A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and typing.
The best-known English pangram is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".[1] It has been used since at least the late 19th century[1] and was used by Western Union to test Telex/TWX data communication equipment for accuracy and reliability.[2] Pangrams like this are now used by a number of computer programs to display computer typefaces.
Short pangrams
Short pangrams in English are more difficult to devise and tend to use uncommon words and unnatural sentences. Longer pangrams afford more opportunity for humor, cleverness, or thoughtfulness.
The following are examples of pangrams that are shorter than "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" (which has 35 letters) and use standard written English without abbreviations or proper nouns:
"Quick nymph bugs vex fjord waltz." (27 letters)
"Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex." (28 letters)[3]
"Glib jocks quiz nymph to vex dwarf." (28 letters)[2]
"Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow." (29 letters)[4]
"The five boxing wizards jump quickly." (31 letters)[3]
"Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." (31 letters)[3]
"Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs." (32 letters)[3]
Perfect pangrams
A perfect pangram contains every letter of the alphabet only once and can be considered an anagram of the alphabet. The only known perfect pangrams of the English alphabet use abbreviations or other non-dictionary words, such as "Blowzy night-frumps vex'd Jack Q." or "Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx."[3] or they include words so obscure that the phrase is challenging to understand, such as "Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz",[3] in which cwm is a loan word from the Welsh language meaning an amphitheatre-like glaciated depression, vext is an uncommon way to spell vexed, and quiz is used in an archaic sense to mean a puzzling or eccentric person. It means that symbols in the bowl-like depression on the edge of a long steep sea inlet confused an eccentric person.
Other writing systems may present more options: The Iroha is a well-known perfect pangram of the Japanese syllabary, while the Hanacaraka is a perfect pangram for the Javanese script and is commonly used to order its letters in sequence.
Other languages
Using the Latin script
Whereas the English language uses all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet in native and naturalized words, many other languages using the same alphabet do not. Pangram writers in these languages are forced to choose between only using those letters found in native words or incorporating exotic loanwords into their pangrams. Some words, such as the Gaelic-derived whisk(e)y, which has been borrowed by many languages and uses the letters k, w and y, are a frequent fixture of many foreign pangrams.
There are also languages that use other Latin characters that do not appear in the traditional 26 letters of the Latin alphabet. This differs further from English pangrams, with letters such as ç, ä, and š.
Azerbaijani
Zəfər, jaketini də papağını da götür, bu axşam hava çox soyuq olacaq
Zafar, take your jacket and cap, it will be very cold tonight
Gecə ürəyiyumşaq əjdaha paxıl ovçunun tüfəngini söküb kağıza bükdü
At the night kind dragon wrapped in paper the rifle of the envious hunter[5]
Czech
Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy
A horse that was too yellow moaned devilish odes
The most commonly used one, especially to test alphabet support with fonts. This sentence includes all Czech letters with diacritics, but not all basic letters.
Nechť již hříšné saxofony ďáblů rozezvučí síň úděsnými tóny waltzu, tanga a quickstepu
May the sinful saxophones of devils echo through the hall with dreadful melodies of waltz, tango and quickstep
Used to include all basic letters, including letters that only occur in loanwords (g, q, w, x).
Danish
Høj bly gom vandt fræk sexquiz på wc
Tall shy groom won naughty sexquiz on wc
A perfect pangram, using every letter exactly once (Including the more unusual letters as q, w, and x, and including the Danish æ, ø, and å).[6]
Dutch
Pa's wijze lynx bezag vroom het fikse aquaduct
Dad's wise lynx piously looked at the sizable aqueduct
Esperanto
Eble ĉiu kvazaŭ-deca fuŝĥoraĵo ĝojigos homtipon
Maybe every quasi-fitting bungle-choir makes a human type happy
Laŭ Ludoviko Zamenhof bongustas freŝa ĉeĥa manĝaĵo kun spicoj
According to Ludwig Zamenhof, fresh Czech food with spices tastes good
Eĥoŝanĝoj ĉiuĵaŭde
Echo-changes every Thursday
Doesn't contain every letter but contains all accented letters.
