Ask the Expert

[soubiri]

DO NOT CONFUSE<br /><br /><p><font face="Helvetica"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue">discreet</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue">, 'careful not to attract attention or give offence', with <b>discrete</b>, which means 'separate, distinct'.<p></p></span></font></p>

[soubiri]

_MD_RE: Ask the Expert

<h3 align="left"><font color="#000099">Are there any English words containing the same letter three times in a row?</font></h3><p align="left"><font color="#000099"></font></p><p align="left"><font color="#000099">The usual rules of English spelling outlaw triple letters. Hyphens are inserted into words such as bee-eater, bell-like, chaff-flower, cretaceo-oolitic, cross-section, egg-glass, joss-stick, off-flavour, hostess-ship, puff-fish, toll-lodge, and zoo-organic. </font></p><p align="left"><font color="#000099">A person who flees is a fleer, and a person who sees is a seer (though to avoid confusion with seer meaning `foreteller', the forms see-er and seeër have been used). </font></p><p align="left"><font color="#000099">Nevertheless, we have encountered curious forms such as crosssection, and the complete <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> does contain instances of frillless, bossship, countessship, duchessship, governessship, and princessship, and the county name Rossshire. </font></p><p align="left"><font color="#000099">Graphic representations of noises, such as <i>brrr</i>, <i>shhh</i>, and <i>zzz</i>, do not really count as proper words. </font></p><p align="left"><font color="#000099">The only other word with a triple letter is the invented word Amerikkkan, which is intended to symbolize the racist aspect of American society by including the initials of the Ku Klux Klan.</font></p>