A heterogram (from ''hetero-'', meaning 'different', + ''-gram'', meaning 'written') is a word, phrase, or sentence in which no letter of the alphabet occurs more than once. The terms isogram and nonpattern word have also been used to mean the same thing. It is not clear who coined or popularized the term "heterogram". The concept appears in Dmitri Borgmann's 1965 book '' Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthographical Oddities'' but he uses the term ''isogram''. In a 1985 article, Borgmann claims to have "launched" the term ''isogram'' then. He also suggests an alternative term, asogram, to avoid confusion with lines of constant value such as

contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a Function of several real variables, function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a ...

s, but uses ''isogram'' in the article itself. ''Isogram'' has also been used to mean a string where each letter present is used the same number of times. Multiple terms have been used to describe words where each letter used appears a certain number of times. For example, a word where every featured letter appears twice, like "noon", might be called a ''pair isogram'', a ''second-order isogram'', or a ''2-isogram''. A perfect

pangram A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and typing. Origins The best-k ...

is an example of a heterogram, with the added restriction that it uses all the letters of the alphabet.

Uses in ciphers

A ten-letter heterogram can be used as the key to a

substitution cipher In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, t ...

for numbers, with the heterogram encoding the string 1234567890 or 0123456789. This is used in businesses where salespeople and customers traditionally haggle over sales prices, such as used-car lots and pawn shops. The nominal value or minimum sale price for an item can be listed on a tag for the salesperson's reference while being visible but meaningless to the customer. A twelve-letter cipher could be used to indicate months of the year.

Longest examples

In the book '' Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthographical Oddities'', Dmitri Borgmann tries to find the longest such word. The longest one he found was "

dermatoglyphics Dermatoglyphics (from Ancient Greek ''derma'', "skin", and ''glyph'', "carving") is the scientific study of fingerprints, lines, mounts and shapes of hands, as distinct from the superficially similar pseudoscience of palmistry. Dermatoglyphics ...

" at 15 letters. He coins several longer hypothetical words, such as "thumbscrew-japingly" (18 letters, defined as "as if mocking a thumbscrew") and, with the "uttermost limit in the way of verbal creativeness", "pubvexingfjord-schmaltzy" (23 letters, defined as "as if in the manner of the extreme sentimentalism generated in some individuals by the sight of a majestic

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

, which sentimentalism is annoying to the clientele of an English inn"). The word "subdermatoglyphic" was constructed by Edward R. Wolpow. Later, in the book ''Making the Alphabet Dance'', Ross Eckler reports the word "subdermatoglyphic" (17 letters) can be found in an article by Lowell Goldsmith called ''Chaos: To See a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower''. He also found the name "Melvin Schwarzkopf" (17 letters), a man living in

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend (Illinois), Riv ...

, and proposed the name "Emily Jung Schwartzkopf" (21 letters). In an elaborate story, Eckler talked about a group of scientists who name the unavoidable urge to speak in

s the "Hjelmqvist-Gryb-Zock-Pfund-Wax syndrome". The longest German heterogram is "Heizölrückstoßabdämpfung" (heating oil recoil dampening) which uses 24 of the 30 letters in the

German alphabet The modern German alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet: German uses letter-diacritic combinations (Ä, Ä/ä, Ö, Ö/ö, Ü, Ü/ü) using the Umlaut (diacritic), umlaut and one ligature (ß, ẞ/ß (ca ...

, as ''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'', and ''ß'' are considered distinct letters from ''a'', ''o'', ''u'', and ''s'' in German. It is closely followed by "Boxkampfjuryschützlinge" (boxing-match jury protégés) and "Zwölftonmusikbücherjagd" (twelve-tone music book chase) with 23 letters.

Other examples

Words

17 letters

* subdermatoglyphic

16 letters

*uncopyrightables

15 letters

*dermatoglyphics *hydropneumatics *misconjugatedly *uncopyrightable

14 letters

*ambidextrously *computerizably *copyrightables *croquet-playing *dermatoglyphic *hydromagnetics *hydropneumatic *pseudomythical *subformatively *troublemakings *undiscoverably

13 letters

*consumptively *copyrightable *documentarily *draughtswomen *endolymphatic *flamethrowing *flowchartings *hydromagnetic *lycanthropies *metalworkings *misconjugated *motherfucking *multibranched *overadjusting *subordinately *troublemaking *uncombatively *uncopyrighted *unmaledictory *unpredictably *unproblematic *unsympathized

12 letters

*adsorptively *ambidextrous *amblygonites *amylopectins *bankruptcies *blastodermic *bluestocking *cabinetworks *centrifugals *computerniks *configurated *considerably *counterplays *countervails *customizable *demographics *demonstrably *descrambling *discountable *discrepantly *disreputably *doublethinks *drumbeatings *earthmovings *edulcorating *euchromatins *exclusionary *exculpations *expurgations *exhaustingly *farsightedly *flexographic *flowcharting *Francophiles *gourmandizes *granulocytes *hematoxylins *housewarming *hydromancies *hypnotizable *hyponatremic *imponderably *incomputable *incomputably *kymographies *lexicography *Lubavitchers *lycanthropes *malnourished *mendaciously *metalworking *multipronged *neurotypical *nightwalkers *outpreaching *outscreaming *outsparkling *outspreading *overhaulings *overmatching *overstudying *overwatching *packinghouse *patchworking *pelargoniums *phagocytized *phagocytizes *phytoalexins *placentiform *polycentrism *preadjusting *postcardlike *problematics *productively *questionably *recognizably *ropewalkings *stakeholding *stenographic *stickhandler *subnormality *subvocalized *thunderclaps *unforgivable *unforgivably *unglamorized *unhysterical *unprofitable *unprofitably *upholstering *voluntaryism *xylographies There are hundreds of eleven-letter isograms, over one thousand ten-letter isograms and thousands of such nine-letter words.

Phrases and sentences

* ''Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz.'' (26, perfect

) * ''Blocky dwarf zings the jump.'' (A. Maag) (23, missing Q, V, and X) * ''Nymphs beg for quick waltz.'' (Angus Walker) (22, missing D, J, V, and X) * ''Nymphs flicked gox quartz.'' (Rehan B.) (22, missing B, J, V, and W) * ''The big dwarf only jumps.'' (Alain Brobecker) (20, missing C, K, Q, V, X, and Z)

In French

* ''Le bon Giscard!'' (12) * ''Lampez un fort whisky!'' (Alain Brobecker) (18) * ''Plombez vingt fuyards!'' (Alain Brobecker) (19, missing C, H, J, K, Q, W, and X)

In German

* ''"Fix, Schwyz!", quäkt Jürgen blöd vom Paß.'' (30) * ''Malitzschkendorf'' (16): German city

In Danish

* ''Høj bly gom vandt fræk sexquiz på wc.'' (29, perfect pangram)

In Portuguese

* ''Velho traduz, sim!'' (14)

In Spanish

*''Centrifugadlos'' (14, longest heterogramatic word in Spain Spanish (not the case for Castilian, also known as = Latin American Spanish) It's the result of the plural 3rd person verb ''centrifugar'' in informal second-person plural imperative

References

External links

* {{citation , url = http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Renaming+the+Schwar%28t%29zkopf+baby.-a0113563369 , title = Renaming the Schwar(t)zkopf baby. , author = Eric Chaikin , date = 1 February 2004 , work = Word Ways , access-date = 2010-09-30 Word games Word play