Estonian
See väike mölder jõuab rongile hüpata
This little miller can jump on a train
An imperfect pangram not using any of the special letters used in Estonian only for foreign words (c, f, q, š, z, ž, w, x, y).
The puny cellist-feuilletonist Ciqo from Zagreb was freezing in a dreadful garage
An imperfect pangram not using some of the special letters used in Estonian only for foreign words (w, x, y).
Ewe
Dzigbe zã nyuie na wò, ɣeyiɣi didi aɖee nye sia no see, ɣeyiɣi aɖee nye sia tso esime míeyi suku. Ŋdɔ nyui, ɛ nyteƒe, míagakpɔ wò ake wuieve kele ʋ heda kpedeŋu.
Have a nice birthday tonight, it's been a long time no see, it's been a while since we were in school. Good afternoon, yes, see you again at twelve o'clock in the morning.
A two-part pangram consisting of a statement and response.
Finnish
Törkylempijävongahdus
Although difficult to translate because of its non-practical use, it roughly means a whinge of a sleazy lover
A perfect pangram not using any of the special letters used in Finnish only for foreign words (b, c, f, q, š, w, x, z, ž, å).
Albert osti fagotin ja töräytti puhkuvan melodian
Albert bought a bassoon and blew a puffing tune
An imperfect pangram not using some of the special letters used in Finnish only for foreign words (q, w, x, z, å) but which makes perfect everyday sense.
On sangen hauskaa, että polkupyörä on maanteiden jokapäiväinen ilmiö
It is rather fun that bicycles are a daily phenomenon on the countryroads
An imperfect pangram not containing the previously mentioned special letters.
Take this old whisky to the blond judge who is smoking
Uses each basic consonant once, though not any letters with diacritics.
Les naïfs ægithales hâtifs pondant à Noël où il gèle sont sûrs d'être déçus en voyant leurs drôles d'œufs abîmés
The naive, hasty aegithales who lay eggs at Christmas when it's freezing are sure to be disappointed when they see their funny eggs damaged
Contains the letters with diacritics as wall as the ligature letters œ (common in French) and æ (only used in loanwords).
German
Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den großen Sylter Deich
Victor chases twelve boxers across the Great Levee of Sylt
Contains all letters, including the umlauted vowels (ä, ö, ü) and ß. The letter y is limited to loanwords and proper names like Sylt.[a]
Hungarian
Egy hűtlen vejét fülöncsípő, dühös mexikói úr ázik Quitóban
An unfaithful son-in-law is being treated by a sniveling, angry Mexican lord in Quito
Contains all 44 letters of the Hungarian alphabet, with a total of 50 letters.
Egy hűtlen vejét fülöncsípő, dühös mexikói úr Wesselényinél mázol Quitóban
An unfaithful son-in-law paints by a sniveling, angry Mexican lord at Wesselényi's in Quito
Corrected version of the previous sentence, a real pangram.
Icelandic
Kæmi ný öxi hér, ykist þjófum nú bæði víl og ádrepa
If a new axe were here, thieves would feel increasing deterrence and punishment
Contains all 32letters in the Icelandic alphabet including the vowels with diacritics (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, and ö) as well as the letters ð, þ, and æ.
Indonesian
Muharjo seorang xenofobia universal yang takut pada warga jazirah, contohnya Qatar.
Muharjo is a universal xenophobic who fears the peninsula residents, such as Qatar
Contains all 26letters in the Indonesian alphabet, including the foreign letters q, v and x.
Tokoh qari bonceng juru xilofon di vespanya muzawir.
The Quran reciter figure gives the xylophone expert a ride on the tour guide's moped.
Contains all 26letters in the Indonesian alphabet. It also contains only words that are in the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia.
Irish
D'ith cat mór dubh na héisc lofa go pras
A large black cat ate the rotten fish promptly
Has 31letters and includes all 18letters found in native Irish words, but does not include the accented á, í, or ú, nor the non-accented e.
Italian
Pranzo d'acqua fa volti sghembi
A lunch of water makes twisted faces
has 26letters and includes all 21letters found in native Italian words. It does not include the five letters which are not found in any Italian words, except for some loanwords: j, k, w, y, and x.
Cantami o Diva del pelide Achille l'ira funesta
Sing to me, O Diva, of Achilles, son of Peleus, the raging wrath.
