Here is the riddle as stated in a previous mailing: "There are three words in the English language ending in -gry. One is hungry and the other is angry. What is the third word? Everyone uses this word every day, everyone knows what it means, and knows what it stands for. If you have listened very closely I have already told you the third word." Answer: There are quite a few possible answers to this riddle. I will give you a list of them and you can decide for yourself what the best answer is. _,.-*~'^'~*-.,-,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,-,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.- Gry: a unit of measure, equal to 1/1000 of a foot. Gry: a sound a pig makes. Puggry : The fabric band around the base of a hat, usually found with a feather tucked into it. Anhungry: From the olde english. Augry: Meaning fortunetelling, etc. Energy. (Explanation: The third word must end in GRY, but not necessarily in that order.) Gravity: Its ends with g, r, and y and we all stand for it. We use it every day and know what it is and what it means. There is no answer! "Hungry" and "angry" are the only two common words in the English language that end in "gry." The third word in the riddle is "three." The answer is "what." (As in, "What is the third word.") A sort of "Who's on first" theory. The third word in the riddle is "English". Everyone uses it everyday. "This riddle is an evil hoax, worse than any Internet chain letter I've seen, as it not only clogs the net, but also the brains of the readers. Free yourself from this waste of brain processing time." "Folks, there isn't really an answer, or there are LOTS of answers, depending on how you look at it. All the answers pretty much fall into two general categories: (1) actual words that really DO end in 'gry', of which there are at least 100, but none still in common use, thus making it difficult to fit the rest of the riddle and (2) answers that have little to do with 'gry' but are tricks that come from how the question is asked." The answer to this riddle is "WHAT". The first sentence is designed to throw you off the scent. The first sentence just mentions that there are two words that end in GRY it did not say THERE ARE ONLY TWO WORDS in the dictionary that end in GRY. The riddle is a trick question, and the answer is "it." The "gry" portion of the riddle is merely a tangential statement meant to throw you off the solution. Everyone uses THE WORD everyday and knows what IT (THE WORD) stands for. If you listened carefully, I already toldy you what THE WORD is. So for this riddle, repunctuate it as: Everybody uses the word, "everyday", and knows what "it" stands for. If you listened carefully, I already told you what the word is. Hence, the word in question has nothing to do with the "GRY" guery preceeding the actual riddle, but is, in fact, "everyday". GR-AVIT-Y - Its "ends" are 'GR' & 'Y.' We all use it everyday. We all know what it means. And we certainly all know what it "stands" for. The answer is "somethinG", "answeR", and "carefullY". The riddle says there are three words that end in G, R, Y; we assume it means that there is a third word that ends in GRY. The word you have been looking for is "greedy". I will begin by disclaiming what the puzzle wants you to think of. The first line reads: "In the English Language there are three words that end in gry." Now when refering to the "English Language" that does not mean "language" as in dictionary...it means language as literature or art. The next few lines go like this: "Everyone uses it everyday. Everyone knows what it stands for. If you were listening carefully, I have already told you the third word" There are two keys to this set of lines. The first comes in the first sentence. "Everyone uses it everyday" does not mean that people actually verbally speak the word everyday. Instead, it refers to people engaging in the act of the word. The second key is the last sentence which reads: "If you