Gramogram

A gramogram or grammagram or letteral word is a letter or group of letters which can be pronounced to form one or more words, as in "CU" for "See you".[1][2][3] They are a subset of rebuses,[4] and are commonly used as abbreviations.

They are commonly used as a component of cryptic crossword clues.[1]

A poem reportedly appeared in the Woman's Home Companion of July 1903 using many gramograms: it was preceded by the line "ICQ out so that I can CU have fun translating the sound FX of this poem".[2]

A restaurant scene where a customer initially asks "FUNEX" ("Have you any eggs") appears in a 1949 book Hail fellow well met by Seymour Hicks[5] and was performed in The Two Ronnies under the title Swedish made simple.[6]

The book How to Double the Meaning of Life devotes three pages to gramograms, to which the author, Anil, gives the name letteral words.[4]

As of December 2016 neither spelling of the word appears in the online Oxford English Dictionary.

Some are homophones because some can be used for multiple words.

Examples for words
  • 1: won
  • 2: to, too
  • 22: tutu
  • 31: tree
  • 4: for, fore
  • 4M: forum
  • 4T: forty
  • 8: ate
  • &: and, end (forced)
  • AT: 80
  • B: be, bee
  • B4: before
  • B8: bait, bate
  • BD: beady
  • BUT: beauty
  • B&: band, banned
  • C: see, sea
  • CD: seedy
  • CL: seal
  • CT: city (forced)
  • C&: canned
  • D: the, thee (forced)
  • D4M: deform (forced)
  • D8: date
  • DK: decay
  • DL: deal
  • DVS: devious
  • D&D/D&E: dandy
  • D@: that (forced), dat
  • EU: eww (in context)
  • EZ: easy
  • F: have (forced, in context)
  • F8: fate
  • FND: effendi
  • FNS: finesse
  • FRE1: everyone (forced)
  • FRE: every (forced)
  • FX: effects, affects
  • F&: fanned
  • F@: fat
  • H8: hate
  • H&: hand
  • H@: hat
  • I: I, eye, aye
  • IC: icy, I see
  • II: aye-aye
  • IV: ivy
  • JL: jail
  • JQZ2: jacuzzi
  • K9: canine
  • KL: kale
  • KMN: Caiman, Cayman
  • KND: candy (forced)
  • K&D/K&E: candy
  • K@: cat
  • L: well (forced)
  • L8: late
  • LI: ally
  • L&: land
  • M: am
  • M8: mate
  • M8E/M8T: matey
  • M&: manned
  • N: and, an
  • NE: any
  • NE1: anyone
  • NMA: anime (forced)
  • NME: enemy
  • NML: animal
  • NMNE: anemone
  • NRG: energy
  • NRK: anarchy
  • NTD/NTT: entity
  • NV: envy
  • NVS: envious
  • O: oh, owe
  • OBDNC: obediency
  • ODS: odious
  • OPM: opium
  • OR: or, oar (forced)
  • P: pea, pee
  • PL: peel
  • PT: pity
  • P&: panned
  • Q8: Kuwait
  • Q8E: Qu'aiti
  • QAT: also Qu'aiti
  • Q: cue, queue
  • QT: cutie
  • R: are, ar
  • R8: rate
  • RA: array
  • RKDN: arcadian
  • RST: arrestee
  • RT: arty
  • S: is (forced, in context)
  • SA: essay
  • SKP: escapee
  • T: tea, tee
  • TDS: tedious
  • T&: tanned
  • U: you, ewe
  • W8: wait, weight
  • X: eggs, ex
  • XL: excel
  • XLNC: excellency
  • XLR8: accelerate
  • XPDNC: expediency
  • XS: excess, exes, Axis (forced)
  • Y: why
  • Z2T: ziti

1: depends on dialect 2: "Zee"

Examples of names
  • 1: Juan (forced)
  • AV: Avie
  • BT: Beatty
  • CC: Cecie
  • DDD1: Dedede (as in King Dedede)
  • DN: Dean
  • GG: Gigi
  • J: Jay
  • JC: Jaycee
  • KC: Casey, Kacie
  • KLC: Kelsie, Kelsey (forced)
  • KT: Katie, Katy
  • K@: Kat
  • LC: Elsie
  • LE: Ellie, Elly
  • LN: Ellen
  • LS: Ellis
  • LX: Alex (forced)
  • ME: Emmy
  • MLE: Emily
  • MNM: M & M, Eminem
  • N: Anne (forced)
  • ND/&D/&E: Andy
  • NE: Annie
  • OD: Odie
  • RB: Arby
  • RE: Ari
  • RT: Artie
  • R&D/R&E: Randy
  • ST: Esti (short for Esther)
  • Z2: Zed, Zedd

1: Only in North America 2: Zed

Examples of prefixes
  • B- be-
  • D- de-
  • X- ex-

Examples of suffixes
  • L: -elle1
  • N: -in’ 2, -ing (forced)
  • T: -ty

1: Only used for names 2: Depends on your accent

Examples of sentences
  • CQ: -Seek you
  • FU: A Few (forced)
  • FUNEX: -Have you any eggs
  • IMOK: -I am okay
  • IOU: -I owe you
  • IXL: -I excel
  • NUR: -And you are
  • NUROK: -And you are ok
  • OL: -Oh well
  • RUCRES -Are you serious (forced)
  • SNE1OK -Is anyone okay?
  • YRUBNAQT: -Why are you being a cutie?
  • 1NONE: -One and only (forced)
gollark: So 60 rows and 4 columns, or...?
gollark: I can... do some CSS/HTML, sure.
gollark: <@301477111229841410> I have a webserver which does other things, and the memory usage is very very low. So is CPU. I don't get much traffic.
gollark: Browser extensions are generally autoupdated, so they probably *could* release a malicious version which steals them and get a bunch before anyone notices.
gollark: I would be surprised if it could actually run an entirely different language to the one it's designed for. Technically you could maybe run a Python interpreter written in JS, but that would be difficult and hilariously inefficient.

References
  1. "Cryptic crossword reference lists > Gramograms". Highlight Press. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  2. "Grammagrams". Audrey Deal. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  3. "Grammagrams". Wordnik. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  4. Anil (2011). "Letteral Words". How to Double the Meaning of Life. Xlibris. pp. 237–239. ISBN 9781462871209. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  5. Hicks, Sir Seymour (1949). Hail Fellow Well Met. Staples Press. p. 183. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  6. Brennan, Ailis. "Ronnie Corbett dies: Here are his funniest seven sketches". GQ. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
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