grep -i a /usr/dict/words | grep -i e | grep -i i | grep -i o | grep -i u

This writeup brought to you by UNIX - sucking the fun out of silly little brain teasers since 1969.


accentuation
adventitious
aeroacoustic
aeronautic
aeronautical
aeronautics
ambidextrous
ambidextrously
argumentation
attenuation
auctioneer
auctioneers
audaciousness
audiometer
audiometers
audiometric
audiometry
auditioned
augmentation
aureomycin
authentication
authentications
authenticator
authenticators
authoritative
authoritatively
authorities
authorize
authorized
authorizer
authorizers
authorizes
autobiographies
autocorrelation
autocracies
autodialer
autoincrement
autoincremented
autoincrements
autoindex
autoindexing
automobile
automobiles
automotive
autopsied
autopsies
autoregressive
autosuggestibility
Beaujolais
beautifications
bimolecular
boardinghouse
boardinghouses
boundaries
capaciousness
capriciousness
cauliflower
cautioned
cautioner
cautioners
cautiousness
chivalrousness
coeducation
communicate
communicated
communicates
communicative
commutative
conceptualization
conceptualizations
conceptualize
conceptualized
conceptualizes
conceptualizing
configurable
consequential
consequentialities
consequentiality
consultative
continuance
continuances
counteracting
counteractive
customizable
Dalhousie
denunciation
dialogue
dialogues
disadvantageous
discontinuance
discourage
discouraged
discouragement
discourages
documentaries
documentation
documentations
Ecuadorian
education
educational
educationally
educations
ejaculation
ejaculations
elucidation
emulation
emulations
encapsulation
encouraging
encouragingly
enumeration
enunciation
equalization
equation
equations
equatorial
equivocal
equivocally
euphoria
Europeanization
Europeanizations
Europeanize
Europeanized
Europeanizes
evacuation
evaluation
evaluations
evolutionary
exclusionary
excommunicate
excommunicated
excommunicates
excommunicating
excommunication
executional
exhaustion
extenuation
exultation
Fontainebleau
functionalities
gelatinous
graciousness
gratuitousness
gregarious
gubernatorial
harmoniousness
Houdaille
incommensurable
incommensurate
incommunicable
incomputable
inconsequential
inconsequentially
Indoeuropean
inoculate
instantaneous
instantaneously
institutionalize
institutionalized
institutionalizes
instrumentation
insubordinate
insupportable
insurmountable
intercommunicate
intercommunicated
intercommunicates
intercommunicating
intercommunication
intravenous
jealousies
journalize
journalized
journalizes
malfunctioned
maliciousness
mendacious
mensuration
microarchitecture
microarchitectures
Milquetoast
Milquetoasts
miscellaneous
miscellaneously
miscellaneousness
modularize
modularized
modularizes
mountaineer
mountaineering
mountaineers
multidimensional
multiprogrammed
neurological
nonnumerical
nonsequential
occupancies
ostentatious
overhauling
pandemonium
permutation
permutations
perpetuation
persuasion
persuasions
perturbation
perturbations
pneumonia
popularize
popularized
popularizes
precarious
precariously
precariousness
precaution
precautions
preoccupation
Procrusteanize
Procrusteanizes
pseudoparallelism
psychotherapeutic
Quakerization
Quakerizations
questionable
questionably
questionnaire
questionnaires
recalculation
recalculations
recapitulation
reconfigurable
reconfiguration
reconfigurations
reeducation
reevaluation
reformulating
reformulation
refutation
regulation
regulations
remuneration
renunciation
repudiation
repudiations
reputation
reputations
reticulation
revolutionaries
revolutionary
sacrilegious
semiautomated
Sequoia
simultaneous
simultaneously
speculation
speculations
statutoriness
subordinate
subordinated
subordinates
tautologies
telecommunication
telecommunications
tenacious
tenaciously
unauthorized
unavoidable
unconscionable
unconstrained
unconventional
unconventionally
uncoordinated
underestimation
uneconomical
unequivocal
unequivocally
unidirectional
unidirectionality
unidirectionally
unintentional
unintentionally
unmentionable
unobtainable
unprofitable
unquestionably
unrecognizable
unsophisticated
Utopianize
Utopianizes
villainousness
vocabularies
warehousing

The shortest is sequoia with only two consonants.

If you consider y to be a vowel, the shortest is a tie between audiometry and aureomycin each with 4 non-y consonants.

Because of the vowel frequencies in English, the UNIX command is most efficient if invoked as:

grep -i u /usr/dict/words | grep -i o | grep -i a | grep -i i | grep -i e

To find words with the vowels in order (A E I O U), use the command:

grep 'a.*e.*i.*o.*u' /usr/dict/words

which will find abstemious, facetious, adventitious and sacreligious (facetious is probably the best known). Notice two of these have an extra i but the puzzle seldom requires a solution with exactly five vowels.

If you want the vowels in order and count y as a vowel, note that all four are adjectives to which you can add -ly. Thus, facetiously is the unique shortest-length solution with all six vowels, and accomplishes this with 5 non-vowel letters.

The Boardinghouse Autobiographies

When I was an auctioneer I picked up such a list. At the time, it was adventitious to have such a thing and so it sat around and collected dust along with the audiometer that I had (I never got much into audiometry).

At the time, coeducation was just beginning to start and chivalrousness was the rave of the nation. Still, we didn't know where the boundaries where and thus failed to communicate (this caused some problems and eventual denunciation of college co-eds). Fortunately, a dialogue opened up between the people and a great time was had by all (do I need to mention that ejaculation was on the list?).

Far from being discouraged, we sought out a customizable abode where we could practice our enunciation (we had a housewarming too). There was a speech which we had to give on the evolutionary nature of euphoria (what will those odd public communication teachers think up of next?). This abode was modularized so that we each had our own place - it avoided many jealousies. After overhauling the interior for our varied persuasions, one of our group caught pneumonia (under questionable circumstances). Realizing our precarious position with paying the rent, we eventually sold the place and the list along with it.

The list eventually fell into the hands of the Sequoia revolutionaries where it remains today. There is much speculation about what these people wish to do with such a list - for all we know, it could be some strange sacrilegious ritual. Who knows, such unauthorized use of the list is unavoidable once it becomes available to all - ah, the wonders of telecommunication.

Still, it appears to be unprofitable to attempt to expand the vocabularies of people. Such a result seems to either be an unintentional byproduct or unobtainable.


Some context

The original writeup (now long gone) asked for help in creating a list of words in which all the vowels were found and listed obituaries as the only one found.

After a quick look at my system (with the exact same command as Cow Of Doom used above, I found a list of 292 words and proceeded to tell a story of such a list with words used in the list.

Please count yourself lucky that I didn't use my extended dictionary file (so I have a friend who is interested in large dictionary files and optimizing crypt - I just use it for crossword puzzles and cryptograms). This file contains 1428 words that fit the query including such oddities as Indoeuropean, atrioventricular, heteroautotrophic, pseudomedieval, ultracentrifugation... well, the list goes on and on.

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