What is a pangram?
A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. The most famous English example is The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Pangrams are used to display fonts, test typewriters and keyboards and practice handwriting, because they show every letter. The challenge for writers is to make them as short as possible while still making sense. A perfect pangram uses each of the 26 letters exactly once, but such sentences usually include unusual words or names.
Shorter English pangrams include Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow, with 29 letters, and Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs, with 32 letters. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog has 35 letters.
Pangrams in other languages
Many languages have their own pangrams. In German, a common one is Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den großen Sylter Deich. Pangrams are harder in languages with more letters and accents.
Did You Know?
The word pangram comes from Greek pan, meaning all, and gramma, meaning letter.