World longest word and meaning

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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 103(6560+1) = 1019683. Under the long number scale, it would be 106(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

  • Lipogram
  • List of long species names
  • List of the longest English words with one syllable
  • Longest English sentence
  • Longest word in French
  • Longest word in Romanian
  • Longest word in Spanish
  • Longest word in Turkish
  • Number of words in English
  • Scriptio continua
  • Sesquipedalianism
  • Donau­dampf­schiffahrts­elektrizitäten­haupt­betriebs­werk­bau­unter­beamten­gesellschaft, longest published word in German

References

  1. ^ «Reading The Longest English Word (190,000 Characters)». YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ^ «World’s longest word takes 3.5 hours to pronounce». CW39 Houston. 2012-12-08. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  3. ^ a b Colista Moore (2011). Student’s Dictionary. p. 524. ISBN 978-1-934669-21-1.
  4. ^ see separate article Lopado…pterygon
  5. ^ Donald McFarlan; Norris Dewar McWhirter; David A. Boeh (1989). Guinness book of world records: 1990. Sterling. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-8069-5790-6.
  6. ^ a b Coined around 1935 to be the longest word; press reports on puzzle league members legitimized it somewhat. First appeared in the MWNID supplement, 1939. Today OED and several others list it, but citations are almost always as «longest word». More detail at pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
  7. ^ «Merriam Webster: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious».
  8. ^ «What is the longest English word?». AskOxford. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  9. ^ «What is the longest English word?». oxforddictionaries.com.[dead link]
  10. ^ «Merriam Webster: «Antidisestablishmentarianism is not in the dictionary.»«.
  11. ^ «Cool, Strange, and Interesting Facts,» fact 99. InnocentEnglish.com. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  12. ^ «pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in English from the Oxford dictionary». oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-19.
  13. ^ «The Longest Word in the Dictionary» (Video). Ask the Editor. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 21 November 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  14. ^ «Floccinaucinihilipilification» by Michael Quinion World Wide Words Archived 2006-08-21 at the Wayback Machine;
  15. ^ The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. What is the longest English word? — Oxford Dictionaries Online Archived 2006-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd Discussion between Sen. Moynihan and Sen. Byrd «Mr. President, may I say to the distinguished Senator from New York, I used that word on the Senate floor myself 2 or 3 years ago. I cannot remember just when or what the occasion was, but I used it on that occasion to indicate that whatever it was I was discussing it was something like a mere trifle or nothing really being of moment.» Congressional Record June 17, 1991, p. S7887, and at the White House by Bill Clinton’s press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically. December 6, 1995, White House Press Briefing in discussing Congressional Budget Office estimates and assumptions: «But if you – as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference is not great. There’s a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification going on here.»
  17. ^ Eckler, R. Making the Alphabet Dance, p 252, 1996.
  18. ^ «Longest Common Words – Modern». Maltron.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  19. ^ «Glossary of W3C Jargon». World Wide Web Consortium. Archived from the original on 2008-10-25. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  20. ^ «Origin of the Abbreviation I18n». Archived from the original on 2014-06-27.
  21. ^ «Localization vs. Internationalization». World Wide Web Consortium. Archived from the original on 2016-04-03.
  22. ^ Paux et al. (2008) Science, Vol. 322 (5898) 101-104. A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B Paux, Etienne; Sourdille, Pierre; Salse, Jérôme; Saintenac, Cyrille; Choulet, Frédéric; Leroy, Philippe; Korol, Abraham; Michalak, Monika; Kianian, Shahryar; Spielmeyer, Wolfgang; Lagudah, Evans; Somers, Daryl; Kilian, Andrzej; Alaux, Michael; Vautrin, Sonia; Bergès, Hélène; Eversole, Kellye; Appels, Rudi; Safar, Jan; Simkova, Hana; Dolezel, Jaroslav; Bernard, Michel; Feuillet, Catherine (2008). «A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B». Science. 322 (5898): 101–104. Bibcode:2008Sci…322..101P. doi:10.1126/science.1161847. PMID 18832645. S2CID 27686615. Archived from the original on 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
  23. ^ Chemical Abstracts Formula Index, Jan.-June 1964, Page 967F; Chemical Abstracts 7th Coll. Formulas, C23H32-Z, 56-65, 1962–1966, Page 6717F
  24. ^ «Opinion 105. Dybowski’s (1926) Names of Crustacea Suppressed». Opinions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: Opinions 105 to 114. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 73. 1929. pp. 1–3. hdl:10088/23619. BHL page 8911139.
  25. ^ rjk. «World’s longest name of an animal. Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Stratiomyid Fly Soldier Fly». thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  26. ^ cited in some editions of the Guinness Book of Records as the longest word in English, see Askoxford.com on the longest English word
  27. ^ [1][dead link]
  28. ^ «GeoNames Government of Canada site». Archived from the original on 2009-02-06.
  29. ^ Belluck, Pam (2004-11-20). «What’s the Name of That Lake? It’s Hard to Say». The New York Times.
  30. ^ «Geoscience Australia Gazetteer». Archived from the original on 2007-10-01.
  31. ^ «South Australian State Gazetteer». Archived from the original on 2007-10-01.
  32. ^ «Guinness Records».
  33. ^ «Longest Word Without Repeating Letters». December 2014.
  34. ^ a b c «Typewriter Words». Questrel.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-27. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  35. ^ «Science Links Japan | Two Unique Aftercataracts Requiring Surgical Removal». Sciencelinks.jp. 2009-03-18. Archived from the original on 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  36. ^ «Dictionary entry for monimolimnion, a word that, at 13 letters, is longer than any of the words linked in the source above». Archived from the original on 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
  37. ^ «Word Records». Fun-with-words.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  38. ^ «Typewriter Words». Wordnik.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  39. ^ «The Dvorak Keyboard and You». Theworldofstuff.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-22.

External links

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  • 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
Источник

The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.

Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Words consisting of hundreds, or even thousands of characters have been coined. Even non-agglutinative languages may allow word formation of theoretically limitless length in certain contexts. An example common to many languages is the term for a very remote ancestor, «great-great-…..-grandfather», where the prefix «great-» may be repeated any number of times. The examples of «longest words» within the «Agglutinative languages» section may be nowhere near close to the longest possible word in said language, but is instead a popular example of a text-heavy word.

Systematic names of chemical compounds can run to hundreds of thousands of characters in length. The rules of creation of such names are commonly defined by international bodies, therefore they formally belong to many languages. The longest recognized systematic name is for the protein titin, at 189,819 letters.[1] While lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as verbal formulae rather than words,[2] for its sheer length the systematic name for titin is often included in longest-word lists.

Longest word candidates may be judged by their acceptance in major dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary or in record-keeping publications like Guinness World Records, and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.

Agglutinative languagesEdit

BasqueEdit

The longest Basque toponym is Azpilicuetagaraicosaroyarenberecolarrea (40) which means «The lower field of the sheepfold (located in) the hight of Azpilicueta».[3]

EsperantoEdit

Since Esperanto allows word compounding, there are no limits on how long a word can theoretically become. An example is the 39-letter oranĝ-kanton-pafil-limig-aktivul-malamanto, meaning «Orange County gun control activist hater». Such clusters are not considered good style (the 8-word alternative oranĝkantona malamanto de aktivuloj por limigo de pafiloj is more standard), but they are permissible under the rules of Esperanto grammar.[4] Hyphens are optional in Esperanto compounds,[5] so oranĝkantonpafillimigaktivulmalamanto is also technically a valid spelling.

The longest Esperanto roots officially recognized by the Akademio de Esperanto are 13 letters long, shown here with the added substantive «-o» ending:

  • administracio (administration),
  • aŭtobiografio (autobiography),
  • diskriminacio (discrimination),
  • konservatorio (conservatory),
  • paleontologio (palaeontology),
  • paralelogramo (parallelogram), and
  • trigonometrio (trigonometry).[6]

The longest word found in the dictionary Plena Ilustrita Vortaro as of its 2020 edition is the 24-letter proper noun Meklenburgio-Antaŭpomerio (the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), followed by the 21-letter word proviantadministracio (rations administration).

