lipogram

Everyday

A piece of writing in which one letter of the alphabet is never used on purpose, for example a story with no letter "e". tree →

In the lessons

In English lessons and word puzzles a lipogram is a writing game and a challenge: you must find other words to say what you mean. It shows how common some letters are (e is the commonest in English). In olympiad puzzles you may be asked to spot which letter is missing. Phrases: write a lipogram, a lipogram without e.

Examples

• Our teacher asked us to write a lipogram without the letter "a". tree →
• "I am big, I can run" is not a lipogram without "a", because "am" has an "a". tree →
• A whole French novel was written as a lipogram with no letter "e". tree →
• Writing a lipogram makes you think hard about words. tree →
• Can you spot which letter this lipogram leaves out? tree →
• My lipogram about a cat had no "t", so I called it a "kitty-cuddly animal"… oops, that has a "t"! tree →

Note

Countable: one lipogram, two lipograms. Pronounced LIP-oh-gram. From Greek "leaving out a letter". Not the same as a pangram, which uses every letter (The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog). Not to do with lips.