A VERY ALNSUUU DICTIONARY

Martin Gardner

Colossal Book of Word Play

 

"In my Scientific American coumn of November 1965, I printed Nicholas Temperley's suggestion for an unusual dictionary: one that would list each word with its letters in alphabetical order. Who would consult such a dictionary? Anagram seekers, of course! The enry for AEGINLRT, to take one example, would be followed by integral, relating, and triangle. In the decades since my column first appeared, several publishers, including Follett and Longman, have actually produced complete anagram dictionaries following this principle. 

In a dicionary of this kind the first enrty would by A, for a, followed by AA, aa, a type of lava. Assuming the dictionary only contains common English words, you might be surprised to find that the third word in the dictionary has eleven letters! What is it?"

Answer:

 

"The third entry is AAAAABBCDRR, for ABRACADABRA."

"Temperley estimated that the A section of his dictionary, unlike that of a conventional one, would make up half of the volume. The sections for B, C, and so on would be progressively shorter, and the lengths drop off precipitously after I. What two articles of clothing are most likely the last two words in this dictionary?"

Answer:

"The last two entries are quite probably TTUU and TUX for tutu and tux."