Nandor's Exhaustive Chemical Words Pages
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So what, exactly, are "chemical words?" Simply put, they are English words
that can be spelled using element symbols as 'letters.' In other words, the
only characters used to spell these words are element symbols like 'N' (for nitrogen)
and 'Na' (for sodium). Thus, we can "spell" the word 'arches'
in two ways (ArCHeS -- argon, carbon, helium, sulfer and ArCHEs --
argon, carbon, hydrogen, selenium). On the other hand, there is no way at all to "spell" pillar.
So, who might be interested in this page? Anyone who loves chemistry, certainly.
High school teachers could use these words to increase the interest in the
subject. How about English lovers who want ONe SUPEr ScHoLaSTiC PrOCeSS ThAt
He/SHe CaN USe In ClAsS? Or perhaps chemistry teachers trying to help their
student learn their chemical symbols (Question: Picasso pioneered what
short-lived but influential form of art? Answer: Copper + Bismuth +
Samarium = CuBiSm).
1. A list of all English words (44,313 of them) that can be spelled with
element symbols. [list]
1a. A list of all of the spellings of those words (93,604 ways). [list]
2. A list of first names (199 of them) that can be
spelled with Chemical symbols. These names are taken from the most
popular baby names (200 from the two major gender groups) in America, from each decade since 1880,
according to the Social Security Administration. Combining all of these,
1205 total names were considered.[list]
2a. A list of the spellings of those names (264 of them). [list]
3. A list of countries (36 of them) that can
be spelled with Chemical symbols. This list only includes current
countries that have been accepted by the United Nations or are observer states. Thus, for instance, KOsOVO
is not (yet?) included. On the other hand, I have added PAlEsTiNe since it has "observer" status.
I also included the obviously interesting political status in the UK. I finally landed on trying
all combinations: unitedkingdom, greatbritain, england, scotland, wales, northernireland.
Clearly, I had to make some decisions here based on politics... but then, countries are already
inherently political. Also, where possible, phrases like "Republic of" have
not been considered. [list]
3a. A list of the spellings of those countries (62 of them). [list]
Important information regarding the element symbols I use as characters:
In November 2016, the IUPAC finished naming the entire 7th period of the Periodic Table,
which really should finish off all of the naming there is to do.
I sincerely doubt there will be any naming of elements in a hypothetical 8th period, but
I SUPPOSE it would be possible to see elements 119 and 120 (filling the S shell of period 8)
discovered, if not named.
If that happens in my lifetime, I'll update this list!
Important information regarding which words I try to spell with those element symbols:
The ENABLE word list is considered "official" for almost all word-based games, except Scrabble.
Scrabble itself uses an official word list for each of British English and American English tournaments.
The combination of those two lists is called the SOWPODS word list.
MY combodictionary.txt word list is the combination (mathematical Union) of the 2018 ENABLE and SOWPODS lists.
The word list I used was meant to TRULY be exhaustive! It contains 272,405 words.
Some simple examples of what is (and is not) in my word list:
No words that must be capitalized, like 'Ireland.'
No acronyms or initialisms, like 'NRA' or 'NAFTA'... unless,
like 'LASER,' they have come into common usage as words.
Archaic words, like 'thir' (a Middle-English pronoun) are allowed.
No contractions or possessives.
No abbreviations, like 'abbr'... unless they have become words in
common usage, such as 'repo.'
Your favorite, pet word that is archaic and difficult to find, will almost certainly
be on the list; however, if it is not: sorry! I had to draw the line somewhere, and a
word list that is over 270k long is official enough for me.
If you use this page in your classroom, &c., please reference me! Also, if you
like these pages or have anything interesting that you think should be added, drop me a line: mark@nandor.org