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What is special about the word uncopyrightable?

Question #104992. Asked by j-zilch.

gonnzo
Answer has 4 votes
Currently Best Answer
gonnzo
17 year member
766 replies

Answer has 4 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
It is tied with "dermatoglyphics" as the longest word spelled without repeating a letter.

link http://www.englishforums.com/English/LongestWordWithoutRepeatingLetter/bbjx/post.htm

Apr 23 2009, 3:54 PM
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Humanist star
Answer has 3 votes
Humanist star
22 year member
106 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
An isogram (also known as a "nonpattern word") is a logological term for a word or phrase without a repeating letter.

In the book "Making the Alphabet Dance", Ross Eckler reports the word "subdermatoglyphic" (17 letters) can be found in Lowell Goldmith's article Chaos: To See a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower.

The longest German isogram is "Heizölrückstoßabdämpfung" (heating oil recoil dampening) with 24 letters.

As Homer Simpson said: "Boy, those Germans have a word for everything!"

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isogram

Apr 23 2009, 8:58 PM
Gnarzikans
Answer has 2 votes
Gnarzikans
16 year member
18 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
In addition to being an isogram, the word "uncopyrighable" is lexically ambiguous. That is to say, it could mean "able of being uncopyrighted," or the very different, "unable of being copyrighted."

Apr 23 2009, 9:53 PM
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