The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead”.

The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing arsenic.”

“Polish” is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality.

“Corduroy” comes from the French, “cord du roi” or “cloth of the king.”

The slash character is called a virgule, or solidus. A URL uses slash characters, not back slash characters.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

The combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.”