SOME COMMON MISSPELLINGS

The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct spellings) according to a study of Usenet traffic several years ago were DUMBBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI, PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and PRONUNCIATION.

The same study showed these words most frequently misspelled (by gross count): RECEIVE, A LOT, AMATEUR, SEPARATE, REALIZE, THEIR, DEFINITE, INDEPENDENT, WEIRD, EMBARRASS, ARGUMENT, NO ONE, ACQUIRE, ACCIDENTALLY, OCCURRENCE, COLLECTIBLE, RIDICULOUS, MANEUVER, LIAISON, GAUGE, ATHEIST, GRAMMAR, SUPERSEDE, KERNEL, and CONSENSUS.

The study does not reveal common errors such as IT’S/ITS and YOUR/YOU’RE.

Another study of misspelled words at http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/error.html shows the following words (or forms of these words) as the most frequently misspelled: MINUSCULE, MILLENNIUM, EMBARRASSMENT, OCCURRENCE, ACCOMMODATE, PERSEVERANCE, SUPERSEDE, NOTICEABLE, HARASS, INOCULATE, OCCURRED, SEPARATE, EMBARRASS, PRECEDING, INDISPENSABLE, DEFINITELY, PRIVILEGE, GAUGE, QUESTIONNAIRE, EXISTENCE, MINIATURE, PRECEDE, WEIRD, RHYTHM, SEPARATELY, CONSCIENTIOUS, MISSPELL, HIERARCHY, GRAMMAR, CALENDAR, and WITHHOLD. The author of the website also points out, “Anecdotal evidence and personal observation indicate that a few other cases where a “non-standard” spelling is frequently used on the Internet are alright for all right, alot for a lot, and it’s for the possessive its. However, search engines don’t look for extremely common words (asking one to search for posts with the word the would turn up just about every post ever made) and looking for two-word phrases (all right, a lot) is trickier than for a single word.”

Some of the words in the above paragraph have alternate spellings in some dictionaries (such as “miniscule” and “millenium”).

Some other commonly misspelled words are BARBECUE and UKULELE, although some dictionaries also give “ukelele” and Chambers has “barbeque.” MWCD11 now has bicep as an entry, dated 1939, although the preferred term BICEPS is dated 1634. In Samuel Johnson’s abridged 1843 Edition of his dictionary, FRUSTUM is misspelled as “frustrum.” CALENDAR is misspelled when used as the title of a chart in Noah Webster’s first dictionary, and spelled correctly elsewhere on the same page. (There is, however, an unrelated word “calender.”) Bob Doerschuk reports that even professional musicians misspell ACCORDION, ending it with -ian.

The Internet search engine Google revealed that in May 2001 its top five misspelled queries were amtrack, volkswagon, jenifer lopez, william sonoma, shakespear. In June 2001 its top five misspelled queries were ticket master, wimbeldon, morpheous, victoria secret, anna kornikova. In July 2001 its top five misspelled queries were audio galaxy, bigbrother, recipies, mcdonalds, bluebook. In August 2001 its top five misspelled queries were rotatorcuff, southpark, niagra falls, destinys child, sailormoon.

STEGOSAURUS is spelled Stegasaurus in a Doonesbury comic strip in 2004 [Charles Turner].

PANGRAMS

Pangrams are sentences containing all the letters of the alphabet. Pangram is in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., with the earliest citation from 1964, although the word pangrammatic goes back to 1933.

Here is a list of pangrams compiled from various sources. The number of letters used is shown for most of them. The shortest ones are obviously contrived and use obscure words only found in unabridged dictionaries. One even uses a Roman numeral. Stuart Kidd assisted with this compilation.

