Euouae


Euouae or Evovae is an abbreviation used in Latin psalters and other liturgical books to show the distribution of syllables in the differentia or variable melodic endings of the standard Psalm tones of Gregorian chant.
It derives from the vowels in the words "saeculorum Amen" of the lesser doxology or Gloria Patri, which ends with the phrase In saecula saeculorum, Amen.
In some cases the letters EUOUAE can be further shortened to E----E. A few books of English chant make use of 'oioueae' for the equivalent phrase "World without end. Amen."
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, at six letters long, "Euouae" is the longest word in the English language made up of nothing but vowels, and also the English word with the most consecutive vowels. As a mnemonic coming from Latin, it is unclear that it should count as an English word; however, it is found in the unabridged Collins English Dictionary.
It’s all-vowel composition makes it an effective play for certain kinds of vowel-heavy Scrabble racks, and the plural form means a bingo can be made in certain situations. A useful mnemonic for remembering the tricky spelling is by combining Euro and UAE. Both the singular and plural forms of the word are contained within the official Scrabble dictionary.
A similar abbreviation, Aevia, was used for Alleluia in medieval Office books. In Venetian and other Italian Office-Books of the 16th century, an equivalent abbreviation Hal'a, or Hal'ah, can be substituted for Aevia.