As of March 2022 the longest word found in the Tekstaro de Esperanto text corpus is the 66-letter word unue-volapukista-poste-esperantista-poste-idista-poste-denove-esperantista, meaning «first-volapukist-then-esperantist-then-idist-then-again-esperantist», which was used in a review published in Monato in 1997 to describe František Lorenz.[7] However, this word does not follow normal Esperanto word formation rules. Other long words found in Tekstaro de Esperanto that do follow regular word formation include:

  • sescent-kvindek-mil-kvadratkilometra (consisting of 650 000 square kilometers), 33 letters, used in an Esperanto version of an 2011 article by Marc Lavergne in Le Monde diplomatique,
  • tragedio-komedio-historio-pastoraloj (tragical-comical-historical-pastorals), 33 letters, used in L. L. Zamenhof’s translation of Hamlet,
  • Nord-Atlantik-Traktad-Organizo (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 27 letters, more commonly translated with two words: Nord-Atlantika Traktat-Organiz(aĵ)o.

EstonianEdit

  • Sünnipäevanädalalõpupeopärastlõunaväsimatus meaning «untiredness of a birthday week graduation party» which is 46 letters.[citation needed]
  • 31 lettered word of uusaastaöövastuvõtuhommikuidüll meaning «morning idyll after the new year».[8]
  • There is also the 25 letter long word of põllumajandusministeerium which is «Ministry of Agriculture».[citation needed]
  • The word kuulilennuteetunneliluuk meaning «the hatch a bullet flies out of when exiting a tunnel» is 24 letters long and a palindrome. It could be one of the longest palindromes.[citation needed]

FinnishEdit

Examples of long words that have been in everyday use in the Finnish language are kolmivaihekilowattituntimittari which means «three-phase kilowatt hour meter» (31 letters), liikekannallepanotarkastuskierros («mobilization inspection round», 33 letters),[9] peruspalveluliikelaitoskuntayhtymä («a public utility of a municipal federation for provision of basic services», 34 letters),[10] and lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas «airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student» (61 letters), an actual military term, although one which has been deprecated. The longest military term in current use is vastatykistömaalinosoitustutkakalustojärjestelmäinsinöörierikoisupseeri «counter-artillery targeting radar systems engineer specialist officer» with 71 characters, with 2 more if grammatically incorrect extra hyphens added for readability are counted.[citation needed] If conjugated forms are allowed, even longer real words can be made. Allowing derivatives and clitics allows the already lengthy word to grow even longer, although the usability of the word starts to degrade. Because Finnish uses free forming of composite words, new words can even be formed during a conversation. One can add nouns after each other without breaking grammar rules.

If one allows artificial constructs as well as using clitics and conjugated forms, one can create even longer words: such as kumarreksituteskenteleentuvaisehkollaismaisekkuudellisennesk-
enteluttelemattomammuuksissansakaankopahan (102 letters), which was created by Artturi Kannisto.[11]

The longest non-compound (a single stem with prefixes and suffixes) Finnish word recognised by the Guinness Book of Records is epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhänkään (see also Agglutination#Extremes), based on the stem järki (reason, sanity), and it means: «I wonder if – even with his/her quality of not having been made unsystematized».

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä and a defunct bar named after it, Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsi-baari, are the longest place names in use.

HungarianEdit

Eltöredezettségmentesítőtleníttethetetlenségtelenítőtlenkedhetnétek, with 67 letters is the longest word in the Hungarian language and approximately means «you could defragmentation defragmenting impenetrability defragmentation». It is already morphed, since Hungarian is an agglutinative language.

The Hungarian language has many causes for writing words together, but there are a few rules for avoiding undisciplined length, resulting in unreadability.

Words with less than six syllables can be written in one. Agglutinated words have to be separated by one dash, if they are more than six syllables altogether. If there are more than two words that are already written with a dash and we want to add some more, we have to use a new dash to add it (like C-vitamin-adagolás, meaning «Vitamin C rationing»). If there would be two long words to be written, they are advised to be used separately (possible: békeszerződéstervezet-kidolgozás meaning «peace agreement plan elaboration», but advised rather a békeszerződés tervezetének kidolgozása meaning «the elaboration of the plan of the peace agreement»).
[12]

The longest dictionary form word is the word megszentségtelenített, with 21 characters (although it ultimately derives from the word szent meaning: «saint» or «sacred»), and it means «desecrated» or «profaned».[13]

KoreanEdit

There is some disagreement about what is the longest word in the Korean language, which arises from misunderstanding of the Korean language.

The longest word appearing in the Standard Korean Dictionary published by the National Institute of the Korean Language is 청자 양인각 연당초상감 모란 문은구 대접 (靑瓷陽印刻蓮唐草象嵌牡丹文銀釦대접); Revised Romanization: cheongjayang-in-gakyeondangchosang-gammoranmuneun-gudaejeop, which is a kind of ceramic bowl from the Goryeo dynasty; that word is 17 syllable blocks long, and contains a total of 46 hangul letters.[14][15] However, to call this a word would be incorrect. It simply consists of many words which act as adjectives for the one word 대접.

The word 니코틴아마이드 아데닌 다이뉴클레오타이드 (nikotin-amaideu adenin dainyukeulle-otaideu), a phonetic transcription of «nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide», has a larger number of syllable blocks (19) but a smaller number of letters (41), but does not qualify as a single word due to the spaces.

In proper nouns, many Korean monarchs have overly long posthumous names built from many different Sino-Korean nouns describing their positive characteristics, for example Sunjo of Joseon, whose full posthumous name is the 77-syllable-block 순조 선각 연덕현도 경인순희 체성응명흠광석경계천배극융원돈휴의행소윤희화준렬대중지정 홍훈철 모건시태형창 운홍기고명박후강건수정계통수력 공유범문안무정영경 성효대왕 (sunjoseongag-yeondeoghyeondogyeong-insunhuicheseong-eungmyeongheumgwangseoggyeong-gyecheonbaegeug-yung-wondonhyuuihaengsoyunhuihwa-junlyeoldaejungjijeonghonghuncheolmogeonsitaehy-eongchang-unhong-gigomyeongbaghugang-geonsujeong-gyetongsulyeoggong-yubeommun-anmujeong-yeong-gyeongseonghyodaewang).[citation needed] This is simply writing the phrase in Hanja (Hanzi) 純祖先覺淵德顯道景仁純禧體聖凝命欽光錫慶繼天配極隆元敦休懿行昭倫熙化峻烈大中至正洪勳哲謨乾始泰亨昌運弘基高明博厚剛健粹精啓統垂曆建功裕範文安武靖英敬成孝肅皇帝, being transliterate in Hangul. It is not a single word and does not qualify as a lexical entry.

MongolianEdit

A popular example of the longest suffixed word in Mongolian is «Цахилгаанжуулалтыхантайгаа» (tsakhilgaanjuulaltykhantaigaa) which is 26 letters long. Here is a table showing, with translations, which suffixes are added.[citation needed]

Word Translation
Цахилгаан electricity (power)
Цахилгаанжуул electrify
Цахилгаанжуулалт electrification
Цахилгаанжуулалтын electrifications
Цахилгаанжуулалтыхан electricians
Цахилгаанжуулалтыхантай with electricians
Цахилгаанжуулалтыхантайгаа do (action) with electricians

OjibweEdit

The longest word in the Ojibwe language is miinibaashkiminasiganibiitoosijiganibadagwiingweshiganibakwezhigan (66 letters), meaning «blueberry pie». This literally translates to «blueberry cooked to jellied preserve that lies in layers in which the face is covered in bread».[16]

TagalogEdit

Tagalog can make long words by adding on affixes, suffixes, and other root words with a connector.

The longest published word in the language is pinakanakakapagngitngitngitngitang-pagsisinungasinungalingan, with 59 letters. This compound word means «to keep making up a lie that causes the most extreme anger while pretending you are not.»[17]

TurkishEdit

Turkish, as an agglutinative language, carries the potential for words of arbitrary length.

Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, at 70 letters, has been cited as the longest Turkish word. It was used in a contrived story designed to use this word.[18][19] The word means «As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones» and its usage was illustrated as follows:

Kötü amaçların güdüldüğü bir öğretmen okulundayız. Yetiştirilen öğretmenlere öğrencileri nasıl muvaffakiyetsizleştirecekleri öğretiliyor. Yani öğretmenler birer muvaffakiyetsizleştirici olarak yetiştiriliyorlar. Fakat öğretmenlerden biri muvaffakiyetsizleştirici olmayı, yani muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştirilmeyi reddediyor, bu konuda ileri geri konuşuyor. Bütün öğretmenleri kolayca muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriverebileceğini sanan okul müdürü bu duruma sinirleniyor, ve söz konusu öğretmeni makamına çağırıp ona diyor ki: Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine laflar ediyormuşsunuz ha?
We are in a teachers’ training school that has evil purposes. The teachers who are being educated in that school are being taught how to make unsuccessful ones from students. So, one by one, teachers are being educated as makers of unsuccessful ones. However, one of those teachers refuses to be maker of unsuccessful ones, in other words, to be made a maker of unsuccessful ones; he talks about and criticizes the school’s stand on the issue. The headmaster who thinks every teacher can be made easily/quickly into a maker of unsuccessful ones gets angry. He invites the teacher to his room and says «You are talking as if you were one of those we can not easily/quickly turn into a maker of unsuccessful ones, huh?»

