From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Qwerty, one of the few native English words with q and no u in current usage, is derived from the first six letters of a standard keyboard layout.

In English, the letter q is mostly followed by the letter u. While this is true in the vast majority of cases, there are some exceptions. The majority of these are naturalised from Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew or other languages which do not use the English alphabet, with q representing a sound not found in English. For example, qi is pronounced /tʃi/, as pinyin uses ‹q› to represent the sound [tɕʰ], which is approximated as [tʃ] in English. In other examples, q represents [k], such as in qat and faqir, and alternative spellings are accepted which use k in place of q.

Almost all of these words are nouns, and most would generally be considered loanwords. However, they are all considered to be naturalised in English according to at least one major dictionary (see References), often because they refer to concepts or societal roles that do not have an accurate equivalent in English. For words to appear here, they must appear in their own entry in a dictionary; words which occur only as part of a longer phrase are not included. Also, some dictionaries note that many words which are now spelt with a qu (such as square) could once have been spelt with a qw, but these archaic variants are not included here.

A suq in Marrakech, Morocco. Like many English words that use a q not followed by a u, suq is of Arabic origin.

In addition, there are many place names and personal names, mostly originating from North Africa, the Middle East or China, that have a q without a u. The most familiar of these are the countries of Iraq and Qatar, along with the derived words Iraqi and Qatari. Iqaluit, the capital of the territory Nunavut, Canada also has a q with the absence of a u. Qaqortoq, in Greenland, is notable for having three naked qs. Other proper names and acronyms that have attained the status of English words include: Compaq (a computer company), Qantas (an Australian airline), Nasdaq (the US electronic stock market) and QinetiQ (a British technology company). Zaqqum (a tree mentioned in the Qur'an) and Saqqara are proper nouns notable for their use of a double q. However the nouns in this list are common nouns.

Unless noted otherwise all words listed here are assumed to be pluralized by adding -s or -es. References in the "Sources" column relate to the headword in column one; variant spellings are then separately referenced. The sources given are selective, and the absence of a reference to a particular dictionary does not necessarily mean that the word does not appear in that dictionary.

In many word games, most famously in Scrabble, a player must build a word using a certain set of letters. Therefore, if a player is obliged to use a Q but does not have a U, it may be useful to construct words from this list. In Scrabble in North America, the only acceptable words with a Q and not a U are qi, qat, qaid, qadi, qoph, qanat, tranq, faqir, sheqel, qabala, qabalah, qindar, qintar, qindarka, mbaqanga, and qwerty, along with their plurals (such as qats and sheqelim).[ TWL ] Other words in this list, such as suq and qiviut, are also acceptable, but since these contain a U, they are less likely to be useful.

• List of words without vowel letters

• [AH]: The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition (ISBN 0-440-23701-7)
• [AHC]: American Heritage College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 2000
• [AOX]: Ask Oxford Last accessed May 29, 2006.
• [C]: The Chambers Dictionary, 2003
• [Co]: Collins English Dictionary, Third Edition (updated 1994)
• [COD]: The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Eighth Edition, 1990
• [E]: Microsoft Encarta online dictionary Last accessed May 29, 2006.
• [L]: The Longman Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, 1988 (ISBN 0-582-55511-6)
• [LC]: The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Fourth Edition, 2003
• [MW]: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
• [MWO]: Merriam-Webster online dictionary Last accessed May 29, 2006.
• [ODE]: Oxford Dictionary of English, Second Edition, 2003 (ISBN 0-19-861347-4)
• [OED]: Oxford English Dictionary, 2003
• [OSPD4]: The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 2005 (ISBN 0-87779-929-6)
• [RHU]: Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 1997
• [RHW]: Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2005 (ISBN 0-375-42599-3)
• [SODE]: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, 1992
• [W]: Random House Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 2000
• [WI]: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (ISBN 0-87779-201-1)