World most longest english word

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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

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

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

Major dictionaries

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

The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

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

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

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

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

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

Creations of long words

Coinages

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

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

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

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

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

Agglutinative constructions

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

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

Technical terms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notable long words

Place names

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personal names

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

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

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

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

Words with certain characteristics of notable length

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

Typed words

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

See also

References

External links

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

Прежде чем вы начнете читать статью, ответьте на вопрос: Сколько букв в самом длинном слове английского языка? 50? 75? 100? 220? В любом случае, запомните эту цифру.

Трудно поверить, но в самом коротком длинном слове в английском языке «всего» 27(!) букв. Мы начнем с самого короткого слова, а закончим самым длинным:

1. Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Это слово придумал Уильям Шекспир, и найти его можно в комедии «Бесплодные усилия любви» (Love’sLabour’s Lost). Имеет ли это слово значение? Да. Оно означает «достойный почестей, признания», и вы найдете его в словарях, хотя оно и маркируется как устаревшее.

2. Antidisestablishmentarianism

Это слово (28 букв!) вы найдете в словаре, и переводится оно следующим образом – движение за не разделение государства и церкви. Данное движение появилось в Англии в середине 1860-ых. Хотя слово и относится к устаревшим (архаичным) словам, оно встречается в научной (исторической) и художественной литературе.

3. Floccinaucinihilipilification

В этом слове 29 букв и состоит оно из корней латинских слов. Что оно означает? Вы его без труда найдете в словарях, а означает оно «опорочивание, дискредитация».

4. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism

В этом слове 30 букв. И обозначает оно один из типов генетического нарушения. Этот тип схож с тем, что в медицине называют псевдогипопаратиреоз, но при нем не наблюдается дефицит кальция. Не вдаваясь в медицинские детали, лучше не иметь у себя в организме то, что называется словом из 30 букв.

5. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Несмотря на то, что в этом слове 34 буквы, оно весьма популярно, так как встречается в песне, которую поет Мэри Поппинс в мюзикле «Мэри Поппинс». В словарях вы найдете такой перевод — суперархиэкстраультрамегаграндиозно. Авторство принадлежит Ричарду и Роберту Шерманам, написавшим тексты песен для мюзикла. В слове угадывается некоторый оттенок учености, хотя сама героиня книги говорила, что его стоит произносить, когда совсем нечего сказать.

6. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

В этом медицинском термине 45 букв! И означает он заболевание легких, вызванное вдыханием пыли, содержащей свободную двуокись кремния. Это слово зафиксировано в словарях, но в медицинской практике пользуются очень коротким словом – silicosis (силикоз или силикатоз).  Доктора, которые пишут в истории болезни такое длинное слово, очевидно, получают почасовую зарплату.

7. Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic

Это слово из 52 букв придумал Д-р Эдвард Строзер, для того чтобы описать состав воды для spa-процедур, которые можно получить в английском городе Бат (Bath). И сделал он это при помощи одного слова! Если расшифровать это слово, то получится – «равномерно соленая», «содержит кальций», «содержит алюминий и медь», «имеет восковый блеск». Конечно, вряд ли вы увидите это слово в научных статьях или услышите в речи, разве что в самих spa-салонах увидите его на постерах.

8. Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotr

immatosilphioparaomelito-katakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoio-siraiobaphetraganopterygon

В этом слове 171 буква, а авторство принадлежит древнегреческому автору Аристофану. В одной из комедий он приводит придуманное им самим блюдо. В основе – названия необычных ингредиентов: акулы, голуби, мед и всевозможные фрагменты тел животных, надо сказать, не всегда аппетитные.

