Marin Gardner used to author an interesting column in Scientific American. He once asked readers to consider a special type of dictionary. Computers at that time were neither as fast nor as sophisticated as modern ones. His proposed dictionary would list words alphabetized in a different fashion, best indicated by example rather than description. Dare, dear, & read would be listed under ader. He asked readers to consider various questions. Act is already in alphabetical order: What is the longest such word? What entry (if any) would have the most words listed? See above: Ader which has three. What is the first word in the B section? Similarly for the C section. Note that bubble comes after bubbled in this dictionary. What is the last word in this dictionary? I guessed sty. A friend suggested Tutu. Does anyone here know of a word after tutu? There might have been other interesting questions. For quite a few decades, computerized dictionaries have been available & such questions could be answered. While I do a lot of programming for fun, I do not want to take the time to do the above job.
In not sure Humpty Dumpty would approve of such a dictionary Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The word doesn't need to be in alphabetical order, I think, but the entry for it in the dictionary would be. So tutu would come under the entry ttuu. My guess for last entry would be uuyz, for the word yuzu - a Japanese citrus fruit. For the longest word in alphabetical order: chimps, abhors, begins, almost... All 6 letters. There may be more of 6, but can't think of any longer. 1st B word... I can only think of BOBBLED - so BBBDELO. 1st C word... I was thinking it may be COCCYX (your tailbone) but in trying to find out how it is spelt I came across COCCIC. So this would be under the entry CCCCIO For entry with most words, I thought it might be AEPRS: Parse, pears, spear, spare, rapes, pares, reaps.