Sandy Wood
Brain Game: 5 Cons Walked Into a Puzzle…
by Sandy Wood - July 31, 2008 - 6:30 AM

bloghead_braingames.jpg

There aren’t too many regular English words that contain five consecutive consonants, but three of them will be uttered fairly often during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Can you identify these three words, where the asterisk represents any number of missing letters?

*RTSWR*

*CKSTR*

*NDSPR*

HERE’S the answer.

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Comments (16)

  1. Sportswrap, Backstroke, Windsprint?

    posted by Allyson on 7-31-2008 at 7:10 am

  2. I could have sworn that the second one was jockstrap.

    posted by Richard on 7-31-2008 at 7:56 am

  3. I made the same error. I thought the second was jockstrap as well. Though to be honest, I doubt it will be discussed very much on broadcasts.

    posted by Psatrick B on 7-31-2008 at 8:03 am

  4. What is the the one word in english that has this series of consonants?
    “tchst”.

    I use this string of letters whenever someone complains about russian strining together too many consonants.

    posted by Ralph Beatty on 7-31-2008 at 8:04 am

  5. sportswriter, backstroke, handspring

    posted by Jo on 7-31-2008 at 8:18 am

  6. Sorry to be pedantic so early in the day, Sandy, but I believe consecutive means in order, not just together.

    Perhaps I am just bitter because I was never very good at sports.

    recaptcha: usual agreement

    posted by Tom on 7-31-2008 at 8:28 am

  7. How about 5 letter words with no vowels… like “PRNDL” with is an automotive term for the gear shift display (park, reverse, neutral, drive, and low)

    posted by The Other Brian on 7-31-2008 at 8:29 am

  8. ha, I’m with you on the jockstrap. tells you where my mind is.

    posted by shyestviolet on 7-31-2008 at 8:30 am

  9. yeah…mental flossers are *dirty*

    My mind flew to jockstrap as well, but Psatrick makes a good point- I don’t need to hear about them

    posted by Caitlin on 7-31-2008 at 8:36 am

  10. @Ralph Beatty: watchstrap?

    posted by Eric Y. on 7-31-2008 at 9:05 am

  11. Tom, I’ve seen it used both ways… in fact, in my dictionary, the “in order” definition is a secondary one (to match “successive”), while the primary definition just says “uninterrupted order.”

    And while the consonants aren’t in order alphabetically, they are in order one after another. I’m not trying to argue (in fact, I love learning how to improve my language skills) but just making sure.

    posted by Sandy on 7-31-2008 at 10:06 am

  12. @ Ralph Beatty: matchstick.

    posted by Jack da Bomb on 7-31-2008 at 11:25 am

  13. …or jackstraw for #2.

    Another one: RTTHR

    posted by buddz on 7-31-2008 at 11:40 am

  14. #2 could be backstretch as well.

    posted by Dan on 7-31-2008 at 12:49 pm

  15. @ Sandy, I suspect that the definition is mutating from the sequential connotation to the uninterrupted sense. I guess a living language is better than a dead one. S’cuze me while I eat this crow.

    @ buddz, heartthrob?

    recaptcha: Breslin educated

    posted by Tom on 7-31-2008 at 2:08 pm

  16. Let’s go with 5 adjacent consonants.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 7-31-2008 at 3:27 pm

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