Marilyn is Wrong Copyright © 2001-2006 Herb Weiner. All rights reserved.

Ask Marilyn ® by Marilyn vos Savant is a column in Parade Magazine, published by PARADE, 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA. According to Parade, Marilyn vos Savant is listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records Hall of Fame" for "Highest IQ."

In her Parade Magazine column of November 13, 2005, Marilyn is asked:

Which word doesn't belong in this list: irredeemable, irreducible, irreligious, irrevocable, irremovable, irrepressible, irreversible?

Marilyn's answer is irrevocable, since it is the only word with the accent on the second rather than the third syllable.

• A. G. Carrick suggested that the answer could be irreligious because it only has 4 syllables and the rest have 5.

• Andreas Leimgruber andreasleimgruber@gmx.net suggested that the answer could be irreligious based upon the meanings of the words:
  • Irredeemable: it can not be redeemed.
  • Irreducible: it can not be reduced.
  • Irrevocable: it can not be revoked.
  • Irremovable: it can not be removed.
  • Irrepressible: it can not be repressed.
  • Irreversible: it can not be reversed.
  • Irreligious: does not match the above pattern.

• John Starrett jstarret@nmt.edu and Quentin Cobb both suggested that irreligious is the word that does not belong, because all the others end in ble.

http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn/wordlist.html last updated August 9, 2006 by herbw@wiskit.com