Can you think of a word with four repeated letters?
For example, the word runner has two repeated letters, r and n. I posed the problem to myself of finding words with 3 repeated letters and, after a little while, was able to think of a few.
The problem of finding words with 4 repeated letters was more difficult. I did not think of any at first and stopped thinking about it. Then later on a word popped into my head and later another one. The words were relatively short, with only 2 non-repeated letters in one case and 3 in the other. I had to write them down to be certain that there were in fact 4 repeated letters.
It is interesting to think of how the mind works for such problems. There is no way to systematically attack them. Somehow use is made of the way we internally file words. There can’t be all that many words with 4 repeated letters. I would appreciate it if some of you try to find some, so I can see if the words you think of are the same as the ones I thought of.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
46 Answers
I did a search and came up with this:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH, which is the name of a Welsh town.
Since your example of “runner” has the “n” and the “r” as being repeated, my example has “L”, “A”, “N”, “I”, “R”, “W”, “Y”, “G”, “O” and “R” 10 repeated letters. Oddly, it only has 5 letters that AREN’T repeated.
As everyone knows, there is “Ssssnake”.
It is the title of a 1973 horror film.
Antidisestablishmentarianism has 7— a n t i s e m.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis has 11— p n u m o l r a i s c.
I was a bit off in the number of non-repeating letters of the words I thought of. One word has 5, with a total length of 14, and is pretty commonly used. The other has 4, with a total length of 12, and would not be out of place in a newspaper article.
I just reread this. Not one letter repeated at least four times, but four separate letters repeated at least once?
Yes, that is correct. success counts as two repeated letters, s and c, and successes counts as 3 repeated letters.
I came up with Mississippi too.
I did not think of Mississippi. Can you think of any words not related to proper nouns?
Underground is all that comes to my mind.
Penniicillinnssss…
Spoken by Parselmouths who are also veterinarians when talking to patient snakes. (jk ) :)
Constitution
misinterpretation
philosophies
“intestines” has five repeated letters. The word can be scrambled to “iinntteess”.
“Bookkeeper” has three doubles in a row. But that’s not what you’re looking for, I guess.
I think there must be a lot of words with four-letter repeats, but retrieving them from memory with a repeated-letter filter isn’t easy unless your brain is tuned to work that way. For me it would be easier to notice them as they go by in reading.
Dos anyone play “hangman” any more? If so, and you play by the rules that a correct guess fills in all the instances of that letter, the ones with repeats are good ones to avoid.
How does Mississippi qualify? It repeats i, s, and p. That’s three. Have I misunderstood the criterion?
@Jeruba You’re right about Ol’ Miss! I missed.
Thanks all.
@Demosthenes , I was not willing to contemplate 5 repeats. Nicely done, and all letters repeat.
The words I thought of were classification and recalcitrant.
I’m not sure I understand what’s requested, but would a word like syllepsis qualify?
@stanleybmanly No, it has to have 4 letters that each repeat in the word.
plurals count? Like secessionists? If so, it might prove expedient to mine the “s” words.
@stanleybmanly, I made the same mistake. It’s not one letter many times, but many letters repeated at least once, like “intestines” from @Demosthenes.
So happenstances? That’s 5 different letters repeating.
This game is insidious. It puts my head in a ditch that threatens to destroy my productive day. Right now the four letter needle is skipping on the p tracks: perspiration, propeller, perpetrate, prosperous—-HELP ME!
Well done! Maybe you are on to something by choosing a starting letter. It took me a little time to check that plenipotential does have 6 repeats. Only the a and o are non-repeating. You can take a break now. You have demonstrated your skill in solving this. Any insight into how you approached this would be welcome.
This isn’t the blessing you might suppose. As the very current discussion on another thread so elegantly demonstrates, the fact that my mind is so easily hobbled with such distractions is a handicap if it cannot be somehow monetized—penitential!!! How do you switch it off???
How about abracadabra? (abra) Is that a word?
For a moment I was terrified that ragingloli was one of THEM.
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Reckon that’s a 10
<drops mic>
@LuckyGuy , abracadabra only has 3 repeating letters, a, b and r. Here is one that you should be familiar with – engineering.
I initially thought that there must be a lot of place names like Mississippi with lots of repeating letters. The only other one that I can think of is Londonderry.
A wild thought that occurred to me. @stanleybmanly mentioned the words prosperous and plenipotential. Does having repeated letters contribute to the meaning of these words, giving a sense of fullness? Would the same hold true in a negative way for penitentiary, suggesting a place of many horrors?
@LostinParadise I think pententiary is merely derived from penitent. Preposterous (more “p”s again)
Really, guys? No one appreciates “interesting”? Common word, four repeaters. Jeez.
The 4 letter words come to mind more readily if the cheat of plurals is allowed. More “p”s—propositions, prepositions, prescriptions. Proportionality-5
@stanleybmanly , I take your point regarding penitentiary being derived from penitent, but there still might be a psychological sense of fullness from having repeated letters even if it the repeated letters came about for a completely different reason.
Assassins doesn’t have 4 but assassinations does.
@janbb , No need for the final s.
@stanleybmanly, Interesting example of a word beginning with p where the p is not one of the repeated letters.
conscientious -5
concussion – 4 with one non-repeat
Response moderated (Spam)
Response moderated (Spam)
Response moderated (Spam)
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
