Any word in this category has the specified letter silent and superfluous.

There is a ideological issue here; for example, is the "A" in "ROAD" silent? It could be argued that it is not silent because it is the "OA" together that create the "long O" sound, and without the "A" the word becomes "ROD" (with a "short O" sound). However, we've always referred to the "E" in a word such as "RODE" as "silent E", even though without it we would have "ROD" again.

With this in mind, the only word on my list one might consider borderline is "RACQUET" (where "CQU" functions together like "CK"). I'm not sure I would pronounce "RACUET" the same as "RACQUET".

ABC Lists