A.Word.A.Day -- abstemious

A.Word.A.Day

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Apr 23, 2007

This week's theme
Words having vowels aeiou once and only once, and in order

This week's words
abstemious
caesious
anemious
facetious
annelidous

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

"I'd like to buy a vowel." If you have watched this popular TV game show you're familiar with this oft-heard sentence. For non-watchers, it's a Hangman-like game where contestants identify words in several categories by guessing their letters. Correctly guessing a consonant helps in winning a prize, while one has to pay to guess a vowel.

Imagine playing this game and getting words having all five vowels! That wouldn't be very exciting if you had to squander all your cash to buy those vowels. To make it easy, this week we've selected words that contain all the vowels once, and only once, and even easier: the vowels are in alphabetical order.

abstemious

(ab-STEE-mee-uhs)

adjective: Sparing, especially in matters of eating and drinking.

[From Latin abstemius, from ab- (from) + temetum (liquor).]

"Flowers can also be divided into thirsty water drinkers, and the abstemious, which use water sparingly."
Valerie Elliott; Heralds of Spring Have a Sinister Side; The Times (London, UK); Apr 9, 2007.

See more usage examples of abstemious in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

X-Bonus

Let your capital be simplicity and contentment. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

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