[HN Gopher] The longest word you can type on the first row of a ...
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       The longest word you can type on the first row of a QWERTY keyboard
        
       Author : nafnlj
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2023-08-24 21:29 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rubenerd.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rubenerd.com)
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | Germans would type on a QWERTZ keyboard (Z and Y are swapped).
       | This may theoretically considerably open up the space of possible
       | top-row-only German words, as Z is very common in German
       | (especially after T).
        
       | DylanDmitri wrote:
       | Related, is there a high quality plaintext dictionary file for
       | running similar searches? I've spent several hours but couldn't
       | find one that's both comprehensive and accurate.
        
         | koolba wrote:
         | Dictionary or word list?
         | 
         | /usr/share/dict/words is always destination zero for words.
        
         | mminer237 wrote:
         | https://github.com/dwyl/english-words/blob/master/words_alph...
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | What are your rules for what counts as a "word"? If you go with
         | the basic scrabble rules (i.e. nothing that would be
         | capitalized or punctuated) then YAWL[1] is pretty good, with
         | the downside being the most recent version I know of is from
         | 2008.
         | 
         | FYI, rupturewort is the sole 11-letter word answer to TFA in
         | YAWL; found using:                   grep '^[qwertyuiop]*$'
         | word.list |while read -r line; do echo "${#line} ${line}"; done
         | |sort -n | tail
         | 
         | 1: https://github.com/elasticdog/yawl
        
         | praash wrote:
         | Some common Linux distributions have packages that provide word
         | list files to /usr/share/dict/ in several languages. It's
         | likely for English files to be preinstalled. I've had a plenty
         | of fun practising regex and pipes with these word lists!
        
       | suzzer99 wrote:
       | The Welsh would love this game. Trywytypryrwy
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | One does wonder who dared Liam Dutton to do this:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHxO0UdpoxM
        
       | eitally wrote:
       | A number of years ago I solved a minor but repetitive QoL problem
       | I had, and created a password I could type with just my left
       | hand. It started as 8 characters, but I now have variants with as
       | many as 15 characters. Not a word, or even words strung together,
       | but it is so nice being able to just type it with one hand.
        
       | bnjmn wrote:
       | On any macOS computer (or replace /usr/share/dict/words with your
       | own word list):                 grep '^[qwertyuiop]*$'
       | /usr/share/dict/words | \       awk '{ print length(), $0 }' | \
       | sort -n
        
         | travisgriggs wrote:
         | Nice.
         | 
         | Middle/Second row result is
         | 
         | 8 flagfall "Flagfall, or flag fall, is a common Australian
         | expression for a fixed start fee, especially in the taxi,
         | haulage, railway, and toll road industries."
         | 
         | 8 galagala "A name in the Philippine Islands of Dammara
         | Philippinensis, a coniferous tree yielding dammar-resin."
         | 
         | Lower/Third Row: - None
         | 
         | There are no vowels on the bottom row. So no words. I've been
         | typing at ~ 50wpm for 30 years, and I don't think I'd ever
         | actually consciously recognized this fact about the bottom row.
         | 
         | (standard US keyboard layout)
        
         | juujian wrote:
         | Works for Ubuntu, too. My Colemak self can only get fluffy (6)
         | from the front row, that's the longest word. Middle row really
         | shines though, I can get hardheartedness (15) or assassinations
         | (14).
        
           | tiltowait wrote:
           | Interesting that your dictionary doesn't have
           | "tenderheartedness", which is two letters longer.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | seabass-labrax wrote:
           | Gulp, fluffy puppy pug! Yup. Fly, ugly pup, fly.
           | 
           | I note that hardheartedness and hotheadedness threaten the
           | darnedest nonstandard assassinations. Such sordidness!
        
       | SethTro wrote:
       | For Dvorak with a little assist from unix
       | 
       | First row
       | 
       | $ awk '/^[,.pyfgcrl] _$ / { print length(), $0 }'
       | /usr/share/dict/words | sort -nr | head
       | 
       | 3 pry / ply / fry / cry
       | 
       | Second row
       | 
       | $ awk '/^[aoeuidhtns]_$/ { print length(), $0 }'
       | /usr/share/dict/words | sort -nr | head
       | 
       | 15 tendentiousness
       | 
       | 14 assassinations
       | 
       | 13 instantaneous
       | 
       | 13 insidiousness
       | 
       | Third row
       | 
       | $ awk '/^[;qjkxbmwvz]*$/ { print length(), $0 }'
       | /usr/share/dict/words | sort -nr | head
       | 
       | 4 xxxv
       | 
       | 3 xxx
       | 
       | 3 xxv
       | 
       | 2 xx
        
         | Nekhrimah wrote:
         | Not sure about that third row, the "A" is in the second row.
        
