Biggest word in english with meaning

The biggest word in the English language is 189,819 letters long, and takes three hours to pronounce! More commonly used big words are several syllables long, and often make people feel smart when they say them out loud. Somewhat ironically, however, study after study has shown that using big words usually makes people sound dumb.

There is a time and a place for big words. If you’re a writer, you might want to be careful about how often you invoke long words that no one has ever heard of before. Mark Twain has a few good quotes about why writers should be economical and precise:

“Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.”

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

With that said, below is a list of some of the biggest words in the English language, which you can choose to ignore, or insert into your writing and vocabulary. Remember, sometimes, a big word works better. Try to insert a new word into your vocabulary every day until you’re able to use them naturally, without thinking about it. Here are some big words that you can use to sound smart around your family and friends, along with their meaning so you use them in the correct way:

1. Abstentious

Self-restraining; also the longest word in the English language to use all five vowels in order once

2. Accoutrements

trappings, esp. related to apparel

3. Acumen — ability, skill

4. Anachronistic — a story that didn’t actually happen

5. Anagnorisis — the moment in a story when the main character realizes something that leads to a resolution

6. Anomalist — difficult to classify

8. Apropos — appropriate

9. Arid — dry

10. Assiduous — painstaking; taking great care through hard work

11. Auspicious — signaling a positive future

Big Words (B-C)

12. Behoove — something that is a personal duty

13. Bellwether — the first sheep in a flock, wearing a bell around its neck

14. Callipygian — having large, round, succulent buttocks

15. Circumlocution —the act of using too many words

16. Consanguineous — of the same blood or same ancestor

17. Conviviality — friendliness

18. Coruscant — sparkling

19. Cuddlesome — cuddly

20. Cupidity — greed

21. Cwtch — from the Welsh word for “hiding place”; the longest word in English to be entirely composed of consonants

22. Cynosure — center of attention

Big Words (D)

23. Deleterious — harmful

24. Desideratum — something needed or wanted

Big Words (E)

26. Enervating — exhausting

27. Equanimity — level-headedness

28. Euouae — a medieval musical term; the longest word in a major dictionary entirely composed of vowels

29. Excogitate — to plan

Big Words (F)

31. Florid — red and inflamed

32. Fortuitous — lucky

33. Frugal — cheap, thrifty

Big Words (G-M)

34. Gasconading — bragging

35. Grandiloquent — verbally pompous

36. Hackneyed — clichéd

37. Honorificabilitudinitatibus — an extremely long-winded way to say “honorable”; at 27 letters, the longest word in the work of William Shakespeare; also the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels

38. Idiosyncratic — peculiar

39. Indubitably — without a doubt

40. Ivoriate — to cover in ivory

41. Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypo…pterygon — (ellipsis used because the word is 182 letters long) an elaborate fricassee; coined word that appeared in the play Assemblywomen by Aristophanes

42. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine … the chemical name for titin, the largest known protein; ellipsis used because at 189,819 letters, it’s the largest known word and takes over three hours to pronounce

43. Milieu — environment

Big Words (N-P)

44. Nidificate — to build a nest

45. Nonchalant — carefree and unbothered

46. Osculator — one who loves or is loved

47. Paradigm — model

48. Parastratiosphecomyiastratiosphecomyiodes — a species of fly native to Thailand

49. Parsimonious — cheap

50. Penultimate — second to last

51. Perfidious — treacherous

52. Perspicacious — perceptive

54. Proficuous — profitable

55. Predilection — preference

56. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism — an inherited thyroid disorder

57. Psychotomimetic – inducing psychotic alteration of behavior and personality

Big Words (Q-Z)

58. Querulous — fussy

59 Rancorous — bitter and argumentative

60. Remunerative — lucrative

61. Rotavator — a soil tiller; at 9 letters, the longest palindromic word in the English language (i.e., it’s spelled the same way backwards)

62. Saxicolous — something that lives on rocks

63. Sesquipedalian — involving long words, just like this article

64. Splendiferous — wonderful

65. Squirrelled — put away; the longest one-syllable word in the English language

67. Supercilious — when a person is arrogant

68. Synergy — extra energy generated by cooperation

69. Unencumbered — free

70. Unparagoned — without equal

71. Winebibber — an alcoholic  —

Published August 27, 2021

That’s a big word, indeed!

