c4countdown

Not too much activity around here, but let’s see if there’s any interest in this anyway. Prompted by facing a conundrum on paterous featuring 4 L’s (ILLEGALLY) I’m wondering what’s the biggest number of recurrences of the same letter you can have in a valid 9 letter word, for each letter. i.e. what’s the conundrum with the most A’s, most B’s etc. I've not spent too much time on it but here's a few ideas to kick things off

A- CARACARAS etc (4)
I- PIRIPIRIS (4)
K- KICKBACKS (3)
L- ILLEGALLY (4)
M- MAMMOGRAM (4)
O- HOODOOING etc (4)
S- ASSESSORS etc (5)

SISSINESS/SASSINESS for 5S. These can actually be conundrums.

EQUIVOQUE wins Q I think. You can test it by putting something e.g. RRR into Lexplorer's Words Using and keep adding a letter until nothing appears with 9 letters (or change the length to 9). For instance, there's tons with 3 Rs so you try it with 4, and it only gives one nine (REFERRERS). I can't be bothered doing the rest of these.

EVERGREEN?

BEEKEEPER !

BEEKEEPER !

EVERGREEN?

Ooh

Ian Volante wrote:Ooh

That's only three letters, conundrums need to have nine.

If you remove the restriction of the answers having to be 9 letters long, there are actually multiple semi-common words featuring four Zs.

EVERGREEN?

AAAAAAAAH

Here's the list, that's to Thomas for the tip on working it out via Apterous lexplorer:

A: 28 9-letter words with 4 As, including my personal favourite MWAHAHAHA
B: 13 9-letter words with 3 Bs, including COBWEBBED, BLABBERED etc
C: 1 9-letter word with 4 Cs: CACHECTIC
D: 1 9-letter word with 4 Ds: DISBUDDED
E: 1 9-letter word with 5 Es: BEEKEEPER
F: 9 9-letter words with 3 Fs, including FOODSTUFF, FLUFFIEST
G: 39 9-letter words with 3 Gs, most ending -ING, but none with 4 Gs (there are 7 and 8 letter words with 4 Gs)
H: 6 9-letter words with 3 Hs, including MWAHAHAHA, CHIHUAHUA and HGHLIGHT
I: 1 9-letter word with 4 Is, PIRIPIRIS
J: 1 9-letter word with 2 jS: VAJAYJAYS
K: 1 9-letter words with 3 Ks: KICKBACKS
L: 3 9-letter words with 4 Ls, HILLBILLY, ILLEGALLY, WALLYBALL
M: 2 9-letter words with 4 Ms: MAMMOGRAM, MAMMIFORM
N: 5 9-letter words with 4 Ns, CANNONING, UNBANNING, UNMANNING, UNPENNING, UNPINNING
O: 24 9-letter words with 4 Os, including COOKBOOKS, FOOLPROOF, POOLROOMS, VOODOOIST/M
P: 18 9-letter words with 3 Ps, including PREPPIEST, POPPYCOCK, PEPPERING
Q: 3 9-letter words with 2 Qs, EQUIVOQUE, QUINQUINA, QUISQUOUS
R: 2 9-letter words with 4 Rs, REFERRERS, WIRRWARRS
S: 5 9-letter words with 5 Ss, ASSASSINS, ASSESSORS, POSSESSES, SASSINESS, SISSINESS
T: 3 9-letter words with 4 Ts, STATUETTE, TATTOOIST, TITTIVATE
U: 22 9-letter words with 3 Us, but none with 4 (MUUMUU, MUUMUUS, TUKUTUKU are 6/7/8 letter words with 4 Us)
V: 50 9-letter words with 2 Vs, none with 3
W: 2 9-letter words with 3 Ws, POWWOWING, WILLIWAWS
X: 2 9-letter words with 2 Xs, EXECUTRIX, EXOTOXINS
Y: 100 9-letter words with 2 Ys, but none with 3 (SYNONYMY is an exampple of a shorter word with 3 Ys)
Z: 60 9-letter words with 2 Zs, none with 3 or 4 (the 7 letter PIZZAZZ has 4 Zs)

GNAGGLING, POLYPHYLY, POLYONYMY and HYPERNYMY likely to be among new additions.