DVS Words (Professor Colton's Devious Words List)

I have long been amused by words and phrases can can be spelled out. For example, EZ is "easy", and OICURAB means "Oh, I see. You are a bee." In February 2007 I began my own hunt for these words, before finding the web pages mentioned next. I thought I might be able to work them into some assignment for the Computer Speech Recognition class I teach. The list is shown below.

Prior Art:

My original google search turned up nothing. I tried a few of the longer words from my list in hopes someone was also playing this game. I guess I must have chosen badly for my search.

A later google search for "CNMNE" (sea anemone) turned up two interesting websites. One I really like is a column by Richard Lederer in Jewish World Review. He identifes these DVS words as "Grammagrams, words that when pronounced consist entirely of letter sounds." I have stolen a few that I did not already have from his article and identified them in my list below as (Lederer).

Paul Wright (c)2000 in a delightful web page entitled Other Word Oddities gives a wonderful list of SLWSs (Single Letter Word Sentences) as he calls them. Paul has a really excellent list of DVS words sent in by a visitor to his web site.

DVS Rules:

I decided on the following rules.

Only letters and digits can be used. A purist might stick with just the 26 letters of English. I included digits because both can be used in Vanity Plates on vehicles. Symbols like @ would be nice, but are not allowed. Heart (for love) would be nice, but is not allowed. Letters from other languages, like "pi" from Greek would be nice, but are not allowed.
I have not considered but would accept alternate pronunciations of letters, such as Z which can be pronounced "zee" or "zed". I used "zee" below. I am also willing to accept British, regional, and colloquial pronunciations of words.
The resulting word must be understandable by native English speakers. Foreign words are only allowed if they have essentially been adopted into English.
Each letter or digit must be individually and fully pronounced. We do not allow text-messaging shortcuts like "GR8" for "great" because the G and R are not pronounced individually as letters.
Common abbreviations are not allowed. For example, DVD, CD, TV, MC, AM, PM, BMW, LA, NY, R2D2.
Personal names have their own list because they are not normal words, and can be constructed at a whim.
Bonus points apply to phrases that can be spelled when the individual words cannot, such as "CQ" for "seek you", "2A" for "two way", and "UL" for "you will". That is the main way that phrases can be included on the main word list.
Penalty points, marked by a star*, apply when the letters do not match full syllables of the word. Syllable-stretchers like "ES" for "yes" are second-class citizens. Words that require too much twisting of the letter names are also second-class citizens.
Longer words are more impressive than shorter ones.
A separate but also fun activity is to string the words together into DVS phrases. Bonus points for saying something meaningful.

I needed a name for this type of word. I knew it had to be one of the words on the list itself. EZ did not seem right. DVS had a nice feel to it.

I encourage you to submit new DVS word discoveries to me by email to dvs at colton dot byuh dot edu. The ones I like will be added to the list, with acknowledgement to you if you allow it.

Here then is my DVS Word List, arranged in alphabetical order, from shortest to longest. Some of them may not be actual words, but they sound like words to me :-)

DVS Words:

1
1 1 one won want
1 2 too to
1 4 for fore
1 8 ate
1 A a hey eh
1 B be bee
1 C see sea
1 D the
1 F if
1 G gee
1 H edge age
1 I eye I aye hi high
1 K okay
1 L hell will well
1 M am them
1 N an in and end
1 O oh owe
1 P pea pee
1 Q cue queue
1 R are or our
1 S is
1 T tea tee
1 U ewe you
1 X ask*
1 Y why
2
2 2A two-way
2 4A foray
2 4D forty
2 4M forum
2 4N foreign
2 4S fores(t)
2 4T forty (Ed DeJesus)
2 6D sixty
2 6S success
2 6T sixty
2 7D seventy
2 7T seventy
2 8D eighty
2 8T eighty
2 9D ninety
2 9T ninety
2 AD eighty
2 AL ale
2 AR air*
2 AT eighty
2 B4 before
2 B9 benign
2 BB baby*
2 BD beady (Lederer)
2 BN being
2 BZ busy*
2 CD seedy (Lederer)
2 CL seal ceil
2 CQ seek-you
2 CR seer
2 CT city
2 D5 defy
2 D9 denying
2 DK decay (Lederer)
2 DL deal
2 DR dear
2 DZ dizzy*
2 EA yea!
2 EL eel yell
2 ER ear your
2 ES yes
2 EZ easy
2 FR ever
2 FX effects
2 IC icy
2 IL aisle isle
2 IV ivy
2 JL jail
2 K9 canine
2 KG cagey
2 KL kale
2 L8 elate
2 LO hello
2 ME Emmy (award)
2 MT empty
2 N8 innate
2 NE any
2 NR inner
2 NS anise
2 NT auntie
2 NV envy
2 OK okay
2 OL oil oh-well
2 PL peel peal
2 QP Kewpie (Lederer)
2 QT cutie
2 R8 orate
2 RG orgy
2 S6 essex
2 SA essay
2 SX essex
2 TL teal
2 TP tepee (Lederer)
2 U8 you-wait
2 UA you-weigh
2 UH you-wage
2 UL you-will you-well
2 UN you-went
2 US you-ask
2 VL veal
2 VU view
2 XL excel
2 XM exam
2 XS excess
2 YL while
2 ZL zeal
3
3 2BS dubious
3 4FR forever
3 4NR foreigner
3 4SN fluorescent*
3 6SR successor
3 8ND attendee
3 AV8 aviate
3 BUT beauty*
3 C28 situate
3 DV8 deviate
3 DVS devious
3 FND effendi (Lederer)
3 LFN elephan(t)
3 LMN elemen(t)
3 LOG elegy
3 MN8 eminate
3 MR8 emirate
3 NDN Indian (courtesy of NDN CARZ song title)
3 NME enemy
3 NVS envious
3 ODS odious
3 OP8 opiate
3 OPM opium
3 OV8 oviate
3 PNO piano
3 R8R orator
3 SKP escapee (on my in-laws travel trailer)
3 SN9 asinine
3 SNE Essene
3 TDS tedious (Lederer)
3 VDO video
3 XLN excellen(t)
3 XMO eskimo*
3 XP8 expiate
4
4 AV8R aviator
4 DV8R deviater
4 DVNC deviancy
4 EDBD itty-bitty
4 NLOG analogy
4 NMNE anemone
4 NVDS invidious
4 OV8R oviator
4 RKDN arcadian (Lederer)
4 SNTL essential
4 XLNC excellency
4 XLR8 accelerate exhilerate
4 XPD8 expediate
4 YLU8 while-you-wait
5
5 CNMNE sea anemone
5 OBDNC obediency (Lederer)
5 SNTLE essentially
5 XFSEO ex-officio
5 XLR8R accelerator
5 XPD8R expediator
5 XPDNC expediency

DVS Names:

1
1 B Bea
1 D Dee
1 J Jay
1 K Kay Kaye
1 Z Zee
2
2 BL Beale Bill*
2 EV Evie
2 IV Ivy
2 JC JaiCi
2 JN Jane*
2 KC Casey
2 KT Katie
2 LC Elsie
2 LE Ellie
2 LS Alice* Ellis
2 ME Emmy
2 MN Ammon
2 NE Annie*
2 NS Innes
2 OB Obi
2 OP Opie
2 RT Artie
2 UG Yugi
3
3 LSN Allison* Ellison
3 MNM Eminem
3 OB1 Obi-Wan
3 UGO Yu-Gi-Oh
4
4 XAVR Xavier

Some fun phrases:

OI12BA6S - Oh, I want to be a success.
4FRNFR - Forever and ever.
I1NME - I won an Emmy.