• “Quit beer,” vows dizzy, puking, Michael J. Fox (by Idris Mercer)
• A large fawn jumped quickly over white zinc boxes.
• A mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab to the jaw of his dizzy opponent.
• A popular belief is that fornication would be a quick fix for some overzealously judicious governments.
• A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint.
• A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• A quick movement of the enemy will jeopardize six gunboats.
• A very bad quack might jinx zippy fowls. 32
• About sixty codfish eggs will make a quarter pound of very fizzy jelly.
• Alfredo just must bring very exciting news to the plaza quickly.
• All questions asked by five watch experts amazed the judge.
• Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes (40)
• An inspired calligrapher can create pages of beauty using stick ink, quill, brush, pick-axe, buzz saw, or even strawberry jam.
• Anxious Paul waved back his pa from the zinc quarry just sighted.
• As we explored the gulf of Zanzibar, we quickly moved closer to the jutting rocks.
• Astronaut Quincy B. Zack defies gravity with six jet fuel pumps.
• Back in June we delivered oxygen equipment of the same size.
• Back in my quaint garden, jaunty zinnias vie with flaunting phlox.
• Ban foul, toxic smogs which quickly jeopardize lives.
• Barkeep! A flaming tequila swizzle and a vodka and Ajax, hold the cherry.
• Baroque? Hell, just mix a dozen wacky pi fonts & you’ve got it.
• Bawds jog, flick quartz, vex nymph. 27 (by Sir Jeremy Morse)
• Big July earthquakes confound zany experimental vow.
• Blowzy frights vex, and jump quick. (28)
• Blowzy night-frumps vex’d Jack Q. 26
• Blowzy red vixens fight for a quick jump.
• Boy, Max felt hazy during his quick weaving jumps!
• Boys of quartz duck phlegm, vow jinx. (29)
• Brawny gods just flocked up to quiz and vex him.
• Breezily jingling $3,416,857,209, wise advertiser ambles to the bank, his exchequer amplified.
• Brick quiz whangs jumpy veldt fox.
• By Jove, my quick study of lexicography won a prize.
• Campus TV quiz: just why is gold buried at Fort Knox? [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• Cozy lummox gives smart squid who asks for job pen. (41)
• Cozy sphinx waves quart jug of bad milk. (32)
• Crazy Fredericka bought many very exquisite opal jewels. 48
• Crux: Why joking TV blazes FM PDQ? (26) (by Toby Gottfried, 2005)
• Cwm kvutza qoph jynx fled brigs. (by Greg and Peter Maggs)
• Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz 26 (by Dmitri Borgmann)
• Dangerously frozen, he quickly judged his extremities to be waterproof.
• Doxy with charming buzz quaffs vodka julep.
• Dr. Jekyll vows to finish zapping quixotic bum (by Idris Mercer)
• Dub waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex. 28
• Dumpy kibitzer jingles as exchequer overflows.
• Ebenezer unexpectedly bagged two tranquil aardvarks with his jiffy vacuum cleaner.
• Emily Q. Jung-Schwartzkopf XV, B.D. (26)
• Exquisite farm wench gives body jolt to prize stinker.
• Exquisite wizard flock behaving jumpy (by Idris Mercer)
• Fabled reader with jaded, roving eye seized by quickened impulse to expand budget.
• Few quips galvanized the mock jury box. (32)
• Five big quacking zephyrs jolt my wax bed.
• Five jumbo oxen graze quietly with packs of dogs.
• Five or six big jet planes zoomed quickly by the tower.
• Five wine experts jokingly quizzed chablis sample.
• Fjord-buck zags whelm qvint pyx. (26) (by Dmitri Borgmann)
• For only $49, jolly housewives made “inexpensive” meals using quick-frozen vegetables.
• Forsaking monastic tradition, twelve jovial friars gave up their vocation for a questionable existence on the flying trapeze.
• Foxy Gen. Schwarzkopf jumbled Iraqi TV. 32 (by Daniel A. Martinez)
• Foxy nymphs grab quick-lived waltz. (29)
• Fred specialized in the job of making very quaint wax toys.
• Freight to me sixty dozen quart jars and twelve black pans
• Frowzy things plumb vex’d Jack Q. (26)
• Frozen buyer just quickly keyed shocking weaver’s $34,825,679 complexion.
• Frumpy veld wags quiz jack-in-the-box. 30 (by Idris Mercer)
• Glum Q. Schwarzkopf jinxed by TV. 26 (by Idris Mercer)
• Glum, wavyhaired excon bequeaths fake topaz jewel.
• Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil queen and jack.
• Guzzling of jaunty exile wrecks havoc at damp banquet.
• Gyps balk nth fjord cwm quiz, vex. (see note)
• G. W. Bush quickly fixed prize jam on TV. 30 (by Gordon Gerwig)
• Hark! Toxic jungle water vipers quietly drop on zebras for meals!
• Hick Jed wins quiz for extra blimp voyage.
• How jolly vexing a fumble to drop zucchini in the quicksand!
• How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. 30
• How razorback jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts. 49
• How razorback jumping frogs level six piqued gymnasts! 46
• How razorback-jumping frogs can level six piqued gymnasts!
• How vexing a fumble to drop a jolly zucchini in the quicksand. (50)
• I have quickly spotted the four women dozing in the jury box.
• I jump quickly, shaving two dozen fox bare. (34)
• I was temporarily forced to zig-zag and quiver furiously around big junky xylophones. (Chris, age 13)
• If Jack quiz bald nymphs grow vext. (28)
• In Boston: Jazzy (but malicious) squeak toy explodes, ending the lives of two children.
• J Q Schwartz flung D V Pike my box
• J. Q. Vandz struck my big fox whelp. (26) (by Mark Dunn, in his novel Ella Minnow Pea)