Other well-known very long Turkish words are:[20]

  • Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınızcasına means «As if you are one of those people whom we could not turn into a Czechoslovakian».
  • Afyonkarahisarlılaştırabildiklerimizdenmişsinizcesine means «As if you are one of the people that we made resemble from Afyonkarahisar». (Afyonkarahisar is a city in Turkey.)

Word formationEdit

Turkish English
Muvaffak Successful
Muvaffakiyet Success
Muvaffakiyetsiz Unsuccessful (‘without success’)
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek) (To) become unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştir(-mek) (To) make one unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştirici Maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileş(-mek) (To) become a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştir(-mek) (To) make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriver(-) (To) easily/quickly make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriverebil(-mek) (To) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebil(-mek) To be able to not make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecek One who is not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecekler Those who are not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimiz Those whom we cannot make easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizden From those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmiş (Would be) from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsiniz You would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones

Non-agglutinative languagesEdit

AfrikaansEdit

Afrikaans, as it is a daughter language of the Dutch language, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length in the same way as in the Dutch language. According to the Total Book of South African Records, the longest word in the language is[21]Tweedehandse­motor­verkoops­manne­vakbond­stakings­vergadering­sameroepers­toespraak­skrywers­pers­verklaring­uitreikings­media­konferensie­aankondiging (136 letters), which means «issuable media conference’s announcement at a press release regarding the convener’s speech at a secondhand car dealership union’s strike meeting». This word, however, is contrived to be long and does not occur in everyday speech or writing.

ArabicEdit

Currently, the longest word in Arabic is the 15-letter-long word أَفَإِستَسقَينَاكُمُوها.[22] Which means «Did we ask you to let us drink it?» However, according to some online sources the 16-letter-long word أَفَإِستَسقَينَاكُمُوهما is the longest word in Arabic meaning «Did we ask you to let us drink both of them?». Regardless, official sources supporting such a stance cannot be found.

BulgarianEdit

The Bulgarian online etymological dictionary claims that longest word in Bulgarian to be the 39-letter-long непротивоконституционствувателствувайте (neprotivokonstitutsionstvuvatelstvuvayte), introduced in the Constitution of Bulgaria of 1947 (Dimitrov Constitution).[23] The word means «do not perform actions against the constitution» (addressed to more than one person).

CatalanEdit

The longest word in Catalan is considered to be Anticonstitucionalment, an adverb meaning «[done in a way that is] against the constitution», however, the scientific word Psiconeuroimmunoendocrinologia, related to endocrinology, has been proposed by the University of Barcelona to be the true longest word.[24]

CroatianEdit

The longest known word in Croatian is prijestolonasljednikovičičinima,[25] meaning «to those who belong to the throne successor’s little wife.» The 31-letter word is the dative case of prijestolonasljednikovičica «the throne successor’s little wife» which is the diminutive of prijestolonasljednikovica «the throne successor’s wife.»

CzechEdit

Traditionally, the word nejneobhospodařovávatelnější («of the least cultivable», 28 letters) is considered as the longest Czech word, but there are some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like «-able»).

  • Nejnezdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávatelnějšími (47; Instrumental case of the ones least multipliable by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis)
  • Nejnezdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávatelnější (Those who are the least multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
  • Nejzdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávatelnější (Those who are the most multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávatelnější (Those who are more multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávatelní (Those who are multiplable by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovávat (Alternative of «multiply out by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis»)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroroznásobovat (Multiply out by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis — continuous grammatical aspect)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroznásobovat (Multiply by ninety-nine on a regular basis – continuous grammatical aspect)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteroznásobit (Multiply by a group of ninety-nine once)
  • Zdevětadevadesáteronásobit (Multiply by a group of ninety-nine)
  • Devětadevadesátero (A group of ninety-nine)
  • Devětadevadesát (Inverse of devadesát devět = ninety-nine)

DanishEdit

Danish, like many Germanic languages, is capable of compounding words to create ad hoc compounds of potentially limitless length. Nevertheless, the constructed word special­læge­praksis­planlægnings­stabiliserings­periode – which means «a period of stabilising the planning of a specialist doctor’s practice» – was cited in 1993 by the Danish version of the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest word in the Danish language at 51 letters long. It is however not possible (using Google) to find a text, which actually uses this word, except for in the context of discussing the longest Danish word.

DutchEdit

Dutch, like many Germanic languages, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length. The 53-letter word Kinder­carnavals­optocht­voorbereidings­werkzaamheden­plan, meaning «preparation activities plan for a children’s carnival procession», was cited by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Dutch word.[26]

The longest word in the authoritative Van Dale Dutch dictionary (2009 edition) in plural form is meervoudige­persoonlijkheids­stoornissen;[27] 38 letters long, meaning «multiple personality disorders». The entry in the dictionary however is in the singular, counting 35 letters.

The free OpenTaal dictionary,[28] which has been certified by the Dutch Language Union (the official Dutch language institute) and is included in many open-source applications, contains the following longest words, which are 40 letters long:

  • vervoerders­aansprakelijkheids­verzekering, «carriers’ liability insurance»;
  • bestuurders­aansprakelijkheids­verzekering, «drivers’ liability insurance»;
  • overeenstemmings­beoordelings­procedures, «conformity assessment procedures» (38 letters)

The word often said to be the longest in Dutch – probably because of its funny meaning and alliteration – which has also appeared in print, is Hottentotten­soldaten­tenten­tentoonstellings­bouwterrein («construction ground for the Hottentot soldiers’ tents exhibition»); counting 53 letters.

EnglishEdit

The 45-letter word pneumono­ultra­microscopic­silico­volcano­coni­osis is the longest English word that appears in a major dictionary.[29][30] Originally coined to become a candidate for the longest word in English, the term eventually developed some independent use in medicine.[31] It is referred to as «P45» by researchers.[32]

The 30-letter word pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism refers to an inherited disorder,[33] named for its similarity to pseudohypoparathyroidism in presentation, which is in turn named for its similarity to hypoparathyroidism. This is the longest word that was not contrived with the sole intention of becoming the longest word.[34]

Flocci­nauci­nihili­pili­fication, at 29 letters and meaning the act of estimating something as being worth so little as to be practically valueless, or the habit of doing so, is the longest non-technical, coined word in Oxford Dictionaries of the English language.[29]

Anti­dis­establishment­arian­ism, at 28 letters, is the longest non-coined, non-systematic English word in Oxford Dictionaries.[29] It refers to a 19th-century political movement that opposed the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state church of England.

FrenchEdit

GermanEdit

In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) can be expressed as single words, which makes sieben­hundert­sieben­und­siebzig­tausend­sieben­hundert­sieben­und­siebzig (777,777) a 65 letter word. In combination with -malig or, as an inflected noun, (des …) -maligen, all numbers can be written as one word. A 79 letter word, Donau­dampf­schiffahrts­elektrizitäten­haupt­betriebs­werk­bau­unter­beamten­gesellschaft, was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1972 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. The word was the name of a prewar Viennese club for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the electrical division of the company named the Donau­dampf­schiffahrts­gesellschaft, «Danube steam boat operation company».

