List of English words containing Q not followed by U

Qwerty, one of the few native English words with Q not followed by U (or another vowel), is derived from the first six letters of a standard keyboard layout.

A souq in Marrakech, Morocco. Like 32 of the 71 other English words that use a q not followed by a u, souq is of Arabic origin.

In English, the letter Q is usually followed by the letter U, but there are some exceptions. The majority of these are anglicised from Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Inuktitut, or other languages which do not use the English alphabet, with Q representing a sound not found in English. For example, in the Chinese pinyin alphabet, qi is pronounced /tʃi/ by an English speaker, as pinyin uses "q" to represent the sound [tɕʰ], which is approximated as [tʃ] in English. In other examples, Q represents [q] in standard Arabic, such as in qat, faqir and Qur'ān. In Arabic, the letter ق, traditionally romanised as Q, is quite distinct from ك, traditionally romanised as K; for example, قلب /qalb/ means "heart" but كلب /kalb/ means "dog". However, alternative spellings are sometimes accepted which use K (or sometimes C) in place of Q; for example, Koran (Qur'ān) and Cairo (al-Qāhira).

Of the 71 words in this list, 67 are nouns, and most would generally be considered loanwords;^[1] the only modern-English words that contain Q not followed by U and are not borrowed from another language are qiana, qwerty, and tranq. However, all of the loanwords on this list are 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.

Proper nouns are not included in the list. There are, in addition, many place names and personal names, mostly originating from Arabic-speaking countries, Albania, 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 Canadian territory of Nunavut, also has a Q which is not directly followed by a U. Qaqortoq,^[2] in Greenland, is notable for having three such Qs. Other proper names and acronyms that have attained the status of English words include: Compaq (a computer company),^[3] Nasdaq (a US electronic stock market),^[4] Qantas (an Australian airline),^[5] and QinetiQ (a British technology company).^[6] Zaqqum (a tree mentioned in the Qur'an)^[7] and Saqqara (an ancient burial ground in Egypt)^[8] are proper nouns notable for their use of a double Q.

Words

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.

Uses in Scrabble

In many word games, notably in Scrabble, a player must build a word using a certain set of letters. If a player is obliged to use a q but does not have a u, it may be possible to play words from this list. Not all words in this list are acceptable in Scrabble tournament games. Scrabble tournaments around the world use their own sets of words from selected dictionaries which may not contain all the words listed here.

Qi is the most commonly played word in Scrabble tournaments,^[9] and was added to the official North American word list in 2006.^[10]

Other words listed in this article, such as suq, umiaq or qiviut, are also acceptable, but since these contain a u, they are less likely to be useful in the situation described.^[11]

See also

• List of words without vowel letters
• Constrained writing

Footnotes

• [AH]: The American Heritage Dictionary (4 ed.). Dell. 2001. ISBN 0-440-23701-7. 
• [AHC]: American Heritage College Dictionary (4 ed.). Houghton Mifflin. 2007. ISBN 0-618-83595-4. 
• [AOX]: "Ask Oxford". Retrieved July 27, 2009. 
• [C]: The Chambers Dictionary (9 ed.). Chambers. 2003. ISBN 0-550-10105-5. 
• [Co]: Collins English Dictionary (3 ed.). HarperCollins. 1994. ISBN 0-00-470678-1. 
• [COD]: Concise Oxford Dictionary (8 ed.). Clarendon. 1990. ISBN 0-19-861200-1. 
• [E]: "Microsoft Encarta online dictionary". Archived from the original on October 31, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2006. 
• [L]: The Longman Dictionary of the English Language (5 ed.). Longman. 1988. ISBN 0-582-55511-6. 
• [LC]: The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4 ed.). Longman. 2003. ISBN 0-582-77649-X. 
• [MW]: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11 ed.). Merriam-Webster. 2003. ISBN 0-87779-809-5. 
• [MWO]: "Merriam-Webster online dictionary". Retrieved May 29, 2006. 
• [ODE]: Oxford Dictionary of English (2 ed.). Oxford UP. 2003. ISBN 0-19-861347-4. 
• [OED]: Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford UP. 2003. ISBN 0-19-861347-4. 
• [OSPD4]: The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (4 ed.). Merriam-Webster. 2005. ISBN 0-87779-929-6. 
• [RHU]: Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2 ed.). Random House. 1998. ISBN 0-517-19931-9. 
• [RHW]: Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2 ed.). Random House. 2005. ISBN 0-375-42599-3. 
• [SOED]: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (3 ed.). Clarendon. 1992. ISBN 0-19-861294-X. 
• [TWL]: Official Tournament and Club Word List (2 ed.). Merriam-Webster. 2006. ISBN 0-87779-635-1. 
• [W]: Random House Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Random House Reference. 2000. ISBN 0-375-42560-8. 
• [WI]: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster. 2002. ISBN 0-87779-201-1. 

References

Further reading

External links

• Wiktionary's list of English words containing Q not followed by U: