List of words that are without vowels?

Answer 1

As several have noted, the "y" in words like "sky" IS a vowel -- in fact, it MORE often marks a vowel sound than a consonant sound (and in some European languages it is ONLY used for vowel sounds).

Some mistakenly think that ONLY a,e,i,o and u (or even "sometimes y") are vowels. This is probably based on oversimplified definition many of us heard in grade school. (I was fortunate, in that my teachers added "and sometimes y"... though they should ALSO have said "and sometimes w too".)

In fact, we'd be better off if we understand that a vowel is, before all else, a type of SOUND rather than a type of LETTER. We call specific letters "vowels" because these letters are the ones TYPICALLY used to indicate the vowel sounds. This helps explain the confusion, since MOST letters are ALWAYS used to mark just consonant sounds or just vowel sounds.
(compare http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxword00.html)

The basic rule is this -- when "y" or "w" BEGIN a syllable they mark consonants; at the middle of end of a syllable they mark VOWELS. (In the case of "w", except for words from the Welsh, like "cwm" [pronounced "coom"!] w is only used for vowels in "diphthongs", that is, combined with another vowel sound, e.g., "How now brown cow?" [also "ew" and "aw"] It's even easier to see that they are functioning vowels if you note that final "oy" is pronounced exactly like the "oi" in the middle of a word, and "ow" is pronounced like "ou".)

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There ARE words without vowel SOUNDS (and in which none of the letters indicates a vowel). Most of them are"interjections", used to imitate SOUNDS people make. Here are the most common:

sh(h)
psst
hmm
mm-hmm
brr(r)
grr(r)
tsk

Another one of a slightly different sort is "nth".


By the way, this should show that it is NOT true that you "must have a vowel (or vowel sound) to be able to pronounce a word". What IS true is that you must have a sound that doesn't completely STOP the flow of air --which is true of ALL vowels, but also of various consonants. Best for this in English are the nasals /m/ and /n/, "sibilants" (that is, s-type-sounds, like /s/, /z/, /sh/) and r.

Note: In the list above the first four are actually the best examples of words with no vowel SOUNDS. The others may "cheat". For example, we actually SAY "enth", no matter how we write it. People may also slip a short vowel before the r's in "brr" and "grr". And "tsk", the equivalent of "tut" in British English, doesn't even really have any /s/ sound in it, and technically not a /t/ sound either -- the word is simply a "clicking" sound that English does not use otherwise, and so has no letter to represent.

for word trivia involving vowels, see:
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words6.html

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ANOTHER ANSWER !

For an entertaining list of many consonant-only words (mostly made up) which have actually appeared in literature, check out
The Dictionary of Consonant-Only Words by Craig Conly -http://www.oneletterwords.com/consonant/index.html
(He lists 105 words under "T" alone! )

Similarly, see The Dictionary of All-Vowel Words http://www.oneletterwords.com/vowel/index.html
(He does, however, mistakenly list a number of consonantal "y's" as vowels. But it's still fun!)

Answer 2

Word Without Vowels

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
List of words that are without vowels?

Answer 4

In English, every word must contain at least one spoken vowel in its pronunciation. However, there are a few words that do not contain a vowel letter in their written form. Traditionally, the following five letters have been regarded as vowel letters, because both in English and in most other languages they typically represent vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u. However, in English, y and w have double roles, as y can sometimes represent a consonant as in yes, and sometimes a vowel, as in fly and w can represent a consonant, as in pillow, and sometimes a vowel, as in cwm (pronounced [kuːm], a basin within a mountain

Answer 5

hymn, rhythm, myth, sylph, and syzygy

Assuming you mean words that lack "true" vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). Some people consider "y" to be a semi-vowel because it does act as the vowel "i" at times.

If you exclude "y" there are no words in the English language.
(Some people may include uttered sounds: Bzzz, Psst, etc. but there is a lot of disagreement about whether or not these are real words.)

Answer 6

None of English origin. "Y" and and more rarely "W" can sometimes be used as a vowel.

We may phonetically spell a foreign word without vowels, if that's the way it sounds in English.

Phonetic representations of sounds ..like shh, hmm, psst ...are not really words.

Answer 7

WORDS WITHOUT VOWELS
AY
BY
CRY
DRY
FLY
FRY
FYRD
GYPSY
GYVE
HYMN
HYP
LYMPH
LYNCH
LYNX
MYTH
MY
PLY
PYGMY
PYX
RHYTHM
SHY
SHYLY
SKY
SPRY
SPY
STY
STYX
SYLPH
SYZYGY
THYMY
TRY
TRYST
WRY
WYND

Answer 8

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the only two i can think of are; crwth... which is like, a welsh violin sort of. cwm... which is a deep hollow in a mountain. but there are loads of words with no vowels that have a y in them... like cry, by, sky, why, wry, spy, gym, crypt, hymn, lynx, myth, glyph, slyly, tryst, nymph, gypsy, pygmy, flyby, and syzygy...

Answer 9

By, Cry, Fry, Try, Gypsy, Lynx, Hymn, Myth, Nymph, Trysts, Sty, Spy, Why, Wry, Wryly, Typp, Synths, Sly, Rhythm, Syzygy...

Though actually the letter "y", in a way, acts as a vowel.

Answer 10

cry, dry, fly, fry, gym, gyp, ply, pry, shy, sky, sly, spy, sty, thy, try, why,wry
crypt, cyst, dryly, flyby, glycyl, glyph, Gypsy, hymn, jynx, lymph, lynx, myrrh, myth, nymph, psych, pygmy, rhythm, shyly, slyly, spry, spryly, Styx, sync, synth, syzygy, tryst, wryly, and xylyl.
The longest English word that does not contain any of the five traditional vowels is the 12-letter Twyndyllyngs. The longest commonly used English word not containing one of the 5 vowels is the seven-letter rhythms.