The longest word that is not created artificially as a longest-word record seems to be Rindfleisch­etikettierungs­überwachungs­aufgaben­übertragungs­gesetz at 63 letters. The word means «law delegating beef label monitoring» but as of 2013, it was removed from the books because European Union regulations have changed and that particular law became obsolete, leading to news reports that Germany «had lost its longest word».[35]

In December 2016 the 51-letter word Bundes­präsidenten­stichwahl­wiederholungs­verschiebung («deferral of the second iteration of the federal presidential run-off election») was elected the Austrian Word of the Year 2016.[36] The jury called it a «descriptive word» which «in terms of its content as well as its length, is a symbol and an ironic form of commentary for the political events of this year, characterized by the very long campaign for the presidential election, the challenges of the voting process, and its reiteration.»[36][37]

GreekEdit

In his comedy Assemblywomen (c. 392 BC), Aristophanes coined the 182-letter word λοπαδο­τεμαχο­σελαχο­γαλεο­κρανιο­λειψανο­δριμ­υπο­τριμματο­σιλφιο­καραβο­μελιτο­κατακεχυ­μενο­κιχλ­επι­κοσσυφο­φαττο­περιστερ­αλεκτρυον­οπτο­κεφαλλιο­κιγκλο­πελειο­λαγῳο­σιραιο­βαφη­τραγανο­πτερύγων (Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drim­hypo­trimmato­silphio­karabo­melito­katakechy­meno­kichl­epi­kossypho­phatto­perister­alektryon­opte­kephallio­kigklo­peleio­lagoio­siraio­baphe­tragano­pterygon), a fictional food dish consisting of a combination of fish and other meat. The word is cited as the longest ancient Greek word ever written.[38]
A modern Greek word of 22 letters is ηλεκτροεγκεφαλογράφημα (ilektroenkefalográfima) (gen. ηλεκτροεγκεφαλογραφήματος (ilektroenkefalografímatos), 25 letters) meaning «electroencephalogram».

HebrewEdit

The longest Hebrew word is the 19-letter-long (including vowels) וכשלאנציקלופדיותינו (u’chshelentsiklopediotenu),[39] which means «And when to our encyclopedias…» The Hebrew word אנציקלופדיה (encyclopedia) is of a European origin.

The longest word in Hebrew that doesn’t originate from another language is וכשלהתמרמרויותינו, (u’chshelehitmarmeruyotenu) which crudely means «And when, to our resentments/ grievances»

The 11-letter-long (including vowels) וְהָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִים (veha’aḥashdarpením) is the longest word to appear in the Hebrew Bible. — Its meaning is «And the satraps». It also does not originate from Hebrew.[citation needed]

Other very long Hebrew words include:

  • וכשבהשתעשעויותיהם (u’chshebehishta’ashuateyhem) meaning: «And when they were having fun» or «And while in their playfulness».

HindiEdit

Hindi has a finite list of compound words which are based on established grammatical rules of the language. The word commonly cited as the longest in Hindi is लौहपथगामिनीसूचकदर्शकहरितताम्रलौहपट्टिका (lauhpathagāminīsūchakdarshkaharitatāmralauhpaṭṭikā), which consists of 24 consonants and 10 vowel diacritics, making up a total of 34 characters. The word literally means «a green railway warning signboard made of copper-iron». Its plural would be लौहपथगामिनीसूचकदर्शकहरितताम्रलौहपट्टिकाएँ (lauhpathagāminīsūchakdarshkaharitatāmralauhpaṭṭikāẽ), which has an additional vowel and a diacritic. It is a neologism and not in common use.[40]

A much smaller word borrowed from Sanskrit which is in common use and is also often cited as the longest word is किंकर्तव्यविमूढ़ (kinkartavyavimūṛh). It consists of 8 consonants and 5 vowel diacritics, making up a total of 13 characters. The word literally means «confused about what to do», meaning to be bewildered or flabbergasted.

IcelandicEdit

Icelandic has the ability to form compounds of arbitrary length by stringing together genitives (eignarfallssamsetning), so no single words of maximal length exist in the language. However, vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúr and vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur are sometimes cited as particularly long words;[41] the latter has 64 letters and means «a keychain ring for the outdoor key of road workers shed in a moor called Vaðlaheiði».

Analysis of a corpus of contemporary Icelandic texts by Uwe Quasthoff, Sabine Fiedler and Erla Hallsteinsdóttir identified Alþjóðaflutningaverkamannasambandsins («of the International Transport Workers’ Federation»; 37 letters) and Norðvestur-Atlantshafsfiskveiðistofnunarinnar («of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries’ Organization»; 45 letters) as the longest unhyphenated and hyphenated words.[42]

The longest word occurring at least twice in the University of Leipzig isl-is_web_2015 corpus is Auðmannastjórnvaldaembættisstjórnmálaverkalýðsverðlausraverðbréfaábyrgðarlausrakvóta-ræningjaaftaníossaspilling (110 letters).[43]

IndonesianEdit

Indonesian is a part of Austronesian language. According from Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia. The longest word of this language is mempertanggungjawabkan, which is 22 letter meaning «take responsibility» in english and heksakosioiheksekontaheksafobia, 30 letter meaning «hexacosioihexecontahexaphobia» in english.[44]

IrishEdit

The longest non-compound word in Irish is grianghrafadóireacht, a 20-letter-long word meaning «photography».[45]

ItalianEdit

The longest word in Italian is traditionally precipitevolissimevolmente, which is a 26-letter-long adverb.[46] It is formed by subsequent addition of postfixes to the original root:

  1. precipitevole: «hasty»;
  2. precipitevolissimo: «very hasty»;
  3. precipitevolissimevole: «[of someone/something] that acts very hastily», (not grammatically correct[citation needed]);
  4. precipitevolissimevolmente: «in a way like someone/something that acts very hastily» (not grammatically correct, but nowadays part of the language).

The word is never used in every-day language, but in jokes. Nevertheless, it is an official part of Italian language; it was coined in 1677 by poet Francesco Moneti:

perché alla terra alfin torna repente / precipitevolissimevolmente

— Francesco Moneti, Cortona Convertita, canto III, LXV

The word technically violates Italian grammar rules, the correct form being precipitevolissimamente, which is three letters and one syllable shorter. The poet coined the new word to have 11 syllables in the second verse.

Other words can be created with a similar (and grammatically correct) mechanism starting from a longer root, winding up with a longer word. Some examples are:

  • sovramagnificentissimamente (cited by Dante Alighieri in De vulgari eloquentia), 27 letters, «in a way that is more than magnificent by far» (archaic);[47]
  • incontrovertibilissimamente, 27 letters, «in a way that is very difficult to falsify»;
  • particolareggiatissimamente, 27 letters, «in an extremely detailed way»;
  • anticostituzionalissimamente, 28 letters, «in a way that strongly violates the constitution».

The longest accepted neologism is psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia (30 letters).[citation needed].

Other long words are:

  • nonilfenossipolietilenossietonolo (33 letters — chemical)
  • pentagonododecaedrotetraedrico (30 letters — 3D geometric figure)
  • esofagodermatodigiunoplastica (29 letters — surgery)
  • elettroencefalograficamente (27 letters — medical adverb: electroencephalographically)
  • diclorodifeniltricloroetano (27 letters — chemical: DDT)

LáadanEdit

Láadan is not agglutinating as there is no mechanism to combine arbitrary words into one without intermediating grammatical mechanisms (such as the relativizer § In other languages); however, there are a number of affixes that further elucidate the contextual meaning of a word. These are ignored when determining the longest words in the language. The primary reference for vocabulary is the 3rd edition of the official dictionary and grammar.

  • oshetham éelenethilethu, 22 letters not counting the space, or 17 phonemes (since for example ée is a toneme of e, and th is a separate sound from *t or *h separately—the asterisks indicate that neither sound exists in Láadan) — a set phrase for a wreath of grapevine, a common symbol of the language[48]
  • shineshidethóo, 14 letters or 10 phonemes — an invited guest[49]

LatinEdit

The longest attested word in Classical Latin is subductisupercilicarptor, which was coined by the obscure poet Laevius in the 1st century. In Medieval Latin, the longest known word is honorificabilitudinitas, which was first attested in a treatise written by the 8th century Grammarian Peter of Pisa. One can further increase the length of the words by adding the Dative plural case to them, which would result in the words subductisupercilicarptoribus and honorificabilitudinitatibus respectively.[citation needed]

LithuanianEdit

The longest Lithuanian word is 40 letters long:

  • nebeprisikiškiakopūstlapiaujančiuosiuose — «in those, of masculine gender, who aren’t gathering enough wood sorrel’s leaves by themselves anymore.» — the plural locative case of past iterative active participle of verb kiškiakopūstlapiauti meaning «to pick wood-sorrels’ leaves» (leaves of edible forest plant with sour taste, word by word translation «rabbit cabbage»). The word is attributed to software developer / writer Andrius Stašauskas.[50][unreliable source?][51][unreliable source?]