Most of the longest words in the English language are scientific and technical terms, like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. But what are some long words that you might actually use one day, without having to become a microbiologist or something? We have gathered up over a dozen lengthy words that you might actually come across in the wild (or at least might actually want to use). If you are a sesquipedalian, or hope to become one one day, this slideshow is for you. And to find out what sesquipedalian means, read on.

For a look at the longest words you’re likely never to use, just click here.

sesquipedalian

Sesquipedalian [ ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn ] means “given to using long words.” It comes from Latin sesquipedālis meaning “measuring a foot and a half.”

• The professor was so sesquipedalian that he was often incomprehensible to his students.

The poet Horace, who is credited with coining the term sesquipedalian in Latin, used the word to warn young poets against using overly long and complicated words. Horace, of course, ironically did not take his own advice here to make his point—sesquipedalian itself is 14 letters long.

magnanimity

If someone asks you the meaning of a word, it’s important to have magnanimity [ mag-nuh–nim-i-tee ] about it. Magnanimity means “the quality of being generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness.”

• We hoped that the Queen would show magnanimity and not sentence us to prison for the slight.

The related term magnanimous comes from the Latin for “great-souled.” Impressive.

Speaking of soul, experience the linguistic offerings of soul food by reading about its history and vocabulary.

decompensation

As we noted, many of the longest terms in English are scientific and or medical terms. Some of these are so complex, it is unlikely you will come across them unless you are in the field. Others you are more likely to encounter, like decompensation [ dee-kom-puhn-sey-shuhn ]. Decompensation means “the inability of a diseased heart to compensate for its defect.”

• I observed some symptoms of heart decompensation in the patient, including difficulty breathing and leg swelling.

While typically decompensation refers to the heart organ no longer working properly, it can also be used to refer to other organs or a psychological state.

counterrevolutionary

One way long words are created in the English language is by combining different word elements together to create a new word. That’s the case with counterrevolutionary, a combination of counter, revolution, and the suffix –ary. Counterrevolutionary means “opposing a revolution or revolutionary government.”

• After the revolutionaries came to power, the landed gentry began plotting a counterrevolutionary movement to regain control.

deinstitutionalization

Public policy is another domain where you will find especially long words. An example is deinstitutionalization, meaning “the release of institutionalized people, especially mental health patients, from an institution for placement and care in the community.”

• Many studies find that deinstitutionalization led to an increase in the number of mentally ill people in prison.

transcendentalism

Our next term, transcendentalism [ trans-sen-den-tl-iz-uhm ], also describes an American social experiment, of sorts, from the 19th century. Transcendentalism, or transcendental philosophy, is “a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical.”

• The group quickly embraced the principles of transcendentalism, including respect of nature and the importance of human effort.

The writers most closely associated with transcendentalism are Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Thoreau.

paleoanthropology

As you may have gathered, many academic terms are quite long. Even the names of some academic disciplines can get up there in length, like paleoanthropology [ pey-lee-oh-an-thruh–pol–uh-jee ]. Paleoanthropology is “the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species, using fossils and other remains.”

• One of the most important aspects of paleoanthropology is determining whether ancient fossilized remains are Homo sapien or another hominin species.

Learn about other intriguing areas of study and profession with this article on 10 other “-ologist” professions.

psychophysiology

Another academic domain with a daunting name is psychophysiology, “the branch of physiology that deals with the interrelation of mental and physical phenomena.” Physiology is the branch of biology that deals with the functions and activities of living organisms.

• The medical students studied psychophysiology to learn how heart rate is related to a patient’s emotional state.

The psycho- part of the word psychophysiology is a combining form meaning “psyche” or “mind.”

countercyclical

Yet another area where you are likely to find long, complex terminology is in business and economics. That’s where we get the term countercyclical, “opposing the trend of a business or economic cycle; countervailing.” For example, reducing spending when the economy is doing well is an example of a countercyclical economic policy.

• Our panel of economic advisors recommends that we enact countercyclical infrastructure investment; when the economy is doing poorly, we should spend more on roads and bridges.

profligacy

Another lengthy term related to economics is profligacy [ prof-li-guh-see ], meaning “reckless extravagance” or “great abundance.”

