of the word are unknown, some historians trace t... ---
**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:** [May 19, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/6 "2025-05-19T21:34:10Z")
I thought the canonical answer was to slice off the hand of the person asking the “riddle”. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/7 "2025-06-03T12:43:20Z")
Last comment on this, although it could be inferred in the OP. I just didn’t spell it out. I suspect that the answer offered on “Mike Douglas” was “aggry” for the reasons given in the OP since just a few days after the original article, two people came up with it, and since it was a pretty obscure word, that’s why none of the production staff could remember it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/8 "2025-06-06T05:20:20Z")
I thought you were talking about the belay device in climbing! But apparently that’s spelled grigri. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/9 "2025-06-06T13:44:35Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Both of these pun versions seem a little far fetched, JMO. [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/words_that_end_in_gry.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/words_that_end_in_gry.png) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/10 "2025-06-06T19:29:53Z")
I think it was a stupid trick question in the spirit of the stupid trick questions you get on Facebook Reels and the such. Follows the same sort of formula. What’s the first word in the dictionary? The. (“The dictionary.”) What has four letters, sometimes has nine letters, and never has fine. (Not a riddle, just a statement of fact. Read as :“Four,” “sometimes,” “never.” What word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary? Incorrectly. What word is always pronounced wrong? Wrong. There was another one I literally came across today that had the same type of answer that I’ve forgotten. It’s practically its own subgenre of gotcha question, so I don’t think it’s far-fetched to assume it was a pun. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/11 "2025-06-06T19:38:25Z")
The fifth panel also applies to many “math puzzles” you find online. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/12 "2025-06-06T19:58:42Z")
What’s the only word that’s an anagram of itself? Stifle. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/13 "2025-06-07T02:59:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > What has four letters, sometimes has nine letters, and never has fine. You mean “five”? Otherwise that’s an **extremely** confusing riddle. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/14 "2025-06-07T03:06:00Z")
Fat fingers + phone + autocorrect = “fine,” apparently. Yes, “five.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/15 "2025-06-07T03:52:45Z")
FWIW, I stumped my wife with your example. (She was unamused.) ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/16 "2025-06-07T19:54:53Z")
Small advance, but (FWIW) this “puzzle” was known in Atlanta by September, 1974, so we’ve got a pre-1975 sighting. > THIRD ‘GRY’? The city desk gets many calls for information please. Night city editor Jim Bentley relayed this one. > > Someone on the phone wanted to know if the city side could name the third word in the English language that ends in “gry.” He cited “hungry” and “angry” as the other two. > > The night city desk did not have the answer. Nor do I, not yet. Do you? The phone is 428-5150. > > [In Leo Aikman’s “He Now Faces the Music,” The Atlanta Constitution, 4 September 1974, p. 5-A.] > GETTING ANGRY: If that fellow who called night city editor Jim Bentley asking the third word in the language ending “gry” was pulling our leg, if there is no such word, some of us are going to join the “12 angry men.” We are hungry for the answer. A few have called saying the challenge has them “climbing the wall.” > > [In Leo Aikman’s “No Longer Even a Smile,” The Atlanta Constitution, 11 September 1974, p. 5-A. Aikman referred to the puzzle again in his 20 September column and reported on a reader’s suggestion of another “gry” word.] ---
**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/17 "2025-06-07T20:47:27Z")
Sorry, here’s the “answer” given in that 20 September 1974 column. > “GRY” AGAIN: Speaking of hungry, Mildred James, of Marietta, called to say of words ending in “gry” there is a three-letter word “gry” in the language, in Walker’s Rhyming Dictionary and Webster’s Unabridged. She said it means a unit indicating something small, as a tenth of a line. > > I looked in the Unabridged and you something, she’s right. > > [In Leo Aikman’s, “Scrooge Won’t Like This,” The Atlanta Constitution, 20 September 1974, p. 5-A.] ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/18 "2025-06-07T21:23:56Z")
Well, cool, a slightly earlier sighting. I think Paul Dickson in his 1983 book “Words” mentions the -gry riddle, that the editors at Merriam-Webster were puzzled by the repeated requests for the third word. And in a strange coincidence, in that same book, the three-letter word ‘gry’ appears in one of his word lists, unrelated to the riddle. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/19 "2025-06-08T21:51:12Z")
I should have some filets for dinner. If doing so won’t cause too many flites. ---
**Author:** ![quintinmorrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/919ad9/32.png) [@quintinmorrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quintinmorrow)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455/20 "2026-04-02T17:03:19Z")
Always found this whole “-gry” thing funny because it’s less about vocabulary and more about how the riddle is phrased to trick you. People keep digging for some obscure word like “aggry,” but it really feels like one of those logic traps rather than a real language question. That’s why I lean toward explanations like word puzzle tricks explained over trying to find a definitive third word. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-gry-word-revisited/1018455.md?page=2)