MāoriEdit

The Māori-language 85-letter place name Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu is the longest place name in English-speaking countries and second longest in the world, according to Wises New Zealand Guide and The New Zealand Herald.[52]

PolishEdit

Very long Polish words can be created as adjectives from numerals and nouns. For example, Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego, 54 letters, is the genitive singular form of an adjective meaning roughly «of nine-hundred and ninety-nine nationalities». Similar words are rather artificial compounds, constructed within allowed grammar rules, but are seldom used in spoken language, although they are not nonsense words.[citation needed] It is possible to make even longer words in this way, for example:

Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmiliardówdziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmilionów-dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćtysięcydziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcioletniego (176 letters, meaning «of 999,999,999,999 years old»).

One of the longest common words is 31-letter dziewięćdziesięciokilkuletniemu – the dative singular form of «ninety-and-some years old one». Another known long word is konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka[citation needed] (32 letters), «a daughter of a man who lives in Constantinople» and pięćdziesięciogroszówka (23 letters), «a 50 groszy coin».[53]

RomanianEdit

The longest Romanian word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză, with 44 letters,[54] but the longest one admitted by the Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române («Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language», DEX) is electroglotospectrografie, with 25 letters.[55][56]

RussianEdit

Most likely one of the longest Russian words is a chemical term, тетра­гидро­пиранил­цикло­пентил­тетра­гидро­пиридо­пириди­новая (tetra­gidro­piranil­ciklo­pentil­tetra­gidro­pirido­piridi­novaya), which contains 55 letters. It was used in Russian patent RU2285004C2 (granted and published in 2006). This word is an adjective that can describe e.g. a chemical formula. As a noun, it is without the last 4 letters.

Another one is превысоко­много­рассмотрительствующий (prevysoko­mnogo­rassmotritel’stvuyushchiy), which contains 35 letters. It is an adjective in the bureaucratic language of the 19th century «meaning a very polite form of addressing clerks, something like Your Excellency, Your Highness, Your Majesty all together» (Guinness World Records 2003[citation needed]). Its dative singular form, превысоко­много­рассмотрительствующему (prevysoko­mnogo­rassmotritel’stvuyushchemu, with 36 letters) can be an example of excessively official vocabulary of the 19th century.

Numeral compounds can be long as well, such as Тысячево­сьмисот­восьми­десяти­девяти­микро­метровый (Tysyachevo­s’misot­vos’mi­desyati­devyati­mikro­metrovyy), which is an adjective containing 46 letters, meaning «1889-micrometers long».[57]

SanskritEdit

Sanskrit allows word compounding of arbitrary length. Nouns and verbs can be expressed in a sentence.[citation needed]

The longest sentence ever used in Sanskrit literature is (in Devanagari):

निरन्तरान्धकारितदिगन्तरकन्दलदमन्दसुधारसबिन्दुसान्द्रतरघनाघनवृन्द-सन्देहकरस्यन्दमानमकरन्दबिन्दुबन्धुरतरमाकन्दतरुकुलतल्पकल्पमृ-दुलसिकताजालजटिलमूलतलमरुवकमिलदलघुलघुलयकलितरमणीय-पानीयशालिकाबालिकाकरारविन्दगलन्तिकागलदेलालवङ्गपाटलघनसा-रकस्तूरिकातिसौरभमेदुरलघुतरमधुरशीतलतरसलिलधारानिराकरिष्णुत-दीयविमलविलोचनमयूखरेखापसारितपिपासायासपथिकलोकान्

In IAST transliteration:

nirantarāndhakārita-digantara-kandaladamanda-sudhārasa-bindu-sāndratara-ghanāghana-vṛnda-sandehakara-syandamāna-makaranda-bindu-bandhuratara-mākanda-taru-kula-talpa-kalpa-mṛdula-sikatā-jāla-jaṭila-mūla-tala-maruvaka-miladalaghu-laghu-laya-kalita-ramaṇīya-pānīya-śālikā-bālikā-karāra-vinda-galantikā-galadelā-lavaṅga-pāṭala-ghanasāra-kastūrikātisaurabha-medura-laghutara-madhura-śītalatara-saliladhārā-nirākariṣṇu-tadīya-vimala-vilocana-mayūkha-rekhāpasārita-pipāsāyāsa-pathika-lokān

from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū by Tirumalāmbā,[58] composed of 195 Sanskrit letters (428 letters in the roman transliteration, dashes excluded), thus making it the longest word ever to appear in worldwide literature.[59][60]

Each hyphen separates every individual word this word is composed of.

The approximate meaning of this word is:

«In it, the distress, caused by thirst, to travellers, was alleviated by clusters of rays of the bright eyes of the girls; the rays that were shaming the currents of light, sweet and cold water charged with the strong fragrance of cardamom, clove, saffron, camphor and musk and flowing out of the pitchers (held in) the lotus-like hands of maidens (seated in) the beautiful water-sheds, made of the thick roots of vetiver mixed with marjoram, (and built near) the foot, covered with heaps of couch-like soft sand, of the clusters of newly sprouting mango trees, which constantly darkened the intermediate space of the quarters, and which looked all the more charming on account of the trickling drops of the floral juice, which thus caused the delusion of a row of thick rainy clouds, densely filled with abundant nectar.»

SlovakEdit

Traditionally, the word najneobhospodarovávateľnejšieho («of the least cultivable», 31 letters) is considered as the longest Slovak word, but there are some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like -able).[61][62]

Artificial words, lexically valid but never used in language:

  • znajneprekryštalizovávateľnejšievajúcimi, 40 letters, «through the least crystallised ones»
  • znajnepreinternacionalizovateľnejšievať, 39 letters
  • najnezrevolucionalizovateľnejšiemu, 34 letters [63]
  • najnerozkrasokorčuľovateľnejšieho, 33 letters

Artificial words using Slovak towns or places, lexically valid but never used in language:

  • znajneprehornádskodružstevnianskovávateľnejšievajúcimi, 54 letters
  • znajneprechminianskojakubovianskovávateľnejšievajúcimi, 54 letters

Numerals:

  • deväťstodeväťdesiatdeväťtisícštyristodeväťdesiatdeväť, 53 letters, «999499» [64]
  • sedemstodeväťdesiatsedemtisícsedemstodeväťdesiatsedem, 53 letters, «797797» [65]

SpanishEdit

The longest word in Spanish is esternocleidomastoideitis (inflammation of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, 30 letters).[66] Runners-up are anticonstitucionalmente ([proceeding in a manner that is] contrary to the constitution) and electroencefalografistas (specialists that do electrical scans on brains (electroencephalographists)), both 23 letters.

The word anticonstitucionalmente is usually considered the longest word in general use. This word can be made even longer by the addition of the absolute superlative suffix, rendering anticonstitucionalísimamente (i.e.: «very strongly against the constitution»). Some dictionaries (but not the RAE dictionary[67]) removed its root word (anticonstitucional) in 2005, causing comments about it not «being a valid word anymore» and suggesting the use of inconstitucional as a replacement.[citation needed]

SwedishEdit

Realisationsvinstbeskattning (28 letters) is the longest word in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista. It means «capital gains taxation», and is usually shortened to Reavinstskatt (same meaning).
However, Swedish grammar makes it possible to create arbitrarily long words. One such word is Spårvagnsaktiebolagsskensmutsskjutarefackföreningspersonalbeklädnadsmagasinsförråd-sförvaltarens (94 letters) which means: «[belonging to] The manager of the depot for the supply of uniforms to the personnel of the track cleaners’ union of the tramway company».[68]

Toki PonaEdit

kijetesantakalu in the Toki Pona writing system sitelen pona

The longest word in Toki Pona is kijetesantakalu (15 letters), which was proposed in 2009 as an April Fools’ joke by the language’s creator Sonja Lang as a word for any animal of the Procyonidae family, which includes raccoons and related species.[69] The word has since entered into common use, and it has become common to define kijetesantakalu more broadly as any animal from the Musteloidea superfamily.[70] In 2019 James Flear designed a glyph for kijetesantakalu in Toki Pona’s sitelen pona writing system, which has become a popular icon within the Toki Pona community.[71]

As a minimalistic isolating constructed language, most words in Toki Pona are much shorter, the median being 4 letters. The longest words featured in the 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, Lang’s first official Toki Pona publication, are the 7-letter words kepeken («to use, by means of») and sitelen («symbol, picture»). The list of proposed country names in the same book also mentions ma Papuwanijukini («Papua New Guinea»), which includes a 14-letter proper adjective.[72]

VietnameseEdit

Vietnamese is an isolating language, which naturally limits the length of a morpheme. The longest, at seven letters, is nghiêng, which means «inclined» or «to lean».[73] This is the longest word that can be written without a space. However, not all words in Vietnamese are single morphemes. Indeed, nghiêng can be reduplicated as nghiêng nghiêng.

