Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 “Q” Words That Aren’t “q-u” Words
by Stacy Conradt - November 10, 2009 - 4:49 PM

q10

I have been playing a lot of Bookworm lately. Like, a lot of Bookworm. I run down my cell phone battery playing Bookworm. It’s kind of a sick addiction. In case you haven’t played, it’s sort of like Scrabble with no letter limit and a sense of urgency. You have to spell things out with tiles pre-arranged on a board, and sometimes you get flaming tiles that will end the game for you if you don’t use them fast enough. The problem? Bookworm dumbs down “Q.” Instead of giving you just the letter Q, it gives you a tile marked “Qu.” Sure, that’s because in the English language, most letter Qs are immediately trailed by a U, but not always. Here are 10 exceptions to the Q-U rule. Memorize them! They may help you on Jeopardy! or in Scrabble.

bookworm1. Bathqol. If you make a divine revelation – and you do it out loud – that’s a bathqol.
2. Coq -Cock feathers on a woman’s hat.
3. Qiana. This one is tricky, because it used to be a trademarked name, which isn’t allowed in Scrabble. But it’s one of those trademarked words that have become so commonly used that the trademark got overridden. The rights used to be held by DuPont because it is a type of nylon they created, but these days, it’s fair game for anyone.
4. Qanun – a type of harp.
5. Qawwal – a person who practices qawwali music.
6. Qintar or qindar – a type of Albanian money.
7. Qiviut – the wool of a musk-ox.
8. Qwerty - seriously. It refers to the keyboard layout that includes that sequence of letters.
9. Umiaq – a type of open boat.
10. Qat – a type of flowering plant.

Any other examples? I’m always looking to expand my vocabulary!

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Comments (28)

  1. How about a word that works in Scrabble? “Qi” – a word imported from Chinese meaning (vaguely) “life-force”. The Japanese version is “ki”, which may be a familiar term for karate or judo practitioners.

    posted by Wilson on 11-10-2009 at 4:59 pm

  2. qi! it works in scrabble — it means “energy” in chinese.

    posted by Heather on 11-10-2009 at 4:59 pm

  3. haha wilson, posted it at the same time!! great minds!

    posted by Heather on 11-10-2009 at 5:00 pm

  4. wilson – wouldn’t that also be spelled “chi”

    posted by lsmith on 11-10-2009 at 5:02 pm

  5. lsmith- Nope. “chi” is the Greek letter X. The Chinese term is either “qi” in Pinyin or “ch’i” in Wade-Giles. I’ve never understood either romanization systems very well, so I always end up looking up words if I can’t figure them out.

    posted by Dee on 11-10-2009 at 5:10 pm

  6. Qat is not just any flowering plant, it is a stimulant and one of the most commonly used intoxicants worldwide.

    posted by Liana on 11-10-2009 at 5:26 pm

  7. I’ve also seen it spelled Khat, and it’s common in Somalia.

    posted by Jonny on 11-10-2009 at 5:37 pm

  8. Iraq/iraqi

    posted by anomdebus on 11-10-2009 at 6:01 pm

  9. qaid – a Muslim chief

    posted by Egg Go Boom on 11-10-2009 at 6:05 pm

  10. I’m so addicted to Bookworm. When I found out there was an iPhone app, I considered taking a day off work to finish all the bonus word lists. I resisted, but just barely.

    posted by adrienne on 11-10-2009 at 6:13 pm

  11. My favourites are qhat, qheche and qhom, archaic spellings of what, which and whom.

    They have come in handy plenty of times. As has the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_containing_Q_not_followed_by_U

    posted by TobySaxon on 11-10-2009 at 6:21 pm

  12. Another great one-I use it in scrabble-is suq (an alternate spelling of souk-a marketplace in northern Africa and the Middle East)

    posted by kateydidnt on 11-10-2009 at 6:28 pm

  13. I love QAT… I was introduced to this by way of a ‘My Family’ episode when youngest (and Academically smartest) Harper kid, Ben, used it.

    I tried it myself a few days later, during a game of Lexulous… a great online Scrabble-like game – and it took!

    posted by Anon Emous on 11-10-2009 at 6:28 pm

  14. Stacy, if you have the Across Lite program and want a very-challenging crossword on this theme, say the word.

    posted by George on 11-10-2009 at 6:32 pm

  15. Saqqara-the first necropolis in ancient egypt

    posted by Finn on 11-10-2009 at 6:53 pm

  16. I love QAT too! Use it all the time!

    posted by Rachel O. on 11-10-2009 at 7:12 pm

  17. faqir – muslim holy man

    posted by Ry-Bo on 11-10-2009 at 7:42 pm

  18. “Qatar” – an Arab emirate near Saudi Arabia.

    posted by nomatophobic on 11-10-2009 at 9:17 pm

  19. qanat — an underground irrigation channel (from Arabic),

    posted by Gollum on 11-10-2009 at 9:57 pm

  20. “sheqel” and its plural “sheqalim”–an alternate spelling for the Israeli currency. i’ve never played it in scrabble but i’ve always dreamed of it!

    posted by amanda rachel on 11-11-2009 at 12:58 am

  21. George – any way the rest of us could get access to this crossword?

    posted by Debbie on 11-11-2009 at 10:54 am

  22. qoph—19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

    posted by Bruce on 11-11-2009 at 12:01 pm

  23. Debbie,
    Not sure if you can access, I’ve added it to the bottom of
    https://sites.google.com/site/gfwunder

    You’ll need Across Lite to open.

    It’s an old contest puzzle where clues are only 4 letters or numbers, excluding punctuation. Suffice it to say it’s not a casual solve. I think the other comments on this page will definitely be of assistance!

    posted by George on 11-11-2009 at 1:46 pm

  24. tranq is another scrabble word.

    posted by vikas on 11-11-2009 at 2:26 pm

  25. Qantas = Australian airline

    Iqaluit = City on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada.

    posted by Jamie on 11-11-2009 at 2:28 pm

  26. We play a lot of Up-Words instead of Scrabble, but they use a Qu too instead of a single Q

    posted by Tex on 11-11-2009 at 9:17 pm

  27. Riqq: An arabic tambourine.

    posted by Joey on 4-25-2011 at 9:25 pm

  28. In class us the other day our teacher was trying to get us to guess a word starting with Q. I asked what came after the Q and everybody made fun of me because I didn’t know the U preceding Q rule. Ignorant fools.

    posted by Ileana Ohlsson on 10-3-2011 at 3:13 pm

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