Last week, I published a blog post featuring playable four-letter words with three vowels. Knowing those words, and others with multiple vowels, proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the remaining playable four-letter words with three vowels, beginning with the letters in the second half of the alphabet:
- naoi: ancient temples (pl. of naos)
- obia: form of sorcery practiced in the Caribbean (also obeah)
- odea: concert halls (pl. of odeum)
- ogee: an S-shaped molding
- ohia: a Polynesian tree with bright flowers (also lehua)
- olea: corrosive solutions (pl. of oleum)
- olio: a miscellaneous collection
- ouzo: a Turkish anise-flavored liquor
- raia: a non-Muslim Turk (also rayah)
- roue: a lecherous old man
- toea: a currency in Papua, New Guinea
- unai: a two-toed sloth (pl. unai; an ai is a three-toed sloth)
- zoea: the larvae of some crustaceans
Upcoming Class Readings
At the beginning of today’s class, you will receive copies of the articles pictured above: “Want to Play Scrabble Like a Pro? Here’s Your Memory Trick” by Ulrich Boser and “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood” by Allison Aubrey, which you should read and annotate for next Monday, October 19. If you are absent from class or misplace your copies, download and print them from Blackboard.
Next Up
In class on Monday, you will receive your group oral presentation assignment, which will focus on one of the articles distributed in class this week or on the first chapter of Ted Chiang‘s “The Life Cycle of Software Objects” in Exhalation (62-74). After I offer an overview of the assignment and distribute copies of the directions, you will have class time to devote to planning and practice. Since you don’t know which reading will be the subject of your group’s presentation, be sure to complete all five. That will ensure your class time can focus on actual preparations (rather than your initial reading of the text).
