What is the longest English word that can be entered into a text message...

[clop]

...using only the first letters available on each button.

i.e. the only letters allowed are A, D, G, J, M, P, T and W.


Clue - there are two possible six-letter solutions.


clop

[GDwarf]

8 letters per space, and 6 spaces. 8^6 possible combinations, quite a few too many to simply list an guess.

So I'll assume that the first letter is not an 'A', but that the second letter is. That makes it... 8^4 * 7 possible combinations, still far too many.

If I then assume that the last letter won't be an 'A', I get
8^3 * 7^2 still far, far too many.

I don't think I'm going to be able to solve this with a list of possible choices any time soon.

[01101001]

pajama
pawpaw

[clop]

01101001 how did you do it?

clop

[snarkophilus]

Um, I've seen "tom-tom" written as "tam-tam" before.

Here's a list of all letter combinations -- under one page of code to generate them. (Three cheers for Prolog!)

http://web.unbc.ca/~mcnamarg/words.zip

Code if you'd rather generate your own:
%
% letpuz.pl
% To get 6 letter combinations, call getSolutions(6,myfile).

getSolutions(Length, Filename) :-
tell(Filename),
writeSolutions(Length),
!,
told.

writeSolutions(M) :-
solution(M, S),
writeSol(S),
nl,
fail.
writeSolutions(_).

solution(0,[]) :- !.
solution(N, [Let|R]) :-
letter(Let),
M is N-1,
solution(M, R).

writeSol([]).
writeSol([A|R]) :-
write(A),
!,
writeSol(R).

letter(a).
letter(d).
letter(g).
letter(j).
letter(m).
letter(p).
letter(t).
letter(w).

[01101001]

01101001 how did you do it?
Unix tools.

grep -i '^[adgjmptw][adgjmptw][adgjmptw][adgjmptw][adgjmptw][adgjmptw]$' /usr/share/dict/words

[clop]

that is amazing

[Eroica]

Wagamama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagamama) :)

(Just be patient. It's only a matter of time before it finds its way into the OED!)

[snarkophilus]

I have an English dictionary that includes the word "mata-mata," although it is a hyphenated word. Apparently, it is used to mean "police" in Malaysia.

I hate the spelling "pajama." It confuses and infuriates me.

[Roy Batty]

Wagamama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagamama) :)

(Just be patient. It's only a matter of time before it finds its way into the OED!)
Hey! i've got one of those about a mile away in Kingston (http://www.wagamama.com/locations_map.php?locationid=24). Only been once but the food was good :)

[Fram]

A, D, G, J, M, P, T and W? In Dutch, we can do better than 6. No program, just trial and error, gives me at least 7:

JAAGPAD (towpath)

Anyone can do better in his or her language?

[Fram]

Oh, and "Mammagamma" is an Alan Parsons Project song title.