...you know the sort of thing, alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, etc. A friend and I were musing the other night about how funny it would be ( - this was around the 3rd bottle of a cheeky little Riesling as I recall - ) if the words were replaced with ones which were completely wrong =in removing ambiguity in pronunciation - eg. A = aesthete, P = psychiatrist, K =knapsack, T = tsar,. You get the picture. But some of the letters are quite hard to think up such an entry for. Anyone with too much time on their hands care to fill in some of the blanks?

jj

M is for mnemonic, X is for Xylophone, O is for Ouevre

I once came up with a whole set (except for R which I just couldn't do)

Lessee what I can remember

B  Bdelium

C  Ctenoid

D  Djinn

F  Fnese (there's a wwftd fer ya)

L  Llama

or maybe g = gnome or gnarled and k = knot

c = cyanide
e = eye
o = oedipus
t = tsunami
w = wrong
x = Xanadu

I think that's about my limit!

>fnese

duly noted.

a whole set (except for R which I just couldn't do)
You could, I suppose, really throw people off the scent by using Wriggle = R ?

some might find rhotic aptly misleading for 'r'..

find rhotic aptly misleading

Ah!

Not to throw cold water on a delightful thread BUT
My late husband, A US Air Force officer explained to me the letter-explanation-words were chosen because they are know and/or understood in most of the world's languages.
For example S is Sierra H is Hotel.
Of course the rather ribald humor of militray minds translated Sierra Hotel to "Shit Hot."
There is a NAval Air Station in Nevada (yes Nevada) and the Bachelor Officers Quarters is named Sierra Hotel. Most young bachelor aviator-officers think the name apt. That the Sierra Nevada mountains are nearby evidently let it slip past the censors!

>My late husband, A US Air Force officer explained to me the letter-explanation-words were chosen because they are know and/or understood in most of the world's languages.

And yet there are several versions in use amongst diferent armed forces, police forces and the civilian aviation community. Go figure.

My late husband, A US Air Force officer explained to me the letter-explanation-words were chosen because they are know and/or understood in most of the world's languages.

My understanding was that these particular words were chosen to have as little overlap as can be contrived, so that if part of the word were garbled by transmission the correct letter could still be determined accurately. (As opposed to the "standard" letter names, in which it can be hard to differentiate among b/c/d/e/g/p/t/v/z or a/j/k or m/n or f/s and such like if there is any fuzziness to the reception)

I used to fiddle around with "better" examples, for greater redundancy/memorability/giggle-potential:

A as in applesauce
B - baby-bottle
C - cookie-cutter
D - dandelion

F - fluffy
G - giggle
H - hobby-horse
J - jumping-jack
L - lollipop
M - marshmallow
N - nincompoop

P - popcorn


and then they petered out.
Anyone want to contribute to the list?

Oh, sure, I can see tough military types saying, "baby bottle applesauce giggle"! I'll see if I can come up with any--

E-eek
I-Ima (esp. good when followed by something clever)
K-kicky
O-ogee
Q-quantum
R-rattler
S-sweetums
T-tinkle
U-Uranous
V-velvet
W-wicked
X-Xanadu
Y-yo-yo
Z-zombie

I got hooked on trying to fill out the rest of the alphabet with enough examples of confusing examples to add to those already given so as to complete the alphabet. Some were relatively easy, I just had to think real hard...

E as in Eugene or eugenics.
G as in gnome
I as in Iraqi or Iwo Jimo
O as in Oedipus
J as in Jungian Psychology
Q as in qoph, the 19th letter of the hebrew alphabet
(Of course this was easy, all the "Q" words sound a "K".)

But then I had to get out the dictionary and
s-t-r-e-t-c-h...

N as in Ndjamena (en-JA-ma-Na) the capital of Chad.
Y as in Y-chromosome (WI-KRO-me-SOM)
V as in Vaduz (fa-DOOTS) the capital of Liechtenstein
Z as in zingara (TSEN-ta-ro) a gypsy

I still can't find a word for "S" or "U" but my brain quits.

A for gardener
B for mutton
C for miles
D for blind
E for nods
F for lasting

Starts to get difficult here, but you remember them I’m sure.

A for gardener
B for mutton
C for miles
D for blind
E for nods
F for lasting

whaaaa?

A for gardener Ava Gardner?
B for mutton Lamb? Oh, no--beef or mutton!
C for miles See for miles?
D for blind Deaf or blind?
E for nods ?
F for lasting Everlasting?

E for nods ?


ZZZ for nods...

E for nods...Even odds.

Even odds.
Are there more "real" ones? If not, how 'bout:
I for ...tower
M for...sis
N for...ence
O for ...goodness' sake!
T for...two
Y for... [fill in the blank]