• Budget hawks were once again warning that the government’s profligacy was going to increase the nation’s debt.

The word profligacy ultimately comes from the Latin prōflīgātus, meaning “degraded” or “debased.”

palingenesist

Philosophy and theology are also great sources for long words. One example is palingenesist [ pal-in-jen–uh-sist ], “a person who believes in a doctrine of rebirth or transmigration of souls.”

• The palingenesist Plutarch believed that the soul is reborn into another body after death, a theory known as metempsychosis.

(Bonus big word: metempsychosis!)

The original use of the word palingenesis, or the continual rebirth of the universe, dates back to ancient Greek philosophers known as the Stoics.

palimpsest

Another long word we can thank the Greeks for is palimpsest [ pal-imp-sest ], from Greek palímpsēstos, meaning “rubbed again.” The word palimpsest in English originally meant “a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.”

• Scholars use sophisticated equipment like optical scanners to read the remains of erased texts on Medieval palimpsests.

These days, palimpsest is most often used figuratively to mean “something that has a new layer, aspect, or appearance that builds on its past and allows us to see or perceive parts of this past.”

antepenultimate

Our third to the last word in this slideshow is, appropriately, antepenultimate [ an-tee-pi-nuhl-tuh-mit ]. Antepenultimate means “third from the end.”

• I was relieved to see that I was slated to be the antepenultimate speaker, so I would only have to wait for two more presentations after my own.

The word antepenultimate ultimately comes from the Latin antepaenultima meaning “the second (syllable) from the last.”

dodecaphonism

Some long words are just fun to say. That’s the case with dodecaphonism, “musical composition using the 12-tone technique.” Dodecaphonism [ doh-dek–uh-fuh-niz-uhm ] is a composition technique that uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale and is atonal.

• The dodecaphonism in the composer’s work created a strange and unsettling feeling in the listeners.

amelioration

A particularly long word that we hope you find a lot of good use for is amelioration, “an act or instance of making better.”

• We were hopeful that the move would lead to an amelioration of our living conditions and a better quality of life overall.

Funnily enough, amelioration [ uh-meel-yuh-rey-shuhn ] and melioration mean the exact same thing.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The identity of the longest word in English depends on the definition of a word and of length.

Words may be derived naturally from the language’s roots or formed by coinage and construction. Additionally, comparisons are complicated because place names may be considered words, technical terms may be arbitrarily long, and the addition of suffixes and prefixes may extend the length of words to create grammatically correct but unused or novel words.

The length of a word may also be understood in multiple ways. Most commonly, length is based on orthography (conventional spelling rules) and counting the number of written letters. Alternate, but less common, approaches include phonology (the spoken language) and the number of phonemes (sounds).

Word	Letters	Meaning	Claim	Dispute
methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine	189,819	The chemical composition of titin, the largest known protein	Longest known word overall by magnitudes. Attempts to say the entire word have taken two[1] to three and a half hours.[2]	Technical; not in dictionary; whether this should actually be considered a word is disputed
methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl…serine	1,909	The chemical name of E. coli TrpA (P0A877)	Longest published word[3]	Technical
lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano…pterygon	183	A fictional dish of food	Longest word coined by a major author,[4] the longest word ever to appear in literature[5]	Contrived nonce word; not in dictionary; Ancient Greek transliteration
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis	45	The disease silicosis	Longest word in a major dictionary[6]	Contrived coinage to make it the longest word; technical, but only mentioned and never actually used in communication
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious	34	Unclear in source work, has been cited as a nonsense word	Made popular in the Mary Poppins film and musical[7]	Contrived coinage
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism	30	A hereditary medical disorder	Longest non-contrived word in a major dictionary[8]	Technical
antidisestablishmentarianism	28	The political position of opposing disestablishment	Longest non-contrived and nontechnical word[9]	Not all dictionaries accept it due to lack of usage.[10]
honorificabilitudinitatibus	27	The state of being able to achieve honors	Longest word in Shakespeare’s works; longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels[11]	Latin

Major dictionaries

The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles,^[12] specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis. The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English, and has since been used^{[citation needed]} in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.^[6]