• J. Hoefler cabled: “puzzling over waxy kumquats.”
• Jack amazed a few girls by dropping the antique onyx vase!
• Jack believed we quiz sphinx from Egypt (by Idris Mercer)
• Jack Farmer realized that the big yellow quilts were expensive.
• Jack-in-the-box quiz fed grumpy wolves. 31 (by Idris Mercer)
• Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. 31 (by Marvin Moore)
• Jaded zombies acted quaintly but kept driving their oxen forward.
• Jail zesty vixen who grabbed pay from quack.
• Jay visited back home and gazed upon a brown fox and quail.
• Jeb quickly drove a few extra miles on the glazed pavement.
• Jelly-like above the high wire, six quaking pachyderms kept the climax of the extravaganza in a dazzling state of flux.
• Jim just quit and packed extra heavy bags for Liz Owen.
• Jimmy and Zack, the police explained, were last seen diving into a field of buttered quahogs.
• Jink cwm, zag veldt, fob qursh pyx. (by Stephen Wagner, Minneapolis, 1998)
• Jocks fix BMW, vend quartz glyph. (26) (Toby Gottfried, 2005)
• Jolly few pangrams vanquished by exotic kudzu.
• Jolly housewives made inexpensive meals using quick-frozen vegetables.
• Judge Powell quickly gave six embezzlers stiff sentences.
• Judges vomit; few quiz pharynx block. (31)
• Jumbling vext frowzy hacks PDQ. 26 (by Chris Cole)
• Jump by vow of quick, lazy strength in Oxford. 36
• Jumpy wizard quit having black foxes. 31 (by Idris Mercer)
• Jumpy zebra vows to quit thinking coldly of sex
• Junky qoph-flags vext crwd zimb. (26) (by Dmitri Borgmann)
• Just be very quick when fixing zip code mail. (by Ross Eckler)
• Just keep examining every low bid quoted for zinc etchings.
• Just work for improved basic techniques to maximize your typing skills.
• King Alexander was just partly overcome after quizzing Diogenes in his tub.
• Lazy jackal from raiding xebec prowls the quiet cove.
• Lazy movers quit hard packing of jewelry boxes.
• Many big jackdaws quickly zipped over the fox pen.
• Many-wived Jack laughs at probes of sex quiz.
• Martin J. Hixeypovzer quickly began his first word.
• May Jo equal the fine record by solving six puzzles a week?
• Meg Schwarzkopf quit Jynx Blvd. 26 (by Ted Clarke)
• Meghan deftly picks valuable jewels: onyx, quartz.
• Milk-vat fez bugs qoph-crwd jynx. (26) (by Dmitri Borgmann)
• Mix Zapf with Veljovic and get quirky beziers.
• Monique, the buxom coed, likes to fight for Pez with the junior varsity team.
• Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx. (by Clement Wood)
• Murky haze enveloped a city as jarring quakes broke forty-six windows.
• My grandfather picks up quartz and valuable onyx jewels.
• My help squeezed back in again after six and joined the weavers.
• My kind zap Fox TV, squelch GWB Jr.! (26) (by Meyran Kraus, 2005)
• Nancy Bizal exchanged vows with Robert J. Kumpf at Quincy Temple.
• NBC glad. Why? Fox TV jerks quiz PM. (26) (Scott Gardner, 2005)
• New job: fix Mr. Gluck’s hazy TV, PDQ!
• No kidding, Lorenzo called off his trip to visit Mexico City just because they told him the conquistadores were extinct.
• Now is the time for all quick brown dogs to jump over the lazy lynx.
• Nth balks gyp, vex cwm fjord quiz. (26)
• Nth black fjords vex Qum gyp wiz
• Nth quark biz gyps cwm fjeld vox. (26)
• Nth zigs block Qum dwarf jive pyx. (27)
• Oh, wet Alex, a jar, a fag! Up, disk, curve by! Man Oz, Iraq, Arizona, my Bev? Ruck’s id-pug, a far Ajax, elate? Who? [palindromic]
• On the boardwalk grave playful lizards quickly jump and exercise. (found by Jeff Glenn, 1978)
• Oozy quivering jellyfish expectorated by mad hawk.
• Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. 32
• Pangrams have subjects like “dewy fox quiz.” 35 (by Idris Mercer)
• Perhaps President Clinton’s amazing sax skills will be judged quite favorably.
• Phlegms fyrd wuz qvint jackbox. (by Dmitri Borgmann)
• Picking just six quinces, new farm hand proves strong but lazy.
• Pickled, Gorbachev jumps tawny fax quiz.
• Pink foxglove bouquet charms dizzy Jew (by Idris Mercer)
• Playing jazz vibe chords quickly excites my wife.
• Poxy G-men quiz FDR; LBJ whacks TV! 26 Terry Pollock
• Prized waxy jonquils choke big farm vats. 34
• Prodigal lesbians from Venezuela know just exactly how to eat quiche.
• Puzzled women bequeath jerks very exotic gifts.
• Pyx crwth fjeld, quok, vang, zimbs. (by Rev. S. Ream)
• Pyx vang quiz: komb crwth fjelds. (by Robert N. Test)
• Qu’est-ce c’est chez le vieux forgeron du coin J’ai pu boire le meilleur whisky?
• Quartz glyph job vex’d cwm finks.
• Quartz glyph jocks vend, fix BMW. (26)
• Questions of a zealous nature have become by degrees petty waxen jokes.
• Quick fawns jumped over a lazy dog. 32 (by Kenneth Daugherty)
• Quick jigs for waltz vex bad nymph. (28)
• Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim.
• Quick waxy bugs jump the frozen veldt (31)
• Quick zephyrs blow, vexing daft Jim. 29
• Quiet guys broke zip files with my coven’s jade ax.
• Quixotic knights’ wives are found on jumpy old zebras.
• Quixotic Republicans vet first key zero-growth jeremiad.
• Quiz explained for TV show by Mick Jagger (by Idris Mercer)
• Qursh gowf veldt jynx zimb pack. (by Michael Jones, Chicago, 1984; see note)
• Raving zibet chewed calyx of pipsqueak major.
• Sex prof gives back no quiz with mild joy. 33
• Six big devils from Japan quickly forgot how to waltz.
• Six big juicy steaks sizzled in a pan as five workmen left the quarry.
• Six boys guzzled cheap raw plum vodka quite joyfully.
• Six crazy kings vowed to abolish my quite pitiful jousts.
