The word “pangram” comes from the Greek root words pan, meaning “all,” and gram, meaning “something written or recorded.” A pangram is also known as a holoalphabetic sentence or alphabet sentence.
Because pangrams contain every letter of the alphabet, they are particularly useful for artists who design fonts. Calligraphers will use a pangram to display all the letters in a given typeset or when trying a new pen tip. A humorous and easily-remembered pangram is also enjoyable for children learning the alphabet.
The words in a “perfect” pangram (one in which each letter appears only once) are sometimes called non-pattern words or isograms. In such cases, sense often deteriorates proportionately with brevity and abbreviations are necessary to achieve the 26-letter goal:
- Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD., bags few lynx.
- GQ’s oft lucky whiz Dr. J, ex-NBA MVP
Without the restrictions of logological perfection, here are some creative pangrams, from shortest to longest, to replace the standard 33-letter jumping fox and lazy dog:
- Glib jocks quiz nymph to vex dwarf. (27 letters)
- Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow. (29 letters)
- How vexingly quick daft zebras jump! (30 letters)
- Two driven jocks help fax my big quiz. (30 letters)
- The five boxing wizards jump quickly. (31 letters)
- Go, lazy fat vixen; be shrewd, jump quick. (31 letters)
- Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. (32 letters)
- When zombies arrive, quickly fax Judge Pat. (35 letters)
- Sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives. (36 letters)
- Watch “Jeopardy!”, Alex Trebek’s fun TV quiz game. (37 letters)
- Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes. (40 letters)
- By Jove, my quick study of lexicography won a prize! (41 letters)
- My girl wove six dozen plaid jackets before she quit. (43 letters)
- Fred specialized in the job of making very quaint wax toys. (48 letters)
- Farmer Jack realized that big yellow quilts were expensive. (50 letters)
- Brown jars prevented the mixture from freezing too quickly. (50 letters)
- Intoxicated Queen Elizabeth vows Mick Jagger is perfection. (51 letters)
Interested in more linguistic fun? Check out these posts about ambigrams, palindromes, portmanteaux, and mondegreens!
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