Has 39 characters without considering any apostrophe and space. It is the Italian translation of the first verse of the Iliad and is used in Microsoft Windows operating system if the language is set to Italian (Italiano).
Kurdish
Cem vî Feqoyê pîs zêdetir ji çar gulên xweşik hebûn
There were more than four beautiful flowers near the filthy Feqo
Has 42letters and includes all 31letters found in Kurdish words. This pangram was created by Îrec Mêhrbexş in 2023.
Malay
Muzafar kerap sembahyang dan baca al-Quran waktu belajar di Universiti Oxford.
Contains all diactrics, but not every letter and is mainly used to test font support.
Pchnąć w tę łódź jeża lub ośm skrzyń fig
Push a hedgehog or eight crates of figs in this boat
Most commonly used, perfect pangram, archaic spelling of osiem.
Mężny bądź, chroń pułk twój i sześć flag
Be brave, protect your regiment and six flags
Another pangram in common use.
Stróż pchnął kość w quiz gędźb vel fax myjń
The watchman pushed the bone/dice into a quiz of the musics or a fax of the washes
A perfect pangram containing all letters, including those used only in loan words: q, v, x.[8]
Portuguese
Ré só que vê galã sexy pôr kiwi talhado à força em baú põe juíza má em pânico.
Lone defendant that sees a sexy hunk forcibly stuff a chopped kiwi in a trunk sets bad judge in a panic.
Uses all diacritics and all 23 letters from the Portuguese alphabet (before the Orthographic Agreement of 1990; the letters k, w, and y are found mainly in loanwords).[b]
Romanian
Încă vând gem, whisky bej și tequila roz, preț fix.
[I'm] still selling jam, beige whisky, and pink tequila, [with a] fixed price.
Contains all letters, including Romanian diacritics: ă, â, î, ș, and ț. The letters q, w, and y were introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982 with the first DOOM dictionary. They are used for loan words such as quodlibet, watt, and yoga. The letter k is also rarely used, mainly for names and international neologisms such as kilogram and folk.[9]
Serbian
Љубазни фењерџија чађавог лица хоће да ми покаже штос. Ljubazni fenjerdžija čađavog lica hoće da mi pokaže štos.
A kind lamplighter with a sooty face wants to show me a prank.
Ni pharciais fy nghas gar ffabrig pinc a'm jac codi baw hud llawn dŵr chwerw ger tŷ Mabon ar ddydd Mawrth, ond parciais fe mewn lagŵn rhydlyd
I didn't park my least favourite pink fabric car and my magical digger full of bitter water by Mabon's house on Tuesday, but I parked it in a rusty lagoon
Uses all the letters of the Welsh alphabet including the loan letter j.
Vietnamese
Trường quê em do bố của em xây kĩ nên sạch và đẹp lắm
My countryside school is built thoroughly by my father, so it's very clean and pretty
A more grammatically correct form of Trường quê sạch và đẹp lắm do bố xây kĩ, and contains all the letters and diacritics of the Vietnamese alphabet.[10]
Other alphabetic scripts
Non-Latin alphabetic or phonetic scripts such as Greek, Armenian, and others can also have pangrams.[11] In some writing systems, exactly what counts as a distinct symbol can be debated. For example, many languages have accents or other diacritics, but one might count "é" and "e" as the same for pangrams. A similar problem arises for older English orthography that includes the long s ("ſ").
Arabic
نص حكيم له سر قاطع وذو شأن عظيم مكتوب على ثوب أخضر ومغلف بجلد أزرق
Wise text with a decisive secret and great significance, written on a green cloth and wrapped in blue leather
Armenian
Չին ֆիզիկոսը օճառաջուր ցողելով բժշկում է հայ գնդապետի փքված ձախ թևը։
The Chinese physicist treats the swollen left arm of the Armenian colonel by spraying it with soapwater
Belarusian
У Іўі худы жвавы чорт у зялёнай камізэльцы пабег пад’есці фаршу з юшкай
In Iwye, a thin, lively devil in a green vest ran to eat minced meat with soup
Я жорстка заб’ю проста ў сэрца гэты расквечаны профіль, што ходзіць ля маёй хаты
I will brutally kill this flowery profile that walks by my house straight to the heart
Bulgarian
Под южно дърво, цъфтящо в синьо, бягаше малко пухкаво зайче
Under a southern tree, blooming in blue, ran a little fluffy bunny
За миг бях в чужд, скърцащ плюшен фотьойл
For a moment I was in an unfamiliar squeaky plush armchair
Ах, чудна българска земьо, полюшвай цъфтящи жита!