The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary does not contain antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters), as the editors found no widespread, sustained usage of the word in its original meaning. The longest word in that dictionary is electroencephalographically (27 letters).^[13]

The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is flocci­nauci­nihili­pili­fication at 29 letters. Consisting of a series of Latin words meaning «nothing» and defined as «the act of estimating something as worthless»; its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.^[14][15][16]

Ross Eckler has noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to be encountered in general text are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.^[17]

A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday basis is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters.^[18]

The word internationalization is abbreviated «i18n», the embedded number representing the number of letters between the first and the last.^[19][20][21]

Creations of long words

Coinages

In his play Assemblywomen (Ecclesiazousae), the ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes created a word of 171 letters (183 in the transliteration below), which describes a dish by stringing together its ingredients:

Henry Carey’s farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: «Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?»

Thomas Love Peacock put these creations into the mouth of the phrenologist Mr. Cranium in his 1816 book Headlong Hall: osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 characters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 characters).

James Joyce made up nine 100-letter words plus one 101-letter word in his novel Finnegans Wake, the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. Sylvia Plath made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, when the protagonist was reading Finnegans Wake.

«Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious», the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is «a word that you say when you don’t know what to say.» The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman.

Agglutinative constructions

The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. This is sometimes referred to as agglutinative construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes pseudo (false, spurious) and anti (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. More familiarly, the addition of numerous «great»s to a relative, such as «great-great-great-great-grandparent», can produce words of arbitrary length. In musical notation, an 8192nd note may be called a semihemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver.

Antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest common example of a word formed by agglutinative construction.

Technical terms

A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words.

The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl…isoleucine for the protein also known as titin, which is involved in striated muscle formation. In nature, DNA molecules can be much bigger than protein molecules and therefore potentially be referred to with much longer chemical names. For example, the wheat chromosome 3B contains almost 1 billion base pairs,^[22] so the sequence of one of its strands, if written out in full like Adenilyladenilylguanilylcystidylthymidyl…, would be about 8 billion letters long. The longest published word, Acetylseryltyrosylseryliso…serine, referring to the coat protein of a certain strain of tobacco mosaic virus (P03575), is 1,185 letters long, and appeared in the American Chemical Society’s Chemical Abstracts Service in 1964 and 1966.^[23] In 1965, the Chemical Abstracts Service overhauled its naming system and started discouraging excessively long names. In 2011, a dictionary broke this record with a 1909-letter word describing the trpA protein (P0A877).^[3]

John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one sexmilliaquingentsexagintillion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 10^3(6560+1) = 10¹⁹⁶⁸³. Under the long number scale, it would be 10^6(6560) = 10³⁹³⁶⁰.

Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis is sometimes cited as the longest binomial name—it is a kind of amphipod. However, this name, proposed by B. Dybowski, was invalidated by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature in 1929 after being petitioned by Mary J. Rathbun to take up the case.^[24]

Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis is the longest accepted binomial name for an organism. It is a bacterium found in soil collected at Llan­fair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­ (discussed below). Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides is the longest accepted binomial name for any animal, or any organism visible with the naked eye. It is a species of soldier fly.^[25] The genus name Parapropalaehoplophorus (a fossil glyptodont, an extinct family of mammals related to armadillos) is two letters longer, but does not contain a similarly long species name.

Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, at 52 letters, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).^[26] The word is composed of the following elements:

• Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo^[27])
• Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus)
• Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
• Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, cera)
• Aluminoso: alumina (Latin)
• Cupreo: from «copper»
• Vitriolic: resembling vitriol

Notable long words

Place names

The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu (85 letters), which is a hill in New Zealand. The name is in the Māori language. A widely recognized version of the name is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters), which appears on the signpost at the location (see the photo on this page). In Māori, the digraphs ng and wh are each treated as single letters.

In Canada, the longest place name is Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde, a township in Ontario, at 61 letters or 68 non-space characters.^[28]

The 58-letter name Llan­fair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­gogery­chwyrn­drob­wlll­lanty­silio­gogo­goch is the name of a town on Anglesey, an island of Wales. In terms of the traditional Welsh alphabet, the name is only 51 letters long, as certain digraphs in Welsh are considered as single letters, for instance ll, ng and ch. It is generally agreed, however, that this invented name, adopted in the mid-19th century, was contrived solely to be the longest name of any town in Britain. The official name of the place is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, commonly abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG.