           | SethTro wrote:
           | Awkward, now the third now doesn't return anything
           | 
           | $ awk '/^[;qjkxbmwvz]*$/ { print length(), $0 }'
           | /usr/share/dict/words | sort -nr | head 4 xxxv 3 xxx 3 xxv 2
           | xx 2 xv
        
             | Nekhrimah wrote:
             | With those letters, not surprised!
        
       | kragen wrote:
       | for this kind of thing, aside from of course
       | /usr/share/dict/words or /usr/share/dict/spanish, i commonly use
       | a word list sorted by occurrences in the british national corpus
       | which i keep at http://canonical.org/~kragen/sw/wordlist
       | 
       | this allows you to, among other things, tune the
       | comprehensiveness/accuracy tradeoff to your liking for a
       | particular task by cutting the list off at a given point
       | 
       | probably i should download the google 1-grams now that i have a
       | bigger disk
       | 
       | anyway                  $ grep ' [qwertyuiop]*$' ~/wordlist |
       | perl -lane 'print length $F[1], " $F[1]"' | sort -n
       | 
       | indeed suggests only                   10 perpetuity         10
       | proprietor         10 repertoire         10 typewriter
       | 
       | possibly a more practical problem is, what are the most common
       | words you can type entirely with the left hand while your other
       | hand is on the mouse+; 'redraw' was a significant one with early
       | versions of autocad                   $ grep '
       | [qwertasdfgzxcvb]*$' ~/wordlist | head         2150885 a
       | 923975 was         664780 be         478178 at         470949 are
       | 
       | uh that's somewhat boring                   $ grep '
       | [qwertasdfgzxcvb]*$' ~/wordlist | perl -ane 'print "$F[1] " if
       | length $F[1] > 6' | fmt | head         greater started effects
       | address average regarded created treated affected
       | greatest streets readers afterwards referred database degrees
       | dressed         arrested attract decades attracted addressed
       | stressed stewart awarded         targets estates abstract
       | assessed terrace reserve reverse barbara reserves         careers
       | defeated dragged grabbed creates greeted secrets bastard extract
       | edwards detected deserve affects traders adverse retreat
       | addresses rewards         aggregate decrease scattered breasts
       | referee databases deserted actress         debates deserves
       | reversed deserved defects reserved fastest rewarded
       | steward battered erected deceased exaggerated cassette exceeded
       | servers         warfare extracts drawers stresses asserted
       | reacted sweater regards stabbed
       | 
       | that's a bit better. how about words you can type alternating the
       | two hands, so you can type faster                   $ egrep ' [^q
       | wertasdfgzxcvb]?([qwertasdfgzxcvb][^qwertasdfgzxcvb])*[qwertasdfg
       | zxcvb]?$' ~/wordlist | perl -ane 'print "$F[1] " if length $F[1]
       | > 6' | fmt | head -4         problem problems england chairman
       | alright element ancient visible penalty         quantity visitor
       | signals amendment claudia bicycle authentic antibody
       | malaysia naughty dickens entitlement antique paisley rituals
       | auditor         endowment blanche chairmen siemens chaotic
       | suspend uruguay mcleish
       | 
       | it's a curious experience to touch-type a sequence of these words
       | because after a while you notice that something is unusual. the
       | one-handed words are a bit more conspicuous. try typing 'a better
       | career award as edward created database facts after we agreed we
       | stared at dear steve' into the comment box, it's super weird
       | 
       | of course the bnc has some built-in biases which dramatically
       | understate the frequency of certain words                   $
       | grep fuck ~/wordlist         2568 fucking         1236 fuck
       | 158 fucked         53 fucker         23 fucks         20 fuckers
       | 13 motherfucker         5 motherfuckers         5 fuckin
       | 
       | 'ngl' appears but only 5 times. 'yeet' doesn't occur at all
       | 
       | ______
       | 
       | + mouse?
        
         | ben0x539 wrote:
         | I wonder how fast you could get at typing everything onehanded
         | with some modifier key that mirrors the keyboard. Right hand is
         | probably more useful there.
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | It is lollipop for those interested in the longest for the right
       | hand.
        
         | san-fran wrote:
         | I don't know if it's true, but read that "stewardesses" is the
         | longest for the left hand
        
         | kragen wrote:
         | polyphony and homophony are both one letter longer
        
       | noxvilleza wrote:
       | I'm surprised that PROPRIETORY wasn't found in the Andrew
       | Stephens 2009 search.
        
       | elchief wrote:
       | how about on the left side of the keyboard? STEWARDESSES is the
       | longest i can think of
        
         | sshine wrote:
         | exaggerated       stewardesse
        
         | colecut wrote:
         | extra points for only using 2 rows
        
           | qup wrote:
           | Considering the keys, maybe you should get extra points if
           | you use all three instead.
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-24 23:00 UTC)