What is the answer....I cant figure it out?

Question

This is going to make you so MAD! There are three words in the English language that end in "gry". ONE is angry and the other is hungry. EveryONE knows what the third ONE means and what it stands for. EveryONE uses them everyday, and if you listened very carefully, I've given you the third word. What is it? _______gry?

Answer 1

Origins: This
puzzler may indeed "KILL YOUR BRAIN!" and "make you so MAD!" -- it certainly has left plenty of victims racking their brains and scratching their heads in decades past. If you don't already know the answer to this one, let us help you preserve your sanity and whatever gray matter you may have left by telling you . . . there is no answer. Other than 'hungry' and 'angry,' there is no English word ending with the letters 'gry' which the average native speaker of English would recognize, much less "use every day" (and certainly none which a teller of this riddle could claim to have "already given you").

All other words ending in 'gry' which one might find in even the most comprehensive English dictionary are either archaic terms or obsolete variant spellings, such as:


aggry: variegated glass beads of ancient manufacture, mentioned by various 19th-century writers as having been found buried in parts of Africa.

begry: an obsolete 15th-century spelling of the word 'beggary' (i.e., extreme poverty).

conyngry: an obsolete 17th-century spelling of the even more obsolete word 'conynger' (like 'cunningaire' and 'conygarth,' a term meaning 'rabbit warren').

gry: a unit of measurement proposed by English philosopher John Locke in his 1690 "Essay Concerning Human Understanding."

higry-pigry: a corruption (along with 'hickery-pickery' and 'hicra picra') of the Greek 'hiera picra' (approximately 'sacred bitters'), a term for many medicines in the Greek pharmacopoeia, particularly a purgative drug composed of aloes and canella bark.

iggry: an early 20th century British army slang borrowing from the Arabic 'ijri, meaning 'Hurry up!"

meagry: a rare and obsolete early 17th-century variant meaning 'meager-looking.'

menagry: obsolete 18th-century alternate spelling of 'menagerie.'

nangry: a rare and obsolete 17th-century variant of 'angry.'

podagry: a 17th-century variant spelling of 'podagra,' a medical lexicon term for 'gout.'

puggry: a 19th-century alternate spelling of 'puggaree' or 'puggree,' derived from the Hindi 'pagri,' a word for a light turban or head covering worn in India.

skugry: a 16th-century variant spelling of 'scuggery,' meaning 'concealment' or 'secrecy.'
So, what's the point to this puzzler if it has no answer? Some people maintain that is the point: the question was deliberately conceived as an irritating brain-teaser with no correct answer. The roundabout phrasing of the question suggests otherwise, however -- more likely it was designed as a trick question rather than a trivia question, perhaps one whose wording has been corrupted over time or whose gimmick was only apparent when the question was delivered orally.

The most common guess is that this riddle is indeed a trick question, but the point of the trick has been lost through the rearrangement of the riddle's wording as it has been passed along through the years. Consider an alternate version of this puzzler:

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.
This version supports the theory that the first two sentences are red herrings; the catch is that the teller is literally asking you to identify the third word of the phrase "the English language" -- there are only three words in the phrase "the English language," the third word ("language") describes something that one uses every day, and "language" is indeed a word which the teller has "already told you." This explanation also supports the contention that this riddle was meant to be presented orally, because a properly punctuated written version would make the gimmick too obvious:

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.
Another hypothesis is that the current form of the riddle is a corruption of a yet another version, one which must also be delivered orally for its gimmick to make sense:

There are at least three words in the English language that end in g or y. One of them is "hungry" and another is "angry." There is a third word, a short one, which you probably say every day. If you listened carefully to everything I say, you just heard me say it. What is it?
The catch here is that by offering the examples of "hungry" and "angry," the teller misleads the listener into thinking he's asking for a word ending in "GRY" when he's really asking for a word ending in "G or Y." The correct answer in this case is "say," a short word ending in "y" which the teller had pronounced three times in the course of presenting the riddle.

Some people think this puzzler's ability to continue stumping so many people over the years makes it one of the greatest riddles ever. We disagry.

Answer 2

ithout a doubt the most common question we receive from visitors to Fun-with-words.com is about the famous "-gry" puzzle, so we've decided to put the story of this curious puzzle on the site. Here it is.

The puzzle is essentially this: There are three English words ending in "-gry". Two are "angry" and "hungry". What is the third one?

There is no other common word ending in "-gry", so how did the puzzle come about? It first appeared in print in 1975.

Perhaps the answer to the original version of the puzzle was meagry or aggry (as in "aggry bead"). There are over 100 obsolete words that end in "-gry" (see below), and these two were in use until fairly recently. However, since there is no longer a real answer to this, modern versions of the puzzle have turned from being puzzles to being riddles. There are perhaps as many as a dozen versions in circulation - each with a different answer!


8. There are only three words in the English language, all adjectives, which end in "-gry." Two are "angry" and "hungry"; the third word describes the state of the world today. What is it?

This is the (presumed) original version of the puzzle from 1975. The possible answers (if obsolete words, names, and hyphenated compounds of "angry" and "hungry" are allowed) are plentiful. Most of the 124 listed below were in the 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and all have appeared in some major dictionary of English:

affect-hungryfire-angryMacLoingrySeagry
aggryGagrymad-angryself-angry
Agrygirl-hungrymad-hungryselfe-angry
ahungrygonagrymagrysensation-hungry
air-hungrygrymalgrysex-angry
anhungryhaegryman-hungrysex-hungry
Badagryhalf-angrymanagryShchigry
Ballingryhangrymannagryshiggry
begryheart-angryMargryShtchigry
bewgryheart-hungrymaugrysight-hungry
boroughmongryhigry pigrymawgryskugry
bowgryhogrymeagrySygry
braggryhogrymogrymeat-hungryTangry
BugryhongrymenagryTchangry
Chockpugryhound-hungrymessagryTchigry
Cogryhoungrymusic-hungrytear-angry
cony-gryhuggrymuggrynangryth'angry
conyngryhund-hungryoverangrytike-hungry
cottagryHungry BungryPelegryTingry
CroftangryhwngryPingrytoggry
diamond-hungryiggryPodagryulgry
dog-hungryJagryPongryunangry
dogge-hungryjob-hungrypottingryvergry
Dshagrykaingrypower-hungryVigry
Dzagryland-hungryprofit-hungryvngry
eard-hungryLangrypuggrywar-hungry
Echanuggryleather-hungrypugryWigry
Egryledderhungryred-angrywind-hungry
euer-angrylife-hungryrungryyeard-hungry
ever-angryLisnagryscavengryyird-hungry
fenegrylosengrySchtschigryYmagry

Answer 3

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 third word is language

It is a riddle that has a very obvious answer.

Also there were two other words, years ago, that are no longer english words used in our vocabulary.

meagry and aggry

meagry-of meager appearance

aggry-colored glass beads worn by africans

Hope this helped

Answer 4

there is no other word, thats it those 2 words in in gry...some say the answer is the phrase, "the english language" some say the answer is "what", but never understood the question and so thats my guess....

Answer 5

OGRY its an orgy for dyslectics!!!!!!


PS Rachelrag disaGRY ends in gry is that the solution?????

Answer 6

You asked the questions wrong, but the answer is "language" - nice try

Answer 7

onegry? thats not a word

Answer 8

i am deeply impressed by rachelrag's answer. dang, your like a linguists dream

Answer 9

ONE

Answer 10

does it have something to do with one?..
I dont know!