The longest non-contrived place name in the United Kingdom which is a single non-hyphenated word is Cottonshopeburnfoot (19 letters) and the longest which is hyphenated is Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe (29 characters).

The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Char­gogga­gogg­man­chau­ggagogg­chau­buna­gunga­maugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. It means «Fishing Place at the Boundaries – Neutral Meeting Grounds» and is sometimes facetiously translated as «you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle». The lake is also known as Webster Lake.^[29] The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are Winchester-on-the-Severn, a town in Maryland, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, a notable place in Texas history. The longest single-word town names in the U.S. are Kleinfeltersville, Pennsylvania and Mooselookmeguntic, Maine.

The longest official geographical name in Australia is Ma­mungku­kumpu­rang­kunt­junya.^[30] It has 26 letters and is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning «where the Devil urinates».^[31]

Liechtenstein is the longest country name with single name in English. The second longest country name with single name in English is Turkmenistan. There are longer country names if one includes ones with spaces.

Personal names

Guinness World Records formerly contained a category for longest personal name used.

• From about 1975 to 1985, the recordholder was Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegelstein­hausenberger­dorffvoraltern­waren­gewissenhaft­schaferswessen­schafewaren­wohlgepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihrraubgierigfeinde­welche­voraltern­zwolftausend­jahres­vorandieerscheinen­wander­ersteer­dem­enschderraumschiff­gebrauchlicht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraftgestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartigraum­auf­der­suchenach­diestern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neurasse­von­verstandigmen­schlichkeit­konnte­fortplanzen­und­sicher­freuen­anlebens­langlich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartigraum, Senior (746 letters), also known as Wolfe+585, Senior.
• After 1985 Guinness briefly awarded the record to a newborn girl with a longer name. The category was removed shortly afterward.

Long birth names are often coined in protest of naming laws or for other personal reasons.

• The naming law in Sweden was challenged by parents Lasse Diding and Elisabeth Hallin, who proposed the given name «Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116» for their child (pronounced [ˈǎlːbɪn], 43 characters), which was rejected by a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden.

Words with certain characteristics of notable length

• Schmaltzed and strengthed (10 letters) appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in The Oxford English Dictionary, while scraunched and scroonched appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; but squirrelled (11 letters) is the longest if pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary at squirrel, and in Longman Pronunciation Dictionary). Schtroumpfed (12 letters) was coined by Umberto Eco, while broughammed (11 letters) was coined by William Harmon after broughamed (10 letters) was coined by George Bernard Shaw.
• Strengths is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel letter.^[32]
• Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the «word» itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase «seculorum Amen» at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant «Evovae» is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
• The longest words with no repeated letters are dermatoglyphics and uncopyrightable.^[33]
• The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus. However, this is arguably a proper noun. There are several six-letter English words with their letters in alphabetical order, including abhors, almost, begins, biopsy, chimps and chintz.^[34] There are few 7-letter words, such as «billowy» and «beefily». The longest words whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order are sponged, wronged and trollied.
• The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all six vowels (counting y as a vowel).
• The longest single palindromic word in English is rotavator, another name for a rotary tiller for breaking and aerating soil.

Typed words

• The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts, dereverberated, dereverberates^[35] and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses.^[34] Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion^[36] and phyllophyllin.
• The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
• The longest using only the middle row is shakalshas (10 letters). Nine-letter words include flagfalls; eight-letter words include galahads and alfalfas.
• Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed. ^[37]
• The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are antiskepticism and leucocytozoans respectively.^[34]
• On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest «left-handed» words are epopoeia, jipijapa, peekapoo, and quiaquia.^[38] Other such long words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.^[39] Kikuyu is typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the right-hand side, and so the longest «right-handed» word is crwths.

See also

References

External links

• A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia – Long words
  • Long words (chemical names)
  • Long words (place names)
• What is the longest English word?, AskOxford.com «Ask the Experts»
• What is the Longest Word?, Fun-With-Words.com
• Full chemical name of titin.
• Taxonomy of Wordplay

Last Updated: Dec 30, 2019
How many words exactly are in the English language? The second edition of the current 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words in current use. That’s a lot! Which gets the mind thinking the next question, what’s the longest word in current use today?

