montecristo

I'm considering writing something, but I was sorting through some old papers of mine which are full of interesting snippets of trivia, (what the ex used to call my "infomania") and I found my list of killer words. I love word games, for the most part. I used to play hangman quite frequently. Once I sat down and came up with a bunch of doozie words which would present real head scratchers to opponents playing hangman with me. There is a nine-letter length restriction because I believe that is the limit for the boxed hangman game sold in stores. I think that just adds to the challenge. They're killer words because:

• they have unusual letter progressions
• unusual constructions
• they have few vowels (or use "Y's")
• having just a few letters misleads from how the word actually sounds when you have all of the letters
• guessing one or two vowels actually makes it harder to guess the word because of how they're used

The Killer Hangman Word List:

1. affluent
2. amethyst
3. aphorism
4. asphyxia
5. beryl
6. biology
7. biome
8. chloride
9. chrome
10. couchant
11. crucible
12. cyclops
13. diachronic
14. diatom
15. embryo
16. escheat
17. fresnel
18. funereal
19. grapheme
20. grapnel
21. grisly
22. grizzle
23. haughty
24. hectare
25. hydroxyl
26. indices
27. ingenue
28. jejune
29. jejunum
30. jocose
31. ketone
32. kindling
33. kiosk
34. laughter
35. maladept
36. misogyny
37. neophyte
38. nominal
39. nuclear
40. nybble
41. obscure
42. oracle
43. origami
44. phloem
45. phosphor
46. phylum
47. porphyry
48. pugilism
49. quixotic
50. roentgen
51. rhizome
52. sphinx
53. stupefy
54. syzygy
55. teleology
56. topiary
57. ukulele
58. ulcerate
59. ululate
60. vignette
61. vinyl
62. wimple
63. wisdom
64. writhe
65. wrong
66. yarmulke
67. zealous
68. zephyr
69. zoophyte
70. zygote

Some Silly Key Memeage

You're a slightly tarnished metal key, and you
unlock the wardrobe. At first glance, you seem
to present only simple, everyday things, but
anyone who looks deeper will find much more.
Just don't expect everyone to believe in you,
and those who don't may not grasp your worth.

What sort of key are you and what do you unlock?
brought to you by Quizilla

Now, what in the hell that means I have no idea. I suspect that it is alluding to C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but I am not certain. Actually, I've never read that book, although I have been tempted upon occasion to pick it up.