English words without vowels

English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters. The letter is largely recognized as being a vowel in specific contexts, though often disregarded when talking about vowelless words, which typically focus on the absence of the main five. A word with, but no other vowel letters, may thus be considered vowelless in this context. To a lesser degree, the letter can act as a vowel in a narrow subset of loanwords.
Outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds.

Words without written vowels

There are very few lexical words without vowel letters. The longest such lexical word is tsktsks, pronounced. The mathematical expression nth, as in delighted to the nth degree, is in fairly common usage. Another mathematical term without vowel letters is ln, the natural logarithm. A more obscure example is rng, derived from ring by deleting the letter.

Words from other languages

In the Middle English period, there were no standard spellings, but was sometimes used to represent either a vowel or a consonant sound in the same way that Modern English does with, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. This vocalic generally represented, as in wss. However at that time the form was still sometimes used to represent a digraph, not as a separate letter. In modern Welsh, "W" is simply a single letter which often represents a vowel sound. Thus words borrowed from Welsh may use this way, such as:

The crwth is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin.cwtch is also from Welsh, and crwth and cwtch are the longest English dictionary words without according to Collins Dictionary.
A cwm is used in English in a technical geographical or mountaineering context to mean a deep hollow in a mountainous area, usually with steep edges on some sides, like a corrie or cirque, such as the Western Cwm of Mount Everest. It is also sometimes used, by way of more recent borrowing from Welsh, in a more general sense of a valley. The spellings coombe, combe, coomb, and comb come from the Old English cumb, which appears either to be a much earlier borrowing from a predecessor of modern Welsh, or to have an even earlier origin, given that there was an Ancient Greek word κὑμβη meaning a hollow vessel. In English literature, one can find the spellings combe, coomb or comb.

Onomatopoeia

There are also numerous vowelless interjections and onomatopoeia found more or less frequently, including brr or brrr, bzzt, grrr, hm, hmm, mm, mmm, mhmm, sksksksk, pfft, pht, phpht, psst, sh, shh, zzz. Many of these words feature continuant consonants, which make up for the lack of vowels. The status of whether onomatopoeia are truly words is disputed, though officially, they are in fact words.

Proper names

Vowelless proper names from other languages, such as the East-Asian surname Ng, may retain their conventional spelling, even if they are pronounced with vowels. Ng in particular can be pronounced a variety of ways depending on the person, often without a vowel sound, and sometimes with. The name Brynn is a different example, as it contains a vowel sound though spelled with. From Greek, names containing upsilon may be Romanized with, resuling in names like Nyx and Styx.

Alphabetical list of words devoid of A, E, I, O, and U

Some of these are onomatopoeia, some promoted by comic magazines. Many others are derived from other languages, most commonly Greek, e.g. glyph, skyr, and fyrd. Names are excluded from the list.
Words styled in bold indicate words that do not contain Y or W. Words labelled in indicate a word that does not contain a vowel sound in GA English.

Word	Definition
brr	Expresses a feeling of cold.
by	Near; through means of. Plural of "bye."
byrl	Alternate form of "birle."
bzzt	Onomatopoeia for electricity.
chynd	Cut into chines for cooking.
cly	Pocket.
crwth	A stringed instrument.
cry	Yelp.
crypt	A cave.
cwm	A valley.
cwtch	A cubbyhole; a display of affection.
cyst	A growth of tissue.
dry	Void of moisture. Prohibitionist.
fly	Move through air.
flyby	An act of flying by something.
fry	Cook in oil.
fy	Alternate of "fie;" Expresses disgust.
fyrd	An army.
ghyll	A ravine.
glycyl	The radical extracted from glycine.
glyph	A letter or symbol.
grr	Onomatopoeia of a growl.
gym	A room for exercising.
gyp	Short for "gypsy."
gyppy	Slang for "gypsy."
gypsy	A Romani person.
hm	Expresses thought.
hmph	Expresses indignation.
hwyl	Welsh chanting.
hymn	A biblical song.
hyp	Short for Hypochondria.
jynx	A wryneck
ky	Alternate of "kye."
Kyrgyz	Pertaining to Kyrgyzstan.
lymph	A sore's discharge.
lynch	To exclude.
lynx	A big cat.
mhmm	Yes.
mm	Express gustation.
my	First-person singular possessive.
myrrh	A gum-resin.
myth	An unproven belief.
nth	Occurring at position n.
ny	Obsolete spelling of "nigh."
nymph	A female nature deity.
pfft	Express doubt.
phpht	Onomatopoeia; alternate of "pht"
pht	Onomatopoeia of a fart.
ply	A "half-turn" in a two-player game.
pry	To use leverage to open.
pspsps	Used to call a cat.
psst	Used to slyly grab attention.
psych	A psychiatrist.
pwn	Slang for "own;" a triumph.
pygmy	An African ethnic group.
pyx	A small, round box.
rhythm	Beat of a song.
rng	An algebraic structure.
rynd	A type of iron crossing.
scry	To magically tell someone's fortune.
sh	Used to silence someone.
shy	Lacking confidence.
sksksk	Indicates playful nonsense.
sky	The atmosphere.
skyr	A dairy product similar to yogurt.
sly	Cunning.
spry	Nimble.
spy	To seek and to spot.
sty	A pigpen.
stymy	Alternate of "stymie."
swy	A two-shilling coin.
sybyzgy	A stick-like, Kyrgyz musical instrument.
sylph	An air spirit.
syn	That has a torsion angle between 0° and 90°.
sync	To synchronize.
synth	A synthesizer.
syzygy	An alignment of three celestial bodies.
thy	Possessive form of "thou."
thymy	Having the flavor of thyme.
try	To attempt.
tryp	Abbreviation of "tryptophan."
tryst	An affair.
tsk	Express disapproval.
tsktsk	Elongation of "tsk."
tss	Onomatopoeia of cymbals.
twp	Foolish.
twyndyllyng	Old English term for "twinling."
tyg	A drinking cup.
tyyn	Currency of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
vly	A marsh
why	For what purpose.
wry	Twisted.
wych	A well
wyn	Alternate of "wynn."
wynd	A narrow lane between houses.
wynn	A letter of Old English; "ƿ."
xylyl	The radical extracted from Xylene.
xyst	The covered portico of a gymnasium.
xyzzy	A word used as a dummy placeholder.
zzz	Onomatopoeia for sleeping.

Words without vowel sounds

Weak forms of function words may be realized without vowel sounds, as in I can go and I must sell. Some of these forms are reflected in orthography as contractions, such as s, ll, d, and n't.