No reasoning is given, but Merriam-Webster seems to agree. Dictionary.com too...MinnesotaMyron wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 7:35 pmRemove the Q from lacquer and you get lacuer. Why are you removing the U also? The Q is silent, because next to the U, the word should be pronounced Lac-kwer. But it isn't. Because the Q is silent.A Wray wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 5:27 pm I have watched this show long enough to know that the Jeopardy! writers use "silent letter" to mean "a letter whose function in pronunciation we can't be bothered to understand" -- but even by that standard, the claim that the Q in lacquer is silent is very creative. In words derived from French and Spanish, qu is pronounced /k/ (compare liquor), and, in this case, if you removed the qu, you'd get lacer, which would presumably be pronounced differently. Do the writers think that the K in packer is silent?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a ... ay-a-thing
