About English words

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 spelt completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.
• Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order.
• "Stewardesses" and "reverberated" are the two longest words that can be typed using the left hand.
• The longest muscle name is the "levator labiisuperioris alaeque nasi" and Elvis popularised it with his lip motions.
• The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms that are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

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