• Six javelins thrown by the quick savages whizzed forty paces beyond the mark.
• Six of the women quietly gave back prizes to the judge.
• Six plump boys guzzled cheap raw vodka quite joyfully.
• Sixty young school chums jeopardized their lives by fighting zealously in a quaint market warehouse. [Word Ways]
• Sixty zippers were quickly picked from the woven jute bag. 48
• Sixty-five wildly panting fruitflies gazed hungrily at the juicy bouncing kumquats.
• Sphinx of black quartz: judge my vow. 29
• Squdgy fez, blank jimp crwth vox. (by Claude Shannon)
• Suez sailor vomits jauntily abaft while waxing parquet decks.
• Sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives. 36
• The black quartz lynx was a jivy imp of God. [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• The chancellor of the exchequer embezzled junk from gypsies with vigor. [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• The exodus of jazzy pigeons is craved by squeamish walkers.
• The explorer was frozen in his big kayak just after making queer discoveries.
• The five boxing wizards jump quickly. 31
• The job of waxing linoleum frequently peeves chintzy kids.
• The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner.
• The jukebox music puzzled a gentle visitor from a quaint valley town.
• The July sun caused a fragment of black pine wax to ooze on the velvet quilt.
• The public was amazed to view the quickness and dexterity of the juggler. (60)
• The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. 33
• The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 35
• The risque gown marked a very brazen exposure of juicy flesh.
• The sex life of the woodchuck is a provocative question for most vertebrate zoology majors.
• The sixty-five quickly jumping dogs and foxes were just shot by the crazy maniac. [Word Ways]
• The vixen jumped quickly on her foes barking with zeal.
• The xylophone orchestra vowed to imbibe jugs of kumquat fizz.
• The zeal of the brave boys quickly won praise from the exact old judge who wanted to give them an award. [Word Ways]
• Their kind aunt was subject to frequent dizzy spells, thus causing much anxiety and worry.
• Thumb frowzly, vexing jacks, PDQ. (by Eric Chaikin, New York, 1998)
• Travelling beneath the azure sky in our jolly ox-cart, we often hit bumps quite hard.
• Turgid saxophones blew over Mick’s jazzy quiff.
• Two hardy boxing kangaroos jet from Sydney to Zanzibar on quicksilver pinions.
• Two joyful vixens squirt milk upon the caged zebra. [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• Up at the zoo a roving ox was quickly fed bug jam. [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• Uphill jogging will tax pounding heart muscle very quickly; better to be lazy!
• Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck. 26 (by Michael Jones, Chicago, 1984; see note)
• Verbatim reports were quickly given by Jim Fox to his amazed audience.
• Verily the dark ex-Jew quit Zionism, preferring the cabala.
• Vexed funky camp juggler quit show biz. 32 (by Idris Mercer)
• Vext cwm fly zing jabs Kurd qoph.
• Victors flank gyp who mixed job quiz. (30)
• Victors flank gypsy who mixed up on job quiz.
• Viewing quizzical abstracts mixed up hefty jocks.
• Waltz, dumb nymph, for quick jigs vex. 29
• Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex bud. 28
• Waqf vozhd trecks, jumbling pyx.
• Was there a quorum of able whizzkids gravely exciting the jaded fish at ATypI?
• Watch all five questions asked by experts amaze the judge.
• Wavy Jake’s fat zebra had Mexican pig liquor.
• We could jeopardize six of the gunboats by two quick moves.
• We crazed folk quit having sex, be jumpy. 32 (by Idris Mercer)
• We dislike to exchange job lots of sizes varying from a quarter up.
• We have just quoted on nine dozen boxes of gray lamp wicks.
• We promptly judged antique ivory buckles for the next prize. 50
• We quickly chased the zebras to a quiet drinking place just near my five bundles of flax. [Word Ways]
• We quickly seized the black axle and just saved it from going past him.
• Weekly magazines request help for and by junior executives.
• West quickly gave Bert handsome prizes for six juicy plums.
• Wham! Volcano erupts fiery liquid death onto ex-jazzbo Kenny G.
• When waxing parquet decks, Suez sailors vomit jauntily abaft.
• When we go back to Juarez, Mexico, do we fly over picturesque Arizona?
• Whenever the black fox jumped the squirrel gazed suspiciously.
• While making deep excavations we found some quaint bronze jewelry.
• Why jab, vex quartz-damping flocks? (28)
• Will Major Douglas be expected to take this true-false quiz very soon?
• William Jex quickly caught five dozen Republicans.
• William said that everything about his jacket was in quite good condition except for the zipper.
• Wolves exit quickly as fanged zoo chimp jabbers.
• Worn DJ: vex Gk HQ, clamp fubsy zit.
• Would you please examine both sizes of jade figures very quickly.
• Woven silk pyjamas exchanged for blue quartz.
• Xavier picked bright yellow jonquils for Mitzi. [Games For Insomniacs (1966) by John G. Fuller]
• XV quick nymphs beg fjord-waltz.
• Xylophone wizard begets quick jive form.
• You go tell that vapid existentialist quack Freddy Nietzsche that he can just bite me, twice.
• You will quite often be amazed by Jock’s very weighty, size six sporran!
• Zany Jacques French’s pub mixed watery vodka gimlets.
• Zelda quickly wove eight nubby flax jumpers. (by Ross Eckler)

