Greek Words With Many Vowels

This a quick, fun post about words in Greek with too many consecutive vowels. I had never given this topic much thought until I came across this interesting little post by Alistair Wilson. That got me to thinking and researching a little bit, and the results were fascinating!

The Greek language seems to be more liberal with its vowels than English. There aren’t very many English words with more than two or three consecutive vowels. Sure, there are lists like this one, and funny articles like this one, but the vast majority of English words with lots of vowels are borrowed from other languages (like Greek 🙂 ).

So let’s start with the big guys! Here’s a (very short) list of Greek words with six consecutive vowels. Not only are there six vowels all in a row, but these Greek words are made up only of vowels! No consonants allowed. 🙂

Hover (or tap) the footnote numbers to see what the word means, and where you can find an example of it being used.

Six Vowel Greek Words

• Εὐαῖοι¹
• Εὐαίου²
• Οὐήϊοι³

Interestingly, the six vowel words found above are “borrowed” too (or, more properly, transliterated from Hebrew and Latin, so they’re not technically “Greek” words, but loanwords.)

Five Vowel Greek Words

• οἴοιο⁴
• ἠοῖαι⁵
• ἰαυοῖ⁶
• Ὑαῖοι⁷
• ὠαιαί⁸
• ὠοιοί⁹

Four Vowel Greek Words

• αἰαῖ¹⁰
• αἰεί¹¹
• ἑοῖο¹²
• εὐαί¹³
• οὐαύ¹⁴
• οὐαὶ¹⁵
• οἴει¹⁶
• ὕεια¹⁷
• υἱοῦ¹⁸
• υἱοὶ¹⁹
• οἰοῖ²⁰

Three Vowel Greek Words

• ἀεί²¹
• εἴη²²
• υἱέ²³
• εἴα²⁴
• ἰοῦ²⁵

Greek Words With Only One Consonant (But lots of Vowels)

• εἰοικυῖαι²⁶
• Ἰουδαῖοι²⁷
• ἰοῦται²⁸
• ἑαυτοῦ²⁹
• ἐᾶσαι³⁰
• εἴασα³¹
• εἰσῄει³²
• εὐνοίᾳ³³
• οἴομαι³⁴
• ἠοίους³⁵
• ἔοικα³⁶
• ὑαίνῃ³⁷
• ἀθεεὶ³⁸
• ἐλεεῖ³⁹

Other Interesting Greek Words With Many Vowels

ἀάατος⁴⁰

How I Found These Words

When I first started looking, I just used some educated guesses. Then I tried typing random series of vowels into Accordance Bible Software‘s search bar, and looking down through the suggested results. Finally, I got more serious about finding the words, so I turned to regex. I used the following expression to search through both the Greek New Testament and the Greek Old Testament (LXX) for more words:

\b[αειουωηὰάὲέὴήὶίὸόὺύὼώ\x{1f00}-\x{1fff}]{4,}\b

Eventually, I found a better way to do the same search!

\b[[=α=][=ε=][=ι=][=η=][=ο=][=υ=][=ω=]]{4,}\b

Finally, I started turning to extra-biblical sources. I found several of the words by searching in this list of Greek headwords using my regex search above. Another invaluable tool was Perseus, which I used for finding examples of those words in Greek literature. A few more words were located by doing a wildcard search (e.g. for ‘*υιαι’) with University of Chicago’s PhiloLogic4 tool for Greek.

Did you find a word that I missed? Comment below, and I’ll add it to the list!

1. (Hivites – Deuteronomy 2:23 LXX)
2. (genitive singular of “Hivite” – Genesis 26:34 LXX)
3. (Latin=Veii – Plut. Rom. 25)
4. (2nd singular present optative middle of οἴομαι – The Symposium of Plato 194c)
5. (noun from ἠοῖος  “of the morning” – Plut. De Sera 12)
6. (exclamation of sorrow – Aristoph. Frogs 1006)
7. (see HYLE – Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 3.101)
8. (exclamation of pain – See LSJ ὠαιαί)
9. (same as above – See LSJ ὠοιοί)
10. interjection “ah!” – Aesch. Pers. 256
11. adverb “ever, always” – Aesch. Ag. 750
12. (from ἑός “his, her own” – Hesiod, Theogony 453)
13. (from εὐάζω, “cry”- Aristophanes, Ecclesiazusae 1163)
14. (transliteration of the Hebrew letter “waw” – Lamentations 1:6)
15. (interjection “Woe!” – Luke 10:13)
16. (2nd singular present middle indicative of οἴομαι “to suppose” – Job 37:23 LXX)
17. (neuter plural accusative of “pigs” – 1 Maccabees 1:47)
18. (genitive singular of υἱός “son” – Matthew 1:1)
19. (nominative plural of υἱός “son” – Matthew 5:9)
20. (adjective: plural masculine nominative of οἶος Aesch. Pers. 932)
21. (adverb “always” – Psalm 94:10 LXX)
22. (third singular present optative of ἐιμί – Luke 1:29)
23. (vocative for “son” – Matthew 8:29)
24. (3rd singular imperfect active indicative of ἐάω – Luke 4:41)
25. (genitive singular “rust” – James 3:8)
26. (participle plural perfect active feminine nominative of ἔοικα “to be like” – Hom. Il. 18.388)
27. (plural of Ἰουδαῖος “Jews” – John 2:18)
28. (3rd sing. pres. mid. indic. of ἰόομαι – Jo. Dam. 31.288)
29. (3rd masculine singular genitive from αὐτός “of himself, his own (reflexive)” – Mark 8:35)
30. (aorist active infinitive of ἐάω – Esther 3:8 LXX)
31. (1st singular aorist active indicative of ἐάω – Job 31:34 LXX)
32. (3rd singular imperfect active indicative of εἴσειμι – Acts 21:18)
33. (feminine singular dative from εὔνοια “good will” – Esther 13:3 LXX [B.3])
34. “suppose” – Soph. OC 1
35. (adj plural masc accusative, from ἠοῖος “of the morning” – Hdt. 4.160)
36. verb, perfect, “to be like” – Aesch. Ag. 1156
37. (feminine singular dative of ὕαινα, “hyena”- Sirach 13:18)
38. (adverb, “without the aid of God” – Hom. Od. 18.337)
39. (third singular present active indicative from ἐλεέω “to show mercy” – Romans 9:18)
40. (noun “not to be injured, inviolable” – Homer Illiad 14.270)