Several years ago at a Scrabble tournament, a player used a five-letter word that was vowelless (is that a word?). Does anyone know it and save me from reading the Scrabble Dictionary cover to cover? Merci.

I'm not sure what the conventions are, but there are a number of words that use 'y' in place of vowels. I believe some commentators consider y and w as de facto vowels, in which case these examples would not apply, but here are some possibilities:

pygmy

gypsy

(Both have alternative spellings, with 'i', though.)

rhythm (and its extension: rhythms) is about the longest I have come across. Also (are there enough 'y's in Scrabble for this?): syzygy.

The longest string of letters without a vowel (or a fake vowel like y or w) occurs, I believe, in the compound word: laTCHSTRing.

Hope this helps.

Another word is nymph.

here's one that's rare (and Welsh): crwth

Strengths, is I believe the longest word with only one vowel.

As for words that have no Ys either (lest we should forget the ..."and sometimes Y" part of the nursery mantra), there are 2 three letter ones: nth, and qts.

There is a seven-letter one as well: "tsktsks," meaning the noise of disapproval or admonishment.

Cheers.

Is "qts" really accepted in Scrabble?

Here's another actual Welsh word: cwm (it means valley)