In the following list, Stuart Kidd has unmasked some of the pangrams:

• Crux: Why joking TV blazes FM PDQ?
  The heart of the matter: why humorous television does better than radio?
• Milk-vat fez bugs qosh-criod jynx.
  A Turkish felt cap, discovered floating in a vat of milk, bewilders a wryneck (a bird related to the woodpecker) that happens to be nesting in an ancient Celtic stringed musical instrument decorated with the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
• Junky qoph-flags vext crwd zimb.
  Trashy flags, ornamented with a design resembling the Hebrew letter qoph, irritated an Ethiopian fly whose customary habitat was an ancient Celtic stringed musical instrument.
• Fjord-buck zags whelm qvint pyx.
  Male deer frequenting the banks of a fjord, moving in a somewhat zigzag course, overturn a box with a capacity of 77.16 grams.
• Quartz glyph job vex’d cwm finks
  Headline in an archeology magazine when some treacherous people from a Welsh valley found themselves irked at the discovery of a (presumably forged) rock carving in quartz.
• Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck.
  A wryneck woodpecker from the grasslands of Africa climbs up the side of a male bovid which is grazing on sacred Muslim-owned land.
• Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  Carved figures on the bank of a fjord in a rounded valley irritated an eccentric person.
• Vext cwm fly zing jabs Kurd qoph.
  An irritated valley fly humming in a shrill fashion jabs at the Hebrew letter qoph, as written by a Turkish tribesman.
• Squdgy fez, blank jimp crwth vox.
  A man orders his squashed-down hat to mute the skimpy voice of a Welsh violin.
• Cwm kvutza qoph jynx fled brigs.
  The wryneck bird from the communal farming unit designated by the Hebrew letter qoph and situated in a rounded valley, fled from the prisons on a ship.
• Nth black fjords vex Qum gyp wiz
  An esteemed Iranian shyster was provoked when he himself was cheated: an alleged seaside ski resort he purchased proved instead to be a glacier of countless oil-abundant fjords.
• Jink cwm, zag veldt, fob qursh pyx.
  A message instructing a spy to take evasive action in various terrains (from Welsh valleys to South African grassy plains) in order to plunder the Saudi mint.
• Jumbling vext frowzy hacks PDQ.
  Being bounced around quickly annoyed the disheveled taxi drivers.
• Thumb frowzly, vexing jacks, PDQ.
  Hitch a ride with disheveled annoying lumberjacks, right away.
• Gyps balk nth fjord cwm quiz, vex.
  The college students refused to take the nth fjord cwm quiz and this annoyed someone.

