Words With All Five Vowels (A, E, I, O and U)
Every vowel in one word, A, E, I, O and U, is less rare than you might think. We found 188 common English words that use all five, and a good number are everyday words. Here are the best of them, and why they are worth knowing if you play word games.
The shortest ones
The shortest common word with all five vowels is SEQUOIA, at seven letters, a giant redwood tree. Other short ones include EQUATION, DIALOGUE, EUPHORIA, EDUCATION and CAUTIONED.
More everyday examples
EQUATION, DIALOGUE, EUPHORIA, EDUCATION, BEHAVIOUR, TENACIOUS, PNEUMONIA, AUTOMOBILE, REPUTATION, EVACUATION, NEFARIOUS, BOUNDARIES, AUTHORISE, AUTHORIZE.
Vowels in alphabetical order
A rare handful contain A, E, I, O and U once each, in order. The best known are FACETIOUS and ABSTEMIOUS, both meaning something specific (joking, and sparing with food and drink). Add -LY and FACETIOUSLY and ABSTEMIOUSLY still keep the vowels in order, now with a Y on the end.
Why they matter in word games
- Clearing a vowel-heavy rack. In Scrabble or Words With Friends, drawing too many vowels is a common problem. A word using several at once gets you unstuck, even if it scores little.
- Long-word puzzles. In the Countdown letters round, a selection with four or five vowels suddenly has promising words like EQUATION or DIALOGUE hiding in it.
- Crosswords and quizzes. "A word with all five vowels" is a classic clue, and SEQUOIA and FACETIOUS are the answers setters reach for.
A word-game fact to remember
U is the rarest vowel in English, so a word that includes a U alongside the other four is doing something unusual. That is why SEQUOIA and EUPHORIA feel surprising: they pack in the vowel most words avoid.
Curious which words hide in a jumble of letters? Enter them into our word unscrambler. For the five-letter angle, see five-letter words with the most vowels.
Word lists come from our own dictionary (the public-domain ENABLE word list), showing common words; a larger dictionary would add rarer examples.
Related reading: 5-letter words with the most vowels · Longest words in English · Words with no vowels
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