Many of the longest words in the dictionary refer to medicine or chemistry. You’ll find a few defined in here along with other long words that you may or may not already use. Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines the ten longest words in the English language.

1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

Pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust.

2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters)

Ironically, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest work in the dictionary and is the name for a fear of long words! Who would have thought, right?

3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters)

Perhaps the best word of all! Made popular by the film Mary Poppins, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is something to say when you have nothing to say.

4. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters)

A relatively mild form of pseudohypoparathyroidism that is characterized by normal levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood.

5. Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)

The longest unchallenged nontechnical word that not all directories recognize, that including Merriam-Webster. According to alternative sources, floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless. Often times, it is used in a humorous way.

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6. Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters)

A term referring to a political movement in 19th century Britain that sought to separate church and state. In this case, political movement wanted to disestablish the Church of England as the official state church of England, Ireland and Wales.

7. Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters)

The longest word in Shakespeare’s works. Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.

8. Thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters)

A medical term that defines the excision of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands.

9. Dichlorodifluoromethane (23 letters)

A chlorofluoromethane CF2Cl2.

10. Incomprehensibilities (21 letters)

Impossible to comprehend. In the 1990’s, incomprehensibilities set the record as the longest word “in common usage.”

LONGEST ENGLISH WORD:Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine (189,819 letters)

If we’re talking chemistry, the longest chemical name is 189,819 letters long. It is the chemical name for titin, a giant filamentous protein essential to the structure, development, and elasticity of muscle. As to whether or not this is an actual word is disputed by many. It is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, so you shouldn’t ever have to worry about spelling it. ?

Do you want to impress your friends with the longest English words? This blog is for you! Some of these words aren’t used very often, but some of them are quite common and you will absolutely be able to use them whenever you’re speaking English. 

• The longest word in English
• The longest word in the dictionary
• The longest words we actually use
• The longest word with one syllable
• The longest word with one vowel

The longest word in English

The actual longest word in English is unfortunately so long that I can’t write it here. It has 189,819 letters and takes over three hours to say! We don’t have time for that. And thankfully, it isn’t a word you’re likely to use because it’s the chemical name for titin. Here’s a very brief snapshot: meth…ucine. Just add 189,810 letters in between. 

The longest word in the dictionary

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in any major English dictionary. It refers to a lung disease which can also be called silicosis. Why the long version then? Because it was deliberately made up to be the longest word in the English dictionary. The longest non-technical, non-medical word in an English dictionary is the 29-letter flocci­nauci­nihili­pili­fication. This is a Latin word that means the act of estimating that something is worthless. 

The longest words we actually use

You might have realized you’ve never heard anyone use any of the words we’ve mentioned so far. That has nothing to do with your level of English – most native speakers don’t know those words either! The longest words you will see in a normal English text are counterrevolutionaries and deinstitutionalisation, both with 22 letters. Another, with 21 letters, is incomprehensibilities, meaning things which are impossible to understand. The longest word we use regularly in everyday speech is probably uncharacteristically, at 20 letters. 

The longest word with one syllable

Brits and Americans are going to argue over this one. Because of our different pronunciations, we don’t agree on what is the longest one-syllable word in English. People from the US and Canada might tell you that it’s the word squirrel(l)ed. This has ten or eleven letters, again depending on where you’re from. While our transatlantic friends pronounce this something like ‘squirld’ (ˈskwərld), Brits pronounce the word squirrelled with two syllables: ‘squir-relled’ (ˈskwir-əld). I don’t want to say who’s wrong or right but… we are learning British English here. 

There are several longest words with one syllable in British English and they all have nine letters: screeched, scratched and strengths are just three of them. (We’re going to see strengths again in a bit – it’s our word of the day today.)

The longest word with only vowels

Euouae wins this category. With six letters, it is the longest word in English with only vowels. However, ask an English person what this word means and they probably won’t have a clue. It’s a musical word from medieval times, so not a massively useful term to know for most of us.

