What is the longest common English word that contains no vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u)?

The story behind the answer

The longest common English word containing none of the vowel letters a, e, i, o or u is “rhythms.”

“Rhythms” has seven letters, and its vowel-like sounds are represented by the letter y rather than by the five conventional vowel letters named in the question. In English spelling, y can represent a vowel sound, as it does in “rhythms,” but it is not included in the question’s definition of a vowel letter.

The word is the plural of “rhythm,” meaning a pattern of beats, movement or recurring emphasis. It is often cited in wordplay and spelling trivia because it demonstrates how English can write syllables without using a, e, i, o or u. “Myths,” “crypt” and “shyly” also qualify, but each is shorter.

The word “common” matters. Extremely rare terms, sound effects and abbreviations can produce competing claims; for example, “tsktsks” is sometimes listed as a longer lexical form without those five letters. It is not generally considered as common as “rhythms,” so “rhythms” remains the standard answer to this familiar trivia question.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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