All words are unique. Each has its very own spelling, meaning and purpose. But some words are unique in other ways as well.

Maybe it’s a word’s length, or its combination of letters, or even symmetry. Whatever, such words are good to know if, for instance, you ever find yourself in a word trivia contest — it could happen! — or maybe just because you enjoy knowing words that are doubly unique. So join me, won’t you, as I take a look at some of the words that could help you win that trivia prize.

First up are “dermatoglyphics” (the ridge patterns on the inside of the hand) and “uncopyrightable,” which are the longest words to use each of their letters only once. Similarly “happenchance” uses each of its letters twice. “Syzyrgy” (the conjunction of three astronomical objects), on the other hand, is the only English word to contain three Ys.

“Strengths” is the longest one-syllable word.

“Queue” is pronounced the same even if you take away its last four letters.

“Senseless is the longest word to be made up of only four different letters.

And speaking of “four,” it happens to be the only self-enumerating word, having as many letters as the number it represents.

Since we’re spelling numbers, the first one is eight, at least alphabetically, and eighty-eight is the highest number you can spell without using an “n”. You won’t need the letter “d” until you get to “hundred” (where you suddenly need it twice); you don’t need a “b” until you reach “billion”; and, if you count all the way to “octillion,” that’s the first time you’ll need the letter “c”. The lowest number to use all five vowels is “one-thousand-five.” The letters “j” and “k” aren’t used in any number.

Now back to the alphabet, sort of. If you use the dozen letters that make up the Hawaiian alphabet (A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P and W), the only state names you can spell are: Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Oklahoma and, of course, Hawaii. Using the regular English alphabet, all the states except Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio include an “a” or an “n” (or sometimes both) in the spelling of their names. “Q” is the only letter that isn’t in the name of any state.

For those of you who are still looking for another word that rhymes with “orange,” and are sick and tired of having to use “Blorange” (a hill in southeast Wales) all the time, try “sporange,” which, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is an uncommon botanical term for part of a fern. According to the writers on the TV show “Jeopardy!,” other words that rhyme with orange are: grunge, porridge, hinge, lozenge, and manage. You be the judge.

If you’re looking for a different rhyming challenge, try one-word rhymes, which are simply two-syllable words whose syllables rhyme, such as many of the words in the following sad tale of my fall onto hard times: “Downtown in my heyday, I was a bigwig, redhead guru in the grandstand. Then I became humdrum, and lost my mojo. Now people think I’m a loco nitwit, and I have to wait till payday to buy a cookbook.”

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.”