В начале статьи мы попросили вас предположить, сколько букв в самом длинном слове английского языка. Какую цифру вы выбрали? Смеем предположить, что вы ошиблись. Потому что самое длинное английское слово —

9. Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenyl—
alanylalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamyl—
glycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanylvalylthreonyl—
leucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminyl—
serylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamy—
lalanylglycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucyl—
prolylphenylalanylserylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylproly—
lthreonylisoleucylglutaminylaspfraginylalanylthreonylleucylarginy—
lalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanyl—
glutaminylcysteinylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalany—
lleucylisoleucylarginylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucyl—
prolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginy—
lleucylvalylphenylalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartyl—glutamylphenylalanyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamylly—sylvalylglycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalyl—prolylvalylglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginyl—glutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylalanyl—prolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanyl—aspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanyl—seryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylseryl—arginylalanylglycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginyl—arginylalanylalanylleucylprolylleucylasparaginylhistidylleucylvalyl—alanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalanylprolyl—prolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylserylalanyl—prolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanyl—glycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanylisoleucyl—valyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginy—lisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethionylleucylalanylalanyl—leucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylprolylmethionyllysylalanyl—alanylthreonylarginylserine

Да, это одно слово и в нем 1913 букв (!). Это химическое название триптофансинтетазы, белка, в составе которого 27 аминокислот.

Конечно, нет смысла составлять такие длинные слова, прежде всего из-за их непрактичности. Поэтому в языке их не так уж много. Но на досуге можно попробовать прочитать их и, возможно, даже запомнить парочку! 

Предлагаем начать с «supercalifragilisticexpialidocious». И это возможно!

Не верите? Тогда смотрите!

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

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

The Oxford English Dictionary contains over 170,000 words in current use, but what are the longest words in the English language?

The longest word in English is the chemical name for the titin protein found in humans. It is named after the chemicals which make it up and has 189,819 letters. This would fill pages of this article alone, although it has even been disputed if it forms a real word at all! For this reason, and because dictionaries tend to omit technical names of chemicals, you won’t find it written in this list.

Anyway, before we get side-tracked, we’re here to focus on the longest English words in the dictionary. So, let’s get into it! Here is a list of 11 of the longest words in English:

The 11 longest English words

1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

The longest English word in the dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which is a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust.

So, if you were wondering what word is longer than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, this is your answer!

How is the longest word in the English language pronounced? Play the video below to hear someone saying the longest word!

2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters)

The second longest word on our list is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the name for the fear of long words, how ironic! It also happens to be the longest non-medical word in English.

3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters)

Are you a Mary Poppins fan? If you are then you’ll be very familiar with this very long word with the same first and last letters. And, before you ask how many words does supercalifragilisticexpialidocious have, I can assure you that it is only one!

A fabulously nonsensical word derived from the popular film Mary Poppins, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious means something which is great or extraordinary. It’s…

4. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters)

Pseudohypoparathyroidism is a genetic disorder associated with resistance to the parathyroid hormone. It is characterized by short stature, a round face, short neck, and shortened bones in the hands and feet.

5. Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)

Floccinaucinihilipilification is the action or habit of describing or estimating something as unimportant or worthless. Easy for you to say…

6. Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters)

One that I learnt in history class! Antidisestablishmentarianism is twenty eight letters long and describes a political movement in 19^th century England against the disestablishment or removal of the Church of England as the official state church of England, Ireland and Wales. You can still use it today to refer to opposition to the withdrawal of government funding or support for a particular church or religion.

7. Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters)

From the works of Shakespeare, the meaning of honorificabilitudinitatibus is the state of being able to achieve honors or “with honorableness”. It is also in the Guinness World Records for the longest English word consisting strictly of alternating consonants and vowels.

8. Thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters)

A medical term for the surgical removal of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands.

9. Dichlorodifluoromethane (23 letters)

Dichlorodifluoromethane is a colorless gas and cooling or freezing agent for consumer use, sold under the name Feon-12. The technical definition of dichlorodifluoromethane is a chlorofluoromethane CCl₂F_2.

https://youtu.be/gUdFmuHT9HA

10. Incomprehensibilities (21 letters)

Incomprehensibilities means impossible or incredibly difficult to comprehend. In the 1990s it set the record as the longest word “in common usage”, which seems almost incomprehensible when you think about it.

11. Sesquipedalianism (17 letters)

Although not the next longest word on the list, we simply had to include it. Sesquipedalianism is the practice of using long words in speech or writing.

An important note

There are some other long words that we could have included in this list of the longest words in English, and you may see some other words in different lists depending upon where you look. However, not all dictionaries will include highly technical, medical words so we have tried to avoid including these in our longest word list.

