One-letter English words
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/* Self-reference: Every letter is a word */
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The English language has three one-letter words, aside from the self-reference discussed below.
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Words
- a – the indefinite article
- I – the first person singular nominative pronoun
- O – an interjection derived from the vocative case of Latin, commonly used in poetry
Both I and O are capitalized when used.
Abbreviations
The word E is the shortest English neologism and is a Spivak pronoun meaning he or she. It, along with X, is also a common abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy.
e is a mathematical and scientific constant, referring to the base of the natural logarithm. Many other such constants also have single-letter symbols, such as c.
In gangsta rap culture, G is a valid word, a contraction of "gangster", used as a term of respect.
There are also various single letter words used as abbreviations in text-speak and related uses:
- b – "be" or "bee"
- c – "sea" or "see"
- f – "fat"or "fuck" (as in "fing" (fucking))
- g – "Gee"
- I – "eye"
- j – "jay"
- k – "okay"
- n – "and"
- o – "oh"
- p – "pea" (small green vegetable) or "pee" (to urinate)
- q – "cue" or "queue"
- r – "are"
- t – "tea"
- u – "you"
- v – "very", for example: V Graham Norton
- x – part of the phrase "x out"
- y – "why"
Various digits have also been pressed into service in this manner:
- 1 – "won"
- 2 – "to", "too". Can also be used as part of a word. Example: 2moro (tomorrow).
- 4 – "for" – Can also be used as part of a word. Examples: a4d, 4cast, 4give, 4got, 4m, 4mer, 4milk, 4most, 4t, 4tell, and b4 (before).
- 8 – "ate" – Can also be used as part of a word. Examples: l8r, navig8, m8, sk8, veget8, w8, and 8y.
Self-reference: Every letter is a word
Large dictionaries list each letter as a single-letter word. Each such word is defined as a noun, denoting the letter with which it is spelled. This blurs the use-mention distinction:
- mentioning the letter:
- "Psychology" starts with a 'p'.
- using as a word:
- "Psychology" starts with a p.
The plural form of these nouns are often shown with an apostrophe: e.g."Egg" has two g's. Some consider this practice erroneous and advocate capitalizing the letter and adding a lowercase S, as in "Double Os are more common than double Vs." [1]
Some single-letter words have additional meanings, describing an object that is shaped like the letter ("the road came to a 'T'", "an L-shaped couch", "make your mouth into an O") or used in idiomatic expressions ("Are all the i's dotted and t's crossed?").