Riddle! read carefully!!!?!


Question: "Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."


Answers: "Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."

language

there are only 3 words on "the English language"
language is the 3rd word

ingry? haha it makes the most sense to me

The -Gry Puzzle is a popular puzzle that asks for the third English word, other than "angry" and "hungry," that ends with the letters "-gry." Aside from words derived from "angry" and "hungry," there is no stand-alone word ending in "-gry" that is in current usage.

Both Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2002, ISBN 0-87779-201-1) and the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-19-861186-2) contain the compound word "aggry bead." To find a third word ending in -gry that is not part of a phrase, you must turn to archaic, obsolete, or uncommon words, or personal or place names, a comprehensive list of which is given at the end of this article.

This puzzle has no good answer, yet it has become the most frequently asked word puzzle. [1] [2] [3]

Contents [hide]
1 Puzzle as quest
2 History
3 Alternate versions
3.1 Trick versions
3.2 Meta-puzzle versions
4 Words and names that end in -gry
4.1 A list of names and words ending in -gry, many of which are obsolete, archaic, or simply uncommon.
4.2 Sources consulted
5 References
6 Further reading



[edit] Puzzle as quest
This topic is a source of lively interest, both to lovers of word puzzles and lovers of words. Intriguingly, there are members of the latter group who have little or no interest in the puzzle, per se; the challenge is in the list (of words). For both groups, much of the appeal lies in the quest, either to trace the origin of the puzzle or compile a complete list of words ending in -gry.


[edit] History
Merriam-Webster, publishers of the leading American dictionaries, first heard of this puzzle in a letter dated March 17, 1975, from Patricia Lasker of Brooklyn, New York. Lasker says her plant manager heard the question on a quiz show. Since that time Merriam-Webster has received about four letters each year asking the question.

This puzzle first appears in print in Anita Richterman's "Problem Line" column in Newsday on April 29, 1975. One "M.Z." from Wantagh states that the problem was asked on a TV quiz program. Richterman states that she asked a learned professor of English for help when she first received the inquiry, and he did not respond for over a month. So the quiz show probably occurred in March.

In Anita Richterman's column on May 9, 1975, several correspondents reported that they had heard the puzzle on the Bob Grant radio talk show on WMCA in New York City. As this is not a TV quiz show, this may not be the origin of the puzzle. The majority of readers gave the answer "gry," one of the obsolete words listed at the end of this article. It is unclear whether this was the answer given on the Grant show.

Ralph G. Beaman in the "Kickshaws" column in Word Ways for February 1976 reports that the Delaware Valley was mystified during the fall of 1975 by the question. By this time the puzzle seems to have mutated to a form in which the missing word is an adjective that describes the state of the world.

Some people remember a different version of this puzzle dating it back before 1975. For example, someone named "Rush Elkins" emailed the editors of yourDictionary with this report:

I first heard the "gry" riddle posed in slightly different form in 1969 or 1970. I was then in graduate school at University of Florida and in the habit of meeting with a group of friends every Wednesday evening for dinner, drinks, and conversation. One of those evenings, someone challenged the group to find three common English words containing the letter combination "gry." I'm sure that there was no stipulation on the placement of "gry" because I recall someone suggesting that it might occur at the boundary of a compound word. (That turns out to lead nowhere.)
A year or two later, I encountered the word "gryphon" in a book, had one of those aha! experiences, and presented my find at the next meeting as a sort of trophy. Although not exactly an everyday sort of word, "gryphon" appears in most dictionaries and is understood by most literate English readers.
If these memories are accurate, then perhaps in 1975 a subtle flaw was introduced into an otherwise commonplace word puzzle. Instead of asking for three words that contain "gry," the flawed version asks for three words that end in "gry." Presumably the person who asked the question did not know the answer and, in repeating the question, simply misstated it. Since the flawed version has no good answer, an explosion of searching followed.

language.

Hey!

The third word in the phrase 'the English language' is language. The rest of the riddle is just camouflage.

Luv ya,
Tashi :)

language

language.
you dont mean a third word ending in GRY
you mean the third word in the phrase "the english language"
:]]

There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?

language

"words" is the third word

Hmm, angry, hungry. I think the third word is...... language!Ha! ive seen this riddle before!



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