I before E except after C exceptions
Duncan MacLeod 2006-03-12
One of the kids was doing 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' as part of his homework. I could think of quite a few exceptions off the top of my head, though couldn't find a detailed list on the web. So I rolled my own.
I downloaded the text version of the non-copyrighted Webster's dictionary from the Gutenberg Project. It actually contained some html mark-up. Stripped out the keywords (enclosed in <h1> tags) in Editpad. Then searched for '[^c]ei' (regexp) and 'cie' and noted the words in common usage (the ones I knew).
- absenteeism
- agreeing
- albeit
- atheist
- beige
- being
- caffeine
- canoeing
- codeine
- counterfeit
- deign
- deity
- edelweiss
- eiderdown
- eight
- either
- fahrenheit
- feign
- feint
- feisty
- foreign
- forfeit
- freight
- gneiss
- heifer
- height
- heir
- herein
- leisure
- leitmotif
- madeira
- neigh
- neighbour
- neither
- oleic
- pein
- plebeian
- pleiades
- protein
- seize
- reign
- rein
- reinstate etc
- reveille
- seeing
- sheik
- skein
- sleigh
- sleight
- sovereign
- spontaneity
- surfeit
- surveillance
- their
- therein
- veil
- vein
- weigh
- weight
- weir
- weird
- wherein
- ancient
- co-efficient
- concierge
- conscience
- deficient
- efficient
- fancied
- financier
- glacier
- hacienda
- inscient
- omniscient
- policies
- prescient
- prima facie
- proficient
- science
- society
- species
- sufficient