The longest word without a vowel

People argue over this one because it’s hard to agree on what is or isn’t a vowel. If we take the standard English definition that there are five vowels – a e i o u – then rhythms is the longest English word without a vowel. But some people will say that the y in rhythm acts as a vowel.

Another worthy contender for this category is the word tsktsks. That doesn’t look much like English, does it? It’s more of a sound than a word and it’s sometimes spelt tsk-tsks, but tsktsks is allowed in Scrabble so I think it counts. It’s similar to a tut-tut sound of disapproval. 

The longest word with one vowel

Strengths! Our word of the day is back. Strengths, with nine letters, is the longest word in English with only one vowel. A fairly close rival is schnapps, which has eight letters; so let’s raise a glass to it, and to all of the long words we’ve met today, and say ‘cheers’.  

Which of these long words do you think you’ll be able to use in your next English conversation?

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Laura is a freelance writer and was an ESL teacher for eight years. She was born in the UK and has lived in Australia and Poland, where she writes blogs for Lingoda about everything from grammar to dating English speakers. She’s definitely better at the first one. She loves travelling and that’s the other major topic that she writes on. Laura likes pilates and cycling, but when she’s feeling lazy she can be found curled up watching Netflix. She’s currently learning Polish, and her battle with that mystifying language has given her huge empathy for anyone struggling to learn English. Find out more about her work in her portfolio.

According to the 20th volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, there are a total of 171,476 words in current use. With this number of words, your mind will begin to imagine which words are the longest and how many letters they have. Well, you needn’t wonder anymore, this article has got you covered.

A very high percentage of the longest words in English are medicine and chemistry terminologies. However, you will not find some of them in the dictionary as space is an essential constraint of a dictionary.

For example, the longest word in the English language is METHIONYLTHREONYLTHREONYGLUTAMINYLARGINYL…ISOLEUCINE which is the full chemical name for the human protein titin. The word has 189,819 letters, taking about three-and-a-half hours to pronounce. The problem with including chemical names in the dictionary is that there is no limit to how long it can be.

In the same light, the longest word to ever appear in the literature is from Assemblywomen, a play by Aristophanes published in 391 BC. LOPADOTEMACHOSELACHOGALEOKRANIOLEIPSAN…PTERYGON is a Greek word that has a total of 171 letters that translates to 183.

However, this article is focused on the longest English words in the dictionary. There are several lengthy words in the dictionary. Continue reading to appreciate a few of them.

This is the longest word in the dictionary, with a total of forty-five letters. Also, it has 19 syllables which divides as pneu-mo-no-ul-tra-mi-cro-scop-ic-sil-i-co-vol-ca-no-co-ni-o-sis.

The forty-five-letter word is a noun that refers to a lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica, quartz dust, very fine ash or sand dust found in volcanoes.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis was invented in the 1930s during the annual meeting of the National Puzzlers’ League (N.P.L.) by Everett M. Smith (the president). The word was coined in imitation of very long medical terms. The 45-letter word is a synonym for the disease known as silicosis.

Additionally, it first appeared in the supplement to the Merriam-Webster New International Dictionary in the year 1939.

The second position on the list is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, with a total of thirty-six letters. Plus, it has 15 syllables which divides into hip-po-pot-o-mon-stro-ses-quip-ped-al-i-o-pho-bi-a.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is a noun that refers to the fear of long words. Isn’t it ironic that the word that means the fear of long words is actually one of the longest words in the dictionary?

Additionally, the prefix hippopoto- and monstro- which alludes to hippopotamus and monsters, were only added to the word to blow the word out of proportion. You don’t necessarily need them for the meaning. The word’s true meaning comes for the Latin word sesquipedalis, which means a foot and a half long and the word phobia, meaning an irrational fear.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is the third-longest word in the English language, having a total of thirty-four letters. However, it is not a word that appears in all dictionary, only a few. Plus, it has 14 syllables which divides into su-per-cal-i-frag-i-lis-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious.

The thirty-four-letter word is an adjective that means extraordinarily good or wonderful. However, the oxford dictionary defines the word as a nonsense word typically used by children to express excited approbation.

If you ever watched Mary Poppins (the 1964 film) as a child, you might remember supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as first used by Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins described it as a word to use when you have nothing to say.