were listening carefully, I have already told you the third word" The importance of this clue is to read the first line out loud. You will see that saying the word gry sounds like greed. More importantly, the puzzler has truly given you the third word. You see, as you read the puzzle, you become greedy... because you WANT the answer so bad. Now why is it greedy. Ok...I am sure you have heard of the myth about the seven deadly sins. This myth was created through the story of Dante's Inferno and his rings of hell. Well, the seven deadly sins are this: pride, anger(wrath), lust, gluttony, sloth, envy and yes greed. Well, we know one of the them is angry, one of them is hungry, and then we are asked what is the third one? Well, yes the third one happens to be greed. The order of the sins is often disputed. However, according to the original English Language of Dante's Inferno; greed is our match. Now the trick to the problem arises because greedy does not end in "gry" But that is done for a purpose. You see anyone who is literally "greedy" never has enough or in another words always wants more. Hence "gry" does not have enough...in this case...enough letters. _,.-*~'^'~*-.,-,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,-,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.- There was also a list compiled of 100 words, phrases and names ending in -gry. [Explanation of references are given at the end of the list.] aggry [OED:1:182; W2; W3] Agry Dagh (Mount Agry) [EB11] ahungry [OED:1:194; FW; W2] angry [OED; FW; W2; W3] anhungry [OED:1:332; W2] Badagry [Johnston; EB11] Ballingry [Bartholomew:40; CLG:151; RD:164, pl.49] begry [OED:1:770,767] bewgry [OED:1:1160] bowgry [OED:1:1160] braggry [OED:1:1047] Bugry [TIG] Chockpugry [Worcester] Cogry [BBC] cony-gry [OED:2:956] conyngry [OED:2:956] Croftangry [DFC, as "Chrystal Croftangry"] dog-hungry [W2] Dshagry [Stieler] Dzagry [Andree] eard-hungry [CED (see "yird"); CSD] Echanuggry [Century:103-104, on inset map, Key 104 M 2] Egry [France; TIG] ever-angry [W2] fire-angry [W2] Gagry [EB11] gry (from Latin _gry_) [OED:4/2:475; W2] gry (from Romany _grai_) [W2] haegry [EDD (see "hagery")] half-angry [W2] hangry [OED:1:329] heart-angry [W2] heart-hungry [W2] higry pigry [OED:5/1:285] hogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD] hogrymogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "hogry-mogry")] hongry [OED:5/1:459; EDD:3:282] huggrymuggry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "huggry-muggry")] hungry [OED; FW; W2; W3] Hungry Bungry [Daily Illini, in ad for The Giraffe, Spring 1976] iggry [OED] Jagry [EB11] kaingry [EDD (see "caingy")] land-hungry [OED; W2] leather-hungry [OED] Langry [TIG; Times] Lisnagry [Bartholomew:489] MacLoingry [Phillips (as "Flaithbhertach MacLoingry")] mad-angry [OED:6/2:14] mad-hungry [OED:6/2:14] magry [OED:6/2:36, 6/2:247-48] malgry [OED:6/2:247] man-hungry [OED] Margry [Indians (see "Pierre Margry" in bibliog., v.2, p.1204)] maugry [OED:6/2:247-48] mawgry [OED:6/2:247] meagry [OED:6/2:267] meat-hungry [W2] menagry [OED (see "managery")] messagry [OED] nangry [OED] overangry [RH1; RH2] Pelegry [CE (in main index as "Raymond de Pelegry")] Pingry [Bio-Base; HPS:293-94, 120-21] podagry [OED; W2 (below the line)] Pongry [Andree (Supplement, p.572)] pottingry [OED:7/2:1195; Jamieson:3:532] puggry [OED:8/1:1573; FW; W2] pugry [OED:8/1:1574] rungry [EDD:5:188] scavengry [OED (in 1715 quote under "scavengery")] Schtschigry [LG/1:2045; OSN:97] Seagry [TIG; EB11] Segry [Johnston; Andree] self-angry [W2] self-hungry ? Shchigry [CLG:1747; Johnson:594; OSN:97,206; Times:185,pl.45] shiggry [EDD] Shtchigry [LG/1:2045; LG/2:1701] Shtshigry [Lipp] skugry [OED:9/2:156, 9/1:297; Jamieson:4:266] Sygry [Andree] Tangry [France] Tchangry [Johnson:594; LG/1:435,1117] Tchigry [Johnson:594] tear-angry [W2] tike-hungry [CSD] Tingry [France; EB11 (under "Princesse de Tingry")] toggry [Simmonds (as "Toggry", but all entries are