Oh, wonderful Bulgarian land, whirl blooming wheats!
Я, пазачът Вальо уж бди, а скришом хапва кюфтенца зад щайгите!
Hey, Valyo the guard is pretending to watch, but he's secretly eating meatballs behind the crates!
We were overcome by smoke, the birds were carried away by chirping in the sky, sleep is disturbed by the clatter of glasses on the ground
Hebrew
קזחסטן ארץ מעלפת, גדושה בכי
Kazakhstan is a beautiful country, full of tears
שפן אכל קצת גזר בטעם חסה, ודי
A bunny ate some lettuce-flavored carrots, and he had enough
איש עם זקן טס לצרפת ודג בחכה
A man with a beard flew to France and fished with a fishing pole
כך התרסק נפץ על גוזל קטן שדחף את צבי למים
That's how the explosives fell on the little chick that pushed the deer into the water
דג סקרן שט בים, מאוכזב ולפתע מצא חברה
A curious fish swimming in the sea is disappointed and suddenly finds a friend
Punjabi (Shahmukhi)
ڈِٹھے پار پہاڑ حضوری دے، طلسمی ژالہ باری ظلمت دی ۔ فیر جاکے ٹِبے غار حراء دے، خبر دِتتِی چاراں پاسے۔ اک ذہین زور آور نے فقیری دی۔ ہس کے نالے گج وج کے ذمے داری نال دسیا ثمر صبر دا، حاصل عشق دا، جیہڑا ہے کل پیغام
Seen across the mountains of salvation, the enchanted hail of darkness. Then, at the cave of Hira's mound, the news was spread in all directions. A wise and powerful one embraced the path of a faqir. With smiles and resounding calls, With responsibility,the fruit of patience was shared, and gains of love, Which is the essence of the entire message.
Punjabi Shahmukhi Pangram having all alphabets, written by Akhter Mehmood
Russian
Съешь ещё этих мягких французских булок, да выпей же чаю
Eat some more of these soft French pastries and drink some tea
Most commonly used. Its variation is used by Windows FontView.
В чащах юга жил бы цитрус? Да, но фальшивый экземпляр!
Would a citrus live in the jungles of the south? Yes, but a fake specimen!
Mr. Sangkhaphant Hengpithakfang–an elderly man who earns a living by selling bottles–was arrested for prosecution by police because he stole Lady Chatchada Chansamat's watch
Contains all the letters in the Thai alphabet, both obsolete and non-obsolete.
Ukrainian
Єхидна, ґава, їжак ще й шиплячі плазуни бігцем форсують Янцзи
Echidna, hooded crow, hedgehog and also hissing reptiles are crossing Yangtze in a rush
Urdu
نہ ژالہ باری نہ دھوپ پڑتی نہ ٹمٹماتی ہے چاندنی اب نہ کوئی ساغر نہ آگ برکھا،عجیب طرز فنا چلی اب جدا حلاوت ، خفا ظرافت،ضعیف ہر شوق، ڈر نہ صدمہ ثمر جو ذکر حبیب کا ہے یہ تجھہ کو عرفی ملا سبھی اب
No more hailstorms, no more sunshine,No moonlight flickers in the night. No goblets raised, no rain of fire — A strange new way of perishing is in sight. Sweetness is lost, wit is annoyed, Every passion weakened, no fear, no fright. The only fruit now is the name of the Beloved —This, Urfi, is all you have left in this life.
Urdu pengram written by Syed Irfan Urfi
Non-alphabetic scripts
Logographic scripts, or writing systems such as Chinese that do not use an alphabet but are composed principally of logograms, cannot produce pangrams in a literal sense (or at least, not pangrams of reasonable size). The total number of signs is large and imprecisely defined, so producing a text with every possible sign is practically impossible. However, various analogies to pangrams are feasible, including traditional pangrams in a romanization.