This is the fourth-longest word in the dictionary, and the longest non-coined word in the English language with a total of thirty letters is pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. The thirty-letter word has 11 syllables, which divide into Pseu-do-pseu-do-hy-po-pa-ra-thy-roid-ism.

Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, which is often abbreviated as PPHP, is a noun that refers to the condition that causes the soft tissues and joints in the body to harden, leading to a round face, short stature and short hand bones. This condition is often inherited

Pseudo means false or fake. The word consists of the word pseudo twice because the disorder stimulates the peculiar symptoms of pseudohypoparathyroidism, whereby the body does not respond to the parathyroid hormone. This shows two-level of faking it or falseness going on.

The fifth on the list is Floccinaucinihilipilification coming with a total of twenty-nine letters. Floccinaucinihilipilification has 12 syllables which divides into floc-ci-nau-ci-ni-hil-i-pil-i-fi-ca-tion.

Floccinaucinihilipilification is a noun that refers to the action or habit of estimating something as worthless or valueless. It is mostly never used except in a list of the longest words in the English language. However, when it is used, it is often in reference to itself.

The twenty-nine letter word dates back to the mid-18th century having Latin roots. It is made up of the Latin words flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili, which means little value. The first recorded use of Floccinaucinihilipilification was in a letter by William Shenstone in 1741.

Following closely on the list is Antidisestablishmentarianism, with a total of twenty-eight letters. Antidisestablishmentarianism is pronounced in 12 syllables which divides into an-ti-dis-es-tab-lish-ment-ar-i-an-is-m.

Antidisestablishmentarianism originally referred to the opposition of the Church of England’s disestablishment and the advocacy that the church should continue to receive government patronage. However, it is now being used to describe any opposition to withdrawing government support from religions or churches.

Also, in 1838, Antidisestablishmentarianism was first said by Weekley. The word was first recorded in Gladstone’s “Church and State. Furthermore, the twenty-eight-letter word, a prime example of a sesquipedalian word, is never really used today and was rarely used after it was formed.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word in the dictionary that features only alternating consonants and vowels with 27 letters. Also, it has a total of 11 syllables, which divides into Hon-ori-fi-ca-bi-li-tu-dini-tat-i-bus.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus is a noun that means the state of being able to achieve honours. Also, it is the ablative and dative plural of the Latin word honorificabilitudinitas. The twenty-seven letters only appeared only once in Shakespeare’s works (Love’s Labour’s Lost).

Coming eighth on the list is incomprehensibilities with a total of twenty-one letters. The pronunciation of Incomprehensibilities comes in 8 syllables, which divides into in-com-pri-hen-si-bi-li-ties.

Incomprehensibilities is a noun that refers to the things that are impossible to understand or comprehend; it could also mean unintelligible.

The word was derived in Middle English from the Latin word incomprehēnsibilis; it was first recorded sometime in the early 1300s. Also, during the 1990s, the word was named the longest word in common usage.

With 20 letters words, the next letter is uncharacteristically. The pronunciation of the word comes in 8 syllables, which divides into un-char-ac-ter-is-ti-ca-lly.

Uncharacteristically, it is an adverb that means performing an action in a way that is not typical for a person or thing. The first known use of uncharacteristically was in 1748.

Isograms are words that have no repeated letters in their spellings; there are several isograms in the English dictionary. The longest isogram is subdermatoglyphic, with a total of 17 letters. However, subdermatoglyphic is not included in the dictionary; that is why it is not part of this list.

On the other hand, the next longest isogram is uncopyrightable, which is a word included in the English dictionary, has a total of 15 letters. Plus, it has six syllables that break down into un-co-py-righ-ta-ble.

Uncopyrightable is an adjective that means not allowed to or not able to be protected by copyright, the first known use of the word was in 1926.

Ready to take your Scrabble skills to the next level? This list of the longest words in the English language could score you major points on your next game — if you can remember how to spell them.

Some of the words that qualify for the title take hours to pronounce, like the 189,819-letter word for the  protein Titin. Additionally, many of the longest words are medical terms, so we have excluded some of them to allow for more variety. The end result is a list of fascinatingly lengthy words that will make your vocabulary downright sesquipedalian.