capitalized)] ulgry [Partridge; Smith:24-25] unangry [OED; W2] vergry [OED:12/1:123] Virgy [CLG:2090] Wirgy [CLG:2090; NAP:xxxix; Times:220, pl.62; WA:948] wind-angry. wind-hungry [W2] yeard-hungry [CED (see "yird")] yerd-hungry [CED (see "yird"); OED] yird-hungry [CED (see "yird")] Ymagry [OED:1:1009 (col. 3, 1st "boss" verb), (variant of "imagery")] This list was gathered from the following articles: George H. Scheetz, In Goodly Gree: With Goodwill, Word Ways 22:195 (Nov. 1989) Murray R. Pearce, Who's Flaithbhertach MacLoingry?, Word Ways 23:6 (Feb. 1990) Harry B. Partridge, Gypsy Hobby Gry, Word Ways 23:9 (Feb. 1990) A. Ross Eckler, -Gry Words in the OED, Word Ways 25:4 (Nov. 1992) References: (Many references are of the form [Source:volume:page] or [Source:page].) Andree, Richard. Andrees Handatlas (index volume). 1925. Bartholomew, John. Gazetteer of the British Isles: Statistical and Topographical. 1887. BBC = BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of English Names. Bio-Base. (Microfiche) Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1980. CE = Catholic Encyclopedia. 1907. CED = Chambers English Dictionary. 1988. Century = "India, Northern Part." The Century Atlas of the World. 1897, 1898. CLG = The Colombia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World. L.E.Seltzer, ed. 1952. CSD = Chambers Scots Dictionary. 1971 reprint of 1911 edition. Daily Illini (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). DFC = Dictionary of Fictional Characters. 1963. EB11 = Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. EDD = The English Dialect Dictionary. Joseph Wright, ed. 1898. France = Map Index of France. G.H.Q. American Expeditionary Forces. 1918. FW = Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. 1943. HPS = The Handbook of Private Schools: An Annual Descriptive Survey of Independent Education, 66th ed. 1985. Indians = Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. F. W. Hodge. 1912. Jamieson, John. An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. 1879-87. Johnston, Keith. Index Geographicus... 1864. LG/1 = Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World. 1888. LG/2 = Lippincott's New Gazetteer: ... 1906. Lipp = Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. 1861, undated edition from late 1800's; 1902. NAP = Narodowy Atlas Polski. 1973-1978 [Polish language] OED = The Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. [Form: OED:volume/part number if applicable:page] OSN: U.S.S.R. Volume 6, S-T. Official Standard Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Gazetteer #42, 2nd ed. June 1970. Partridge, Harry B. "Ad Memoriam Demetrii." Word Ways, 19 (Aug. 1986): 131. Phillips, Lawrence. Dictionary of Biographical Reference. 1889. RD = The Reader's Digest Complete Atlas of the British Isles, 1st ed. 1965. RH1 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1966. RH2 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged. 1987. Simmonds, P.L. Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products. 1883. Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventvres and Observations: London 1630. Stieler, Adolph. Stieler's Handatlas (index volume). 1925. TIG = The Times Index-Gazetteer of the World. 1965. Times = The Times Atlas of the World, 7th ed. 1985. W2 = Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged. 1934. W3 = Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1961. WA = The World Atlas: Index-Gazetteer. Council of Ministires of the USSR, 1968. Worcester, J.E. Universal Gazetteer, Second Edition. 1823. Some words containing "gry" that do not end with "gry": agrypnia, agrypnotic, Gryllidae, gryllid, gryllus, Gryllus, grylloblattid, Gryllotalpa, gryllos, grypanian, Gryphaea, Gryll, Gryphaea, gryposis, grysbok, gryphon, Gryphosaurus, Grypotherium, grysbuck. Most of these are in Webster's Second also with one from Webster's Third Edition and one from the Random House Dictionary, Second Edition Unabridged.