Online Encyclopedia
One-letter English word
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 is also a common abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy.
e is a mathematical and scientific constant, referring to the base of the natural logarithm.
In gangster 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"
- c – "see"
- g – "Gee"
- k – "okay"
- n – "and"
- o – "oh"
- p – "pee" (urination)
- q – "queue"
- r – "are"
- t – "tea"
- u – "you"
- v – "very", for example: V Graham Norton
- y – "why"
Various digits have also been pressed into service in this manner:
- 2 – "to", "too"
- 4 – "for" – used in forecast as "4cast"
- 8 – "ate" – can also be used as part of a word. E.g. l8r, sk8r, complic8
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.