The written language abounds with compound words in which each constituent word is delimited by spaces, just like any freestanding word. Moreover, the grammar lacks inflection to mark parts of speech, and prepositions are often optional. Therefore, the boundary between a word and a phrase is poorly defined.[74] Examples of this ambiguity include:

  • Chủ nghĩa phân biệt chủng tộc («racism»), which is composed of the words chủ nghĩa («ideology»), phân biệt («discriminate»), and chủng tộc («race»)
  • Cơm gà xào sả ớt, which literally describes a dish of grilled chicken sauteed with lemongrass and peppers on rice
  • Ông bà anh chị em, a polite pronoun composed of five kinship terms

Unlike locally coined compound words, compound words in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary are less ambiguous, because of the use of premodifiers (as in English) as opposed to the native postmodifiers. Long Sino-Vietnamese words include bách khoa toàn thư («encyclopedia») and thủy động lực học («hydrodynamics»).

Loanwords and pronunciation respellings from other languages can also result in long words. For example, «consortium» is côngxoocxiom (12 letters), and «Indonesia» may be left as-is or spelled In-đô-nê-xi-a (13 counting hyphens).[75] The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam systematically respells foreign names, introducing long names into an official Vietnamese lexicon:

  • Kômixacjepxkaia («Komissarzhevskaya», 15 letters)[76]
  • Rôjơđextơvenxki («Rozhdestvensky», 15 letters)[77]
  • Mêtơrôpôliten Ôpêra («Metropolitan Opera», 18 letters)[78]

Long initialisms in Vietnamese include:

  • CHXHCNVN (Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, «Socialist Republic of Vietnam», 8 characters)
  • MTDTGPMNVN (Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam, «Viet Cong», 10 characters)

In modern Vietnamese, compound words can be identified fairly easily within title cased text: a morpheme that begins with a capital letter followed by one or more morphemes that begin with a lowercase letter. For example, xã hội chủ nghĩa («socialism») is capitalized as one component within Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam.

WelshEdit

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch, a railway station on the island of Anglesey in Wales, is the longest place name in the Welsh language. At 51 letters in the Welsh alphabet (the digraphs ll and ch are each collated as single letters) the name can be translated as «St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave». However, it was artificially contrived in the 1860s as a publicity stunt, to give the station the longest name of any railway station in the United Kingdom.

Long words are comparatively rare in Welsh. Candidates for long words other than proper nouns include the following (the digraph dd is also treated as a single letter, as is ng in many instances including in the last word below):

  • gwrthddatgysylltiadaeth (antidisestablishmentarianism)
  • microgyfrifiaduron (microcomputers)
  • gwrthgyfansoddiaethwyr (anticonstitutionalists)
  • lled-ddargludyddion (semiconductors)
  • tra-arglwyddiaethasant (they tyrannised)
  • cyfrwngddarostynedigaeth (intercession)[79] (-au can be added to form the plural, and the word can be further lengthened slightly by initial mutation: fy nghyfrwngddarostynedigaethau, «my intercessions»)

See alsoEdit

  • Morphology (linguistics)
  • Longest English sentence
  • Coxeter group — mathematical concept whose entities are sometimes called words

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  74. ^ Barnes, Leslie (2014). Vietnam and the Colonial Condition of French Literature. University of Nebraska Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-8032-66759 – via Google Books. The formal characteristics of Vietnamese compounds are not completely clear, however, and because no obvious graphic boundaries exist to demarcate one word from another, the distinction between word and phrase is often very difficult to discern.
  75. ^ «Thông tin cơ bản về các nước, khu vực và quan hệ với Việt Nam» [Basic information on countries, regions, and relations with Vietnam] (in Vietnamese). Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  76. ^ «Kômixacjepxkaia V. F.». Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). 2005.
  77. ^ «Rôjơđextơvenxki G. N.». Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). 2005.
  78. ^ «Mêtơrôpôliten Ôpêra». Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). 2005.
  79. ^ «LISTSERV 15.5 – WELSH-L Archives». heanet.ie.
Источник

Source: mosalingua

Do you ever look through a dictionary, marveling at the sheer length of some words? It’s easy to appreciate the complexity of the language and the diversity of the words used to express ourselves. Words can be incredibly powerful tools, and even the longest can carry a lot of meaning. That’s why we’ve decided to take a moment to appreciate some of the longest words in the world. 

This blog post will explore a list of the “20 longest words in the world.” So join us as we take a closer look at the length of language and celebrate the power of the written word!

Exploring longest words in the world: 20 examples

  1. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine
  2. Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic
  3. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
  4. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
  5. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 
  6. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian
  7. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism 
  8. Floccinaucinihilipilification 
  9. Antidisestablishmentarianism 
  10. Spectrophotofluorometrically 
  11. Hepaticocholangiogastrostomy 
  12.  Psychoneuroendocrinological 
  13. Honorificabilitudinitatibus 
  14. Pneumoencephalographically 
  15. Thyroparathyroidectomized
  16. Otorhinolaryngological 
  17. Incomprehensibilities 
  18. Dermatoglyphics 
  19. Sesquipedalianism 
  20. Strengths

1. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine (189,819 letters)

You know how you can see a word, and it makes you want to say it aloud? That’s what happened when we learned about the world’s longest word. It’s called “methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine,” 189,819 letters long.

This is a technical name for titin’s chemical composition. This word is long because titin is formed by 244 individual protein domains connected into one sequence. That’s almost three hours of speaking time. It’s so long that it doesn’t fit on paper! But we must keep trying: if we can pronounce it, maybe we’ll get a cool nickname like “Methi-Gnome” or “Methi-Gnomy.”

2. Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic (52 letters)

Source: Chegg

This tongue-twister of a word has 52 letters, making it one of the longest words in the English language. It is a technical term used to describe a particular type of acid found in certain rocks. The word was first coined in 1841 by the German mineralogist Friedrich August Rosenbusch.

The word is comprised of seven parts: Aequeo (meaning “equal”), Salino (“saline” or “salty”), Calculi (“lime” or “calcium”), Curacao (“waxy”), Aluminoso (“aluminum”), Cupreo (“copper”) and Vitriolic (“corrosive”). When put together, this lengthy word can be translated to mean “an equal saline-alkaline-waxy-aluminum-copper-corrosive acid.”

3. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

Source: Chegg

This long word is the scientific name for a lung disease known as silicosis or miners’ asthma. The word was coined in 1959 by Everett Chapman, an American physician and pathologist attempting to find a suitable name for the condition.

Despite being the most extended term in English and being included in the Oxford English Dictionary, it is rarely used outside the medical industry. The disease can be treated with medications, but once it has progressed, the only option is to avoid exposure to silica dust.

4. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters)

Source: Vowelor

If you’ve ever heard of a word that seemed so long and complex that you thought it was made up, you may have heard of the longest word in the English language. This 36-letter monstrosity is known as Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and is defined as “the fear of long words.” The root of this word can be broken down into four parts: ‘hippopotamus,’ ‘a monster,’ ‘equipment,’ and ‘fear.’

The word was first used in an article written in 1949, where the author referenced the term when talking about a man who had an irrational fear of big words.

5. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters)

This is arguably one of the most famous words in the world, made popular by the 1964 musical Mary Poppins. It’s a nonsense word that means “something to say when you have nothing to say.” Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters) is the longest word in the English language that doesn’t contain any repeating letters. It has become one of the most beloved words in the world and is often used in popular culture.

While it may seem like a strange and foreign word, it is a combination of several other words: “super-” (meaning “above” or “beyond”), “cali-” (from “calisthenics,” meaning “exercises”), “fragilistic-” (from “fragile,” meaning “breakable”), “expiali-” (from “expiation,” meaning “atonement”), and “docious” (from “dociousness,” meaning “teachable”). Together, these words create an impressive and unforgettable word that has come to signify something more than its parts. 

6. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian (30 letters)

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian is an impressive word, standing at a whopping 30 letters long. It comes from the Greek “hippos,” meaning horse, “potamos” meaning river, “monstrōs” meaning monster; and “eskhein” meaning to equip or furnish. The word refers to something very long and complicated, such as a word or phrase.

