One-letter English word
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Aside from the self-reference discussed below, the English language has three one-letter 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.
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", "bee"
- c – "sea", "see"
- f – "fuck", often a euphemism
- g – "Gee"
- I – "eye"
- j – "jay"
- k – "okay"
- n – "and"
- o – "oh"
- p – "pea" (small green vegetable)
- q – "cue", "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. E.g. 2moro (tomorrow).
- 4 – "for" – Can also be used as part of a word. The complete list: a4d, 4cast, 4m, 4mer, 4milk, 4most, 4t, 4ty
- 6 – Can be used as part of "sixty" (6ty)
- 7 – Can be used as part of "seventy" (7ty)
- 8 – "ate" – Can also be used as part of a word. The completete list: b8, celebr8, complic8, cr8, d8, equ8, f8, g8, gr8, h8, infl8, infl8able, ir8, l8, l8r, m8, navig8, obl8, pal8, pal8al, pl8, r8, r8d, r8ing, sk8, sk8r, t8r, urin8, veget8, w8, 8y
- 9 – "night", a shortened form of "good night"
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: one can write
- "Psychology" starts with a "p".
mentioning the letter p, or one can write
- "Psychology" starts with a p.
using the word p.
These nouns often form the plural irregularly, with an apostrophe:
- "Egg" has two g's.