In Japanese, although typical orthography uses kanji (logograms), pangrams can be made using every kana, or syllabic character. The Iroha is a classic example of a perfect pangram in non-Latin script.
In Chinese, the Thousand Character Classic is a 1000-character poem in which each character is used exactly once; however, it does not include all Chinese characters. The single character 永 (permanence) incorporates all the basic strokes used to write Chinese characters, using each stroke exactly once, as described in the Eight Principles of Yong.
Among abugida scripts, an example of a perfect pangram is the Hanacaraka (hana caraka; data sawala; padha jayanya; maga bathanga) of the Javanese script, which is used to write the Javanese language in Indonesia.
Bengali
ঊনিশে কার্তিক রাত্র সাড়ে আট ঘটিকায় ভৈরবনিবাসী ব্যাংকের ক্ষুদ্র ঋণগ্রস্ত অভাবী দুঃস্থ পৌঢ় কৃষক এজাজ মিঞা হাতের কাছে ঔষধ থাকিতেও ঐ ঋণের ডরেই চোখে ঝাপসা দেখিয়া বুকের যন্ত্রণায় ঈষৎ কাঁপিয়া উঠিয়া উঠানে বিছানো ধূসর রঙের ফরাশের উপর ঢলিয়া পড়িলেন।
All 50 letters of the Bengali alphabet are present in this pangram created by Sahidul and published in Shubach Little Mag.
Korean
다람쥐 헌 쳇바퀴에 타고파.
Microsoft Windows uses this phrase to test Korean fonts, which uses all of the basic Hangul consonants but not all of the vowels.
키스의 고유 조건은 입술끼리 만나야 하고 특별한 기술은 필요치 않다.
정 참판 양반댁 규수 큰 교자 타고 혼례 치른 날.
These two example pangrams each use all 24 basic letters.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit pangrams focus on consonants alone, since, Sandhi rules make it extremely difficult to create a pangram showing vowels distinctly.
Earthen pots and conches hold water. Stupid imposters don’t serve the truth. Herds of pigs play with their tails. Stormy winds blow gutsily through the fences.
A self-enumerating pangram is a pangrammatic autogram, or a sentence that inventories its own letters, each of which occurs at least once. The first example was produced by Rudy Kousbroek, a Dutch journalist and essayist, who publicly challenged Lee Sallows, a British recreational mathematician resident in the Netherlands, to produce an English translation of his Dutch pangram. In the sequel, Sallows built an electronic "pangram machine", that performed a systematic search among millions of candidate solutions. The machine was successful in identifying the following 'magic' translation:[12][13][14]
This pangram contains four As, one B, two Cs, one D, thirty Es, six Fs, five Gs, seven Hs, eleven Is, one J, one K, two Ls, two Ms, eighteen Ns, fifteen Os, two Ps, one Q, five Rs, twenty-seven Ss, eighteen Ts, two Us, seven Vs, eight Ws, two Xs, three Ys, & one Z.
The pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", and the search for a shorter pangram, are the cornerstone of the plot of the novel Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.[17] The search successfully comes to an end when the phrase "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" is discovered (which has only 6 duplicated vowels).
↑ Per the Deutsches Wörterbuch, the letter y was common in the German language until around the 16th century, when standardisation due to the rise of the printing press largely replaced it with the letter i. It remained in use in some cases until the 19th century, during which further spelling reforms restricted it to loanwords and proper names.[7]
↑ After the latest Orthographic Agreement of 1990, these three once foreign letters were officially incorporated into the Portuguese alphabet.
References
1 2 "Current Notes". The Boston Journal: 1. February 10, 1885.
↑ Dewdney, A.K. (October 1984). "Computer Recreations". Scientific American. pp.18–22.
↑ "In quest of a pangram". Abacus (defunct mag.). Vol.2, no.3. New York, NY: Springer Verlag. Spring 1985. pp.22–40.
↑ Weiss, E.A., ed. (1987). ""In quest of a pangram" (abridged reprint)". A Computer Science Reader. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. pp.200–220. ISBN0-387-96544-0.
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