In addition to being a great conversation starter, Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian has also seen some use in popular culture. In the animated film Monsters Inc., Roz uses the word to describe Mike’s name: “Mike Wazowski? That’s a mouthful – hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian!”

So, It’s sure to get a few laughs; of course, its lengthy length will undoubtedly turn a few heads.

7. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters)

Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism is one of the longest words in the English language, measuring a whopping 30 letters in length. This medical term is used to describe a rare inherited condition that affects calcium levels in the body. 

The term pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism is derived from the Greek roots “pseudo,” meaning false, “hypo,” meaning under or below, and “parathyroid,” which refers to the four small glands in the neck responsible for regulating calcium in the body. 

8. Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)

Source: Chegg

This word first appeared in the late 18th century and is derived from Latin. It means ‘the estimation of something as worthless’ or ‘treating something as insignificant.’ 

Floccinaucinihilipilification is a perfect example of how long and complicated English words can be. Although it may appear intimidating at first, it can be broken down into more manageable parts, such as “flocci,” “nauci,” “nihili,” and “pilification.” Understanding the meaning of each part can help you to understand the entire word more quickly, and it can also help you to use the word in your writing.

9. Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters)

It is one of the longest words in the English language, and you may be surprised by its meaning. Antidisestablishmentarianism means opposition to the withdrawal of government support or recognition of an established church or religion. 

The word comprises two parts: anti, meaning “against,” and disestablishmentarianism, which refers to dissolving an established church. The term was first used in the 16th century in England when Anglicans wanted to abolish the Church of England’s official status as the state religion. 

It is also an exciting example of how a single long word can be used to explain a complex idea.

10. Spectrophotofluorometrically (28 letters)

Source: Slideplayer

This impressive word first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1967. It is an adjective that refers to the measurement of light or radiation using a spectrophotofluorometer, a scientific device used for measuring the relative amounts of light absorbed and emitted by a substance. 

It’s quite a mouthful, and even the most ardent wordsmiths might struggle to pronounce it! But as complex as the word may sound, its meaning can be explained in just a few short sentences, making it much easier to appreciate its true beauty.

11. Hepaticocholangiogastrostomy (28 letters)

We’ve been amazed by the length of some words! Hepaticocholangiogastrostomy is one of them – 28 letters and counting. This medical term refers to a surgical procedure that connects the liver, bile ducts, and stomach.

To think that surgeons can perform these intricate procedures while saying this mouthful of a word out loud is simply incredible! The skill, precision, and finesse required are awe-inspiring and worthy of admiration.

12. Psychoneuroendocrinological (27 letters)

Psychoneuroendocrinological is a word that will make your jaw drop. At 27 letters, it’s one of the longest words in the world and is a fantastic feat for anyone to be able to say aloud with ease. It references a complex field of medicine that studies how hormones interact with mental and neurological processes. 

The complexity and technicalities behind this subject matter are impressive – understanding them requires expertise and skill. To think that experts can comprehend and work with such long words as psychoneuroendocrinological is simply awe-inspiring!

13. Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters)

Source: Chegg

This is one of the longest words in the world and is derived from a line in William Shakespeare’s play Love’s Labour’s Lost. It is used to describe someone capable of achieving great honors. The word translates as “the state of being able to achieve honors.” This makes it a fitting way to describe someone capable of doing great things and making a name for themselves.

The word has been used in various forms throughout history, though its most famous use is as part of a line from Shakespeare’s work. The entire line reads: “Honorificabilitudinitatibus: O form of majesty!” This reflects the awe-inspiring power and influence someone of greatness can have.

14. Pneumoencephalographically (26 letters)

It’s astonishing to think that experts can master long words like pneumoencephalographically. With 26 letters, it is among the world’s longest and references a branch of medical science that looks into how hormones interact with mental and neurological activities. This understanding has enabled better diagnosis and treatment plans for physiological and psychological conditions.

Knowing the technicalities behind this subject matter requires skill, knowledge, and expertise – all highly admirable qualities. It certainly puts one in awe when we realize that professionals are capable of mastering such complex topics!

15. Thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters)

Thyroparathyroidectomized has 25 letters and is used to describe the surgical removal of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands. It is commonly used to treat hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid gland.

Thyroparathyroidectomized is not only long but also complex, having numerous syllables that are difficult to pronounce. The word is derived from several different parts, including thyroid-, parathyroid-, and ectomy. The prefix thyro- means “about the thyroid”; the suffix -ectomy means “surgical removal”; and the root parathyroid- refers to the four parathyroid glands near the thyroid gland.

16. Otorhinolaryngological (22 letters)

With 22 letters, Otorhinolaryngological is one of the longest words in the world! This word is derived from the Greek words “oto” meaning ear, “rhino” meaning nose, “laryngo” meaning throat; and “logical” meaning science or study. It refers to the medical specialty concerned with problems of the ears, nose, and throat.

This is an incredibly specialized field of medicine that requires extensive knowledge and training to master. The name is also so long that most people don’t know how to pronounce it correctly! The correct pronunciation of this word is “oh-toh-ree-noh-luh-ring-goh-lij-ik-uhl.”

17. Incomprehensibilities (21 letters)

Incomprehensibilities is one of the longest words in the English language, with 21 letters. It means “the state or quality of being incomprehensible” or “something that cannot be understood.” It is derived from the Latin word incomprehensibilis, which comes from the prefix in-, meaning “not,” and comprehensibilis meaning “able to be comprehended.”

Incomprehensibilities has become quite popular in recent years, especially with those who are looking for long words to challenge their friends and colleagues. It is often used in scrabble games, other word puzzles, online forums, and chat rooms. It has even been featured on popular TV shows such as Jeopardy!

18. Dermatoglyphics (15 letters)

Dermatoglyphics is a fifteen-letter noun that holds the distinction of being the longest word in the English language that doesn’t contain any repeated letters. It comes from the Greek words derma, meaning “skin,” and glyph, meaning “to carve or engrave.” Dermatoglyphics refers to studying fingerprints and skin patterns, such as ridge count and pattern types. It is used in many fields, such as anthropology, forensics, medicine, and genetics. It is also used to diagnose genetic and hereditary diseases, which is why dermatoglyphics are still studied today.

19. Sesquipedalianism (14 letters)

Sesquipedalianism is a term used to describe the tendency to use long words. It has come to be used to describe someone who uses complex and often obscure words to express their thoughts or ideas.

Sesquipedalian words can create an air of sophistication or make a more precise point. Sesquipedalianism is a handy tool for anyone who wants to express themselves elegantly and precisely. If you want to ensure that your message is getting across without miscommunication, then using these types of words can help you achieve that goal.

20. Strengths (9 letters)

The word strengths is a rather impressive nine-letter word that often gets overlooked when discussing the longest words in the world. It doesn’t come close to the longest word in the world, but it deserves to be on the list for its nearly all-consonant composition. This makes it a unique word, and the fact that it is only nine letters long makes it even more remarkable.

Strengths can refer to a person’s positive qualities or abilities and can be used as a noun or an adjective. No matter how you use it, the word strengths are sure to make an impression.

Commonly asked questions:

Here are a few questions that are asked by the people when it comes to the 20 Longest Words In The World. 

What are some challenging words?

Some tricky English words include:

  1. Stationary vs Stationery.
  2. Separate.
  3. Effect vs affect
  4. Embarrassed.
  5. Compliment vs. Complement.

Which term is most commonly misspelled?

According to WordTips, “coolly” and “minuscule” are the most commonly misspelled words in the majority of English-speaking countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.

What is the world’s most difficult word?

7 of the most difficult English words that will make you forget what you were going to say:

  1. Worcestershire
  2. Rural
  3. Sixth
  4. Sesquipedalian
  5. Phenomenon
  6. Onomatopoeia
  7. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Conclusion

The world is full of incredibly long words that many people are unaware of. Understanding the meaning behind these words is key to appreciating their length and complexity. These longer words often have exciting backstories and origins.

Whether you learn more about them for yourself or use them to impress your friends, there’s no denying that these words are fascinating. While these words may seem daunting at first, mastering them can help you better understand language, culture, and the world around you.

So next time you encounter an intimidatingly long word, take the time to appreciate its complexity and the power of language.