In the 1980s Michael Jones submitted two pangrams to Guinness: “Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck” and “Qursh gowf veldt jynx zimb pack.” Guinness chose the first one. Michael writes that the second pangram “describes a scene where some Arabian coins are striking a group of flies gathered on that woodpecker. (Qursh can be used as plural according to W3; all my words come from W3). I liked this second pangram more because I preferred using ‘qursh’ over ‘waqf,’ but Guinness chose the other one.”

In 2004, Bobby Tremblay submitted the following 26-letter pangram to this website: “I (X’s glyph Q’d of Zen) jab Turk cwm ‘V’.” He explains, “X is a symbolic representation for Christ, glyph is a nonverbal sign, cwm is a word for valley, and ‘V’ is symbol for victory. The question of the use of Q’d as an exponent may arise and the pagram may be changed to read, ‘I (X’s glyph of Zen) jab, QD, Turk cwm “V”, where QD is found in most dictionaries meaning “each day.”‘”

The known list of creators of these pangrams is as follows: Stephen Joseph Smith, Gyles Brandreth, Claude Shannon, Guillaume Macaire, Ted Clarke, Vincent J. Carco, Kenneth W. Pratt. If one of these pangrams is yours, please notify me and I’ll add your name.

Jonathan Hoefler of the Hoefler Type Foundry writes:

I’m a typeface designer, and as such I find myself inexorably collecting odd words. When my studio develops a new design, we typically run it through a broad collection of pangrams. Most of these are shopworn favorites, but from time to time we find ourselves adding one to the mix. “Wham! Volcano erupts fiery liquid death onto ex-jazzbo Kenny G” found its way into the proofing document a few years ago, alongside “Barkeep! A flaming tequila swizzle and a vodka and Ajax, hold the cherry.” An introspective period produced “You go tell that vapid existentialist quack Freddy Nietzsche that he can just bite me, twice.” In honor of the esteemed type designers Hermann Zapf and Jovica Veljovic, I penned “Mix Zapf with Veljovic and get quirky beziers,” and to another designer: “Baroque? Hell, just mix a dozen wacky pi fonts & you’ve got it.”

The pangrams listed above are his originals.