>>> z = [set(s) for s in ("ABEF", "GHLPQ", "CDEF", "EXZ", "LMR", "OMY")] >>> x = set() >>> for e in z: ... x = x.union(e) ... >>> x {'A', 'C', 'B', 'E', 'D', 'G', 'F', 'H', 'M', 'L', 'O', 'Q', 'P', 'R', 'Y', 'X', 'Z'} >>> ''.join(x) 'ACBEDGFHMLOQPRYXZ' >>>