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by Ester Brierley

Language is an extremely important part of our life, as it gives us a unique opportunity to communicate, share our thoughts and go on with our daily life effectively. It is constantly evolving and versatile that it is impossible to learn it thoroughly. It amazes us with the abundance of different words and how many different meanings and ways of usage they may have. Let’s have a look at the world’s longest words the existence of which you didn’t even suspect.

1. It is a shame, but in our article, we will not be able to write the longest word in the world. It is not because it is a secret, but because it so long that you will need over 3 hours to read it. It has the astonishing number of letters — 189,819. It names a chemical called “titin” (or “connection’”), and just to give you a glimpse, here is a shortened version of the name of the largest known protein (just the beginning and the end of the word): Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine.

2. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis — 45 letters

This word is considered to be the longest in English dictionary. It names a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine silica particles from the volcano. The shortened version of the disease name is silicosis.

3. Anticonstitutionnellement — 25 letters

It is formally considered to be the longest French word and can be translated into English as “unconstitutionally”.

4. Anticonstitucionalísimamente — 23 letters

“Very strongly against the constitution” – this is the meaning of the longest Spanish word.

5.Spårvagnsaktiebolagsskensmutsskjutarefackförenings​personalbeklädnadsmagasinsförrådsförvaltarens — 94 letters

It is a long word indeed and was created due to an amazing capacity of Swedish grammar to create extra long words. Its meaning is “The manager of the depot for the supply of uniforms to the personnel of the track cleaners’ union of the tramway company”.

6. Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimiz​denmişsinizcesine — 70 letters

This word is considered to be the longest Turkish word meaning «As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones».

7. Nikotynamidadenindynukleotydfosfat — 34 letters

This is a long chemical term which can be found in the Ukrainian language and might considered to be the longest word used.

8. Znajneprekryštalizovávateľnejšievajúcimi — 44 letters

Slovak grammar also allows long words to be easily created, and this particular word means “Through the least crystallized ones”.

9. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză — 44 letters

This word is the longest Romanian and it is the name of disease.

10. Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięcio​dziewięcionarodowościowego — 54 letters

This long Polish common word, but amazing fact is that it can be made even longer, but then it will not be used in the spoken language.

11. Menneskerettighetsorganisasjonene — 33 letters

This word is being used in Norway and has a meaning of “The human rights organizations”.

12. Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymslus​kúraútidyralyklakippuhringur — 64 letters

Iceland is notorious for its long words and this word means «A keychain ring for the outdoor key of road workers shed in a moor called Vaðlaheiði».

Language is very flexible and changes all the time. New words appear and some become obsolete. Moreover, the grammar of some languages gives an opportunity for the appearance of words with unlimited length, so to define the longest word might never be possible.

We have made a list of words which are considered to be the longest (or among the longest), either in general use or in the narrow technical spheres. Obviously, any of those unique super-long words have shortened version for the convenience of usage. Most of the time these words are used solely in scientific studies; however, if to look for the longest word from a humorous point of view, the word smiles may be considered one of the longest words, as it has a mile between its first and last letters. Study language, it is fun!

More long words
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_words

About the writer

Ester Brierley is a graduate student (Computer Science), junior QA Engineer in software outsourcing company, an enthusiastic freelance writer for Darwin essay. She adores researching cutting-edge trends and sharing them in her writing pieces. You can follow her on Twitter.

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The world is a big place full of big words. This is especially true in English, which is the primary language used for science. When a researcher makes a new discovery, they may have to create a new word to define or describe it. Often times, these words can get pretty long. However, there are also some very long English words that are not technical or scientific in nature. In any case, dozens of unique words compete for “the longest word in the world” title, so let’s take a look at the contestants!

The 10 Longest Words in English

Many experts argue over which words should or should not count when determining the longest word in English. For example, some say that it should be the word with the most letters, regardless of the word’s meaning or usage. Others claim that only non-technical, commonly used terms should qualify. Still, others believe that word length should depend on the number of syllables, as opposed to the number of letters. 

Finally, most people agree that hyphenated words (i.e. terms that combine two or more words with a dash) should not be included. For example, you could say that the term great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather is the longest word in English. However, all you’d have to do to make it longer is add another great!

In any case, the following list of the 10 longest words in English will focus on the letter count. Later on, we will discuss some long words that might not make it in the top ten based on letter count, but might still be considered some of the longest words around. So, without further ado, let’s look at the top candidates for the longest word in the world!

Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine (189819 letters, ? syllables)

That’s right, there is a 189819 letter word in the English language! It’s unclear how many syllables the word has, but needless to say, we don’t have room to write out the entire word here! Fortunately, this is just the chemical name for a unique protein that is also known as Titin. If you’d like to know what the word sounds like, you can listen to a computer pronounce it in this hour-long video!

While this is the most “famous” of the long chemical names in the English language, it is not alone. For example, there are virtually endless combinations of chemical compounds that can be combined to form the name of a single strand of DNA. So, in theory, there are English words out there with more than a billion letters!

Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl…serine (1909 letters, ? syllables)

Despite being another chemical name, this word makes the list because it is the longest published word in English. Originally published in a dictionary for students, this word is simply the scientific name for a particular strain of E. Coli. While it may not take as long to say as the previous word on this list, you’re still unlikely to hear it any time soon!

Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano…pterygon (182 letters, 78 syllables)

This candidate for the longest word in the world originated from a Greek play written by Aristophanes in 391 BC. To this day, it remains the longest word in Ancient Greek literature. While the original Greek word contained 171 letters, it’s English translation contains a whopping 182 letters. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll use this word any time soon, as it refers to a fictional dish comprised of rotted dogfish head, wood pigeon, and dozens of other strange ingredients!

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters, 17 syllables)

Now we’ve come to words that you’ll actually see in an English dictionary. Still, this behemoth has almost twice as many letters as there are in the English alphabet! However, it’s definitely not the kind of word you’ll hear in everyday conversation. Nonetheless, it is, by most standards, the longest word in English and the longest word in the world! This word refers to a lung disease that can occur from inhaling small volcanic particles. So, how do you say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis? Very slowly.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters, 14 syllables)

This is one of the most commonly referenced terms in the competition for the longest word in the world. Why? Because it literally means “a fear of long words!” Whoever created this term must have had a twisted sense of humor!

Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters, 12 syllables)

Finally, we’ve arrived at long words that people can actually pronounce! Nonetheless, for ease of use in medical writings, this term is often shortened to PPHP. It refers to a condition that causes irregular bone growth.

Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters, 12 syllables)

In many circles, floccinaucinihilipilification counts as the longest word in the world because it is the longest non-technical word in the English dictionary. In other words, you could actually find this word in a dictionary AND use it outside of a medical or scientific setting. The term refers to the action of finding something worthless.

Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters, 12 syllables)

Here’s another word that you might hear people throw around in a casual conversation. In addition to being easier to pronounce than most other words on this list, antidisestablishmentarianism is also a non-technical term. It refers to the belief that a State church should receive funding from the government. Due to its popularity as a fun word to say, many people (mistakenly) believe that it is the longest word in the world.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters, 13 syllables)

Despite its length, honorificabilitudinitatibus has a pretty straightforward meaning. The word simply refers to the state of being honorable. So, the next time you want to hand out a compliment and flex your vocabulary skills at the same time, just use honorificabilitudinitatibus!

Thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters, 9 syllables)

We end our list of the 10 longest words in English with one more medical term. This word refers to the excision of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands. Like many of the words on this list, you’re unlikely to hear this one outside of a medical setting.

The Longest Words in the World by Category

Though the list above shows the 10 longest words in English based on the traditional requirements (i.e. letter count), there are other methods for determining the longest word. So, let’s take a look at a few of the terms that could be considered the longest word in the world based on other criteria:

  • The longest word in the world based on letter AND syllable count:
    • Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine
  • The longest word in the world to be published:
    • Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl…serine
  • The longest non-technical word:
    • Floccinaucinihilipilification
  • The longest isogram (word in which every letter is used only once) in the world:
    • Subdermatoglyphic
  • The longest recognized “nonsense” word:
    • Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
  • The longest one syllable word in the world:
    • Scraunched

Conclusion

As you can see, determining the longest word in the world or the longest word in English is no easy task. Many people don’t count technical terms, but even if you do, the words can get so long that they cannot be feasibly written down or pronounced! In any case, learning one or two of these words will definitely help you sound a lot smarter when speaking English!

In closing, we hope you enjoyed this list of the longest words in the world! As always, for all things English conversation, grammar, or job-related, visit Magoosh Speaking today!

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