English words without vowels

English words without vowels
English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters , as well as , which may also be a consonant depending on context. However, outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds.
Words without written vowels
There are very few lexical words (that is, not counting interjections) without vowel letters. The longest such lexical word is tsktsks, pronounced . The mathematical expression nth , as in delighted to the nth degree, is in fairly common usage. Another mathematical term without vowel letters is ln, the natural logarithm. A more obscure example is rng , derived from ring by deleting the letter .
Vowelless proper names from other languages, such as the surname Ng, may retain their original spelling, even if they are pronounced with vowels.
In the Middle English period, there were no standard spellings, but was sometimes used to represent either a vowel or a consonant sound in the same way that Modern English does with , particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. This vocalic generally represented , as in wss ("use"). However at that time the form was still sometimes used to represent a digraph (see W), not as a separate letter. This practice exists in modern Welsh orthography so that words borrowed from Welsh may use this way, such as:
The crwth (pronounced or , also spelled cruth in English) is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin)
He intricately rhymes, to the music of crwth and pibgorn. in the Welsh alphabet W is a vowel so this word should not be counted.
cwtch (a hiding place or cubby hole) is also from Welsh (albeit a recent word influenced by English, and used almost exclusively in the variant of English spoken in Wales, not in standard English), and crwth and cwtch are the longest English dictionary words without according to Collins Dictionary. in the Welsh alphabet W is a vowel so this word should not be counted.
A cwm (pronounced ) is used in English in a technical geographical or mountaineering context to mean a deep hollow in a mountainous area, usually with steep edges on some sides, like a corrie or cirque, such as the Western Cwm of Mount Everest. It is also sometimes used, by way of more recent borrowing from Welsh, in a more general sense of a valley. The spellings coombe, combe, coomb, and comb come from the Old English cumb, which appears either to be a much earlier borrowing from a predecessor of modern Welsh, or to have an even earlier origin, given that there was an ancient Greek word κὑμβη (kumbē) meaning a hollow vessel. In English literature, one can find the spellings combe (as in Ilfracombe and Castle Combe), coomb (as in J. R. R. Tolkien) or comb (as in Alfred, Lord Tennyson).
There are also numerous vowelless interjections and onomatopoeia found more or less frequently, including brr (brrr is occasionally accepted), bzzt, grrr, hm, hmm, mm, mmm, mhmm, sksksksk, pfft, pht, phpht, psst, sh, shh, zzz.
Alphabetical list of words without vowels A, E, I, O, U
B
Brr
Brrr
By(s)
Byrl(s)
Bzzt
C
Ch
Chynd
Cly
Crwth(s)
Cry
Crypt(s)
Cwm(s)
Cyst(s)
D
Dry(ly)(s)
F
Fly
Flyby(s)
Fry
Fy
Fyrd(s)
G
Ghyll(s)
Glycyl(s)
Glyph(s)
Grrl(s)
Grrr
Grrrl(s)
Gym(s)
Gyp
Gyppy
Gyp(s)
Gypsy
H
Hm
Hmm
Hmmm
Hwyl(s)
Hymn(s)
Hyp(s)
J
Jynx
K
Ky
L
Lym(s)
Lymph(s)
Lynch
Lynx
M
Mhmm
Mm
Mmm
My
Myrrh(s)
Myth
N
Nth
Ny(s)
Nymph(ly)(s)
P
Pfft
Ph(s)
Phpht
Pht
Ply
Pry(s)
Psst
Psych
Pwn(s)
Pygmy
Pyx
R
Rhy
Rhythm(s)
Rng
Rynd(s)
S
Scry
Sh
Shh
Shrthnd
Shy(ly)
Sknch
Sksksksk
Sky
Skyr
Sly(ly)
Spry(ly)
Spy
Sty
Stymy
Swy
Sylph(s)
Syn
Sync(s)
Synch(s)
Synd(s)
Sybyzgy
Syzygy
T
Thy
Thymy
Try
Tryp(s)
Tryst(s)
Tsk(s)
Tsktsk(s)
Twp
Twyndyllyng(s)
Tyg(s)
Typp(s)
Tyyn
V
Vly
W
Why(s)
Wss
Wyn(s)
Wynn
Wry (ly)
Wych
Wyn
Wynd(s)
Wynn(s)
X
Xlnt
Xylyl(s)
Xyst(s)
Y
Ympt
Z
Zzz(s)
Alphabetical list of words without vowels A, E, I, O, U, and Y.
B
Brr
Brrr
Bzzt
C
Ch
Crwth(s)
Cwm(s)
Cwtch
G
Grrl(s)
Grrr
Grrrl(s)
H
Hm
Hmm
Hmmm
M
Mhmm
Mm
Mmm
N
Nth
P
Pfft
Ph(s)
Phpht
Pht
Psst
Pwn(s)
R
Rng
S
Sh
Shh
Sknch
Sksksksk
T
Tsk(s)
Tsktsk(s)
Twp
W
Wss
X
Xlnt
Z
Zzz
Words without vowel sounds
Weak forms of function words may be realized without vowel sounds, as in I can go and I must sell . Some of these forms are reflected in orthography as contractions, such as s, ll, d, and n't.
See also
Wiktionary:List of words that comprise a single sound
Words without vowels in other languages
References
Types of words
Vowels
Vowel letters
Lists of English words