# Words ending in "-gry" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 17, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056 "2002-04-17T02:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hyjyljyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/1 "2002-04-17T02:10:37Z")
At [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_251.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_251.html) we find a mildly amusing but utterly unnecessary wild goose chase about the non-riddle “Besides angry and hungry, what is another English word ending in -gry?” I would like to clear up this time-wasting bit of nonsense once and for all, as I have done elsewhere on the Internet in an ongoing attempt to lay it to rest permanently. It is imperative to note that the question is necessarily asked ORALLY, not in written form. This is because it is a pun, a cruel trick question, and it is most definitely NOT asking about arcane words like gry, puggry, aggry–or any other words ending in -gry, for that matter. Here goes the real question, first heard on radio over a quarter of a century ago: “Besides angry and hungry, what is another English word ending in **G or Y**?” Get it? The “G or Y” is spoken aloud to _SOUND LIKE_ “-gry”, and hence the well-meaning listener (or question-answering columnist) is sent off on a pathetic search for words no one ever heard of. The clever answers about “the third word” being “word” or some such contrivance are equally irrelevant, as the answer can vary as the miscreant quesioner varies the form of the question. The obvious truth is that literally thousands of words end in G or Y. “Irritating idiocy” are two that come to mind. There. Now you never need be pestered by this foolishness again. Yer pal Hyjyljyj ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/2 "2002-04-17T02:30:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Yer pal It’s you, isn’t it? ::waves:: ---
**Author:** ![elfin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/258eb7/32.png) [@elfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/3 "2002-04-17T13:00:57Z")
Here’s another answer to the question: [http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/faq/g/gry.html](http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/faq/g/gry.html) Perhaps there are others (depending on how the question is asked)… ---
**Author:** ![elfin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/258eb7/32.png) [@elfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/4 "2002-04-17T13:09:15Z")
Some more possible answers offered: [http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/article008.html](http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/article008.html) (This is an annoying riddle, isn’t it?.) ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/5 "2002-04-17T18:31:59Z")
I’m _so_ glad the OP rode in on his white horse and cleared that up for us proles. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/6 "2002-04-17T18:39:41Z")
In my experience, the usual phrasing of the riddle is the one mentioned at elfin’s first link: > [@](#): > > One version of the riddle goes, “Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.” > > The answer is “language,” because “language” is the third word in the phrase “the English language.” This is the first time I’ve heard the “g or y” version. ---
**Author:** ![hyjyljyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/7 "2002-04-18T00:52:10Z")
Thanks elfin for the substantiation. From your second link to [yourdictionary.com](http://yourdictionary.com) (one of my favorite word sites): "There at least three words in that end in ‘g’ or ‘y’. One of them is ‘hungry,’ and another one is ‘angry.’ There is a third word, a short one, which you probably say every day. If you are listening carefully to everything I say, you just heard me say it three times. What is it? The answer here is, of course, ‘say’. " QED ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/8 "2002-04-22T07:22:59Z")
Michael Quinion has one of the [best write-ups](http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/gry.htm) about this stupid question I’ve seen. And note that he doesn’t support any specific version, saying that it’s been lost. Until someone comes up with an old puzzle book with some form in it, we’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/9 "2002-04-22T21:43:59Z")
So, \*\* hyjyljyj [/quote] . . . what’s the origin of the expression “the whole nine yards?” can God make a boulder so big He can’t move it? why do we drive on the parkway and park on the driveway? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/10 "2002-04-22T21:46:36Z")
why can’t andros ever learn to preview? ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/11 "2002-04-29T13:01:55Z")
Didn’t someone in another thread here (from the purge era) suggest “augry”? Is that a word? ---
**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 29, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/12 "2002-04-29T19:52:47Z")
There are a number of _un_common words ending in “gry”, including aggry, puggry, and gry. The “riddle”, though, is usually asking specifically for a _common_ word, and there are only two words ending in “gry” which can reasonably be described as common. ---
**Author:** ![hyjyljyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@hyjyljyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyjyljyj)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-ending-in-gry/104056/13 "2002-04-29T21:32:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by istara \* > \*\*Didn’t someone in another thread here (from the purge era) suggest “augry”? Is that a word? \*\* There is a word AUGURY (divination from omens).