Joe Ganley: Text messaging trivia

The other day my daughter was watching me send a text message, and how when two successive letters are on the same key I had to pause a moment until it timed out, and she wondered aloud what was the longest word that did not have two successive letters on the same key. Searching the web, I was surprised not to be able to find an answer, so I fed the 480K-word dictionary on my Linux box through a few tr and grep commands and a little Python code to find the answer, plus a number of other special words.

The longest word that is texted with no repeated keys is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (that's the full name of DDT).
The longest word that is texted with no repeated keystrokes (i.e. not only no repeated keys, but each letter is the first choice on its key) is pagatpat (a variety of mangrove tree).
There is a word that repeats no keys (even non-consecutively): idolatry.
The longest words that are texted with only a single key are bacaba (a variety of palm tree) and deeded (the dictionary also contains deedeed, but I can't find a definition and believe that might be a typo of deeded).
Several words contain a sequence of seven of the same key, including: fiddledeedee, homonomous, mononomial, and nonmonogamous.

Labels: trivia

Joe Ganley	I make software and sometimes other things.

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Text messaging trivia
The other day my daughter was watching me send a text message, and how when two successive letters are on the same key I had to pause a moment until it timed out, and she wondered aloud what was the longest word that did not have two successive letters on the same key. Searching the web, I was surprised not to be able to find an answer, so I fed the 480K-word dictionary on my Linux box through a few `tr` and `grep` commands and a little Python code to find the answer, plus a number of other special words. The longest word that is texted with no repeated keys is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (that's the full name of DDT). The longest word that is texted with no repeated keystrokes (i.e. not only no repeated keys, but each letter is the first choice on its key) is pagatpat (a variety of mangrove tree). There is a word that repeats no keys (even non-consecutively): idolatry. The longest words that are texted with only a single key are bacaba (a variety of palm tree) and deeded (the dictionary also contains deedeed, but I can't find a definition and believe that might be a typo of deeded). Several words contain a sequence of seven of the same key, including: fiddledeedee, homonomous, mononomial, and nonmonogamous. Labels: trivia 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home