The longest English word in history?

So, what is the biggest word? Are you still thinking about the longest English word in history? Thought you might be! If you want to know the longest word in English, it’s spelled Methionylalanylthreonyl… You didn’t really think I was going to spell the whole thing out, did you? We’d be here for hours!

If you want to hear how the longest word in English is pronounced, one hero has even made a YouTube video for it. So, settle in for a 1-hour epic and enjoy the longest English word pronunciation you’ll hear in your life!

As a reminder, and if you want to know more about it, it’s the titin protein. This can be found in humans and is essential to the structure, development and elasticity of muscle. Its chemical name is 189,819 letters long.

A young MrBeast even had a go at pronouncing the longest word in English…

The longest conclusion

Don’t worry, I’m not really going to put you through the longest conclusion in the English language after all that!

English has some of the longest words in any language. Some of these words, such as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, are fun to say. Others can be quite a mouthful. While most of these words aren’t commonly used in day-to-day conversations, they are still interesting to learn about because of their length and complexity.

Were you able to successfully pronounce any of the longest English words? Let us know in the comments!

The English language is full of interesting and complex words and there are loads of amazing facts about English that are worth exploring.

For those of you who are ESL teachers or English language learners, having a go at pronouncing these words can be a great way to bring some fun into the classroom. You can also check out these ESL games for adults for some more classroom fun.

It should come as no surprise that we are word lovers. In fact, we are big word lovers in that we love really big words. To express our love, we looked around for some of the biggest, most ludicrously long words in the English language. In addition to pure length, we also tried to find: 

• the longest word without vowels
• the longest one-syllable word
• and other uniquely long words.

Figuring out which word is the longest of them all isn’t as simple as just counting letters, though. Should you count scientific words? Should obscure, rarely used words be included, or should we give the honor to a word people actually use? In the interest of fairness, our list includes scientific words, obscure words, and all of the absurdly long words stuck in between.  

methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl… 

At over 180,000 letters long, the chemical name of the protein titin is often said to technically be the longest English word. If spoken out loud, this word takes over three hours to say! Its absurd length is due to the fact that proteins get their scientific names by combining the names of all of their joined amino acids together, and titin has quite a lot of them. For obvious reasons, titin’s official name has never actually appeared in a dictionary or scientific text. Because it is a scientific term, many would disqualify the Big M from actually taking the crown as English’s longest word. 

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, coming in at 45 letters long, is typically the biggest word you will find that actually appears in an English dictionary. According to many sources, it was coined around 1935 by Everett Smith, who at the time was the president of the National Puzzlers’ League. The word, which was basically engineered for its length, refers to a lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust. 

sesquipedalianism

Let’s look at a word related to the business of “longest words.” Sesquipedalianism is the tendency to use long words. Do you have sesquipedalian tendencies? (We do.)

The word is traced to the ancient Roman poet Horace, who in a treatise on the art of poetry wrote that in certain circumstances, poets must avoid sesquipedalia verba, a Latin phrase meaning “words [verba] a foot and a half long [sesquipedalia].” Horace clearly had a sense of humor.

pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism

We include pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, another medical term, because this is one of the longest words to appear in major dictionaries that wasn’t created with length in mind. Pseudo- is a combining form meaning “false, pretended, unreal.”

You might notice the appearance of pseudo- twice. That’s because this disorder simulates the symptoms of pseudohypoparathyroidism, in which the body doesn’t respond to the parathyroid hormone. So, there are two levels of “faking it” going on here.

English isn’t the only language with lengthy elements of its lexicon. Get to know some of the world’s longest words!

antidisestablishmentarianism

Often, people will bust out antidisestablishmentarianism as the longest word they know and are actually able to say. This word has rarely been used and is only mentioned due to its ridiculous length. This word refers to opposition to withdrawing support from the Anglican Church as the state church of 19th-century England. 

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Even though the sound if it is something quite atrocious, we do really like the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. This nonsensical word with no real meaning was popularized by the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins and is often used by children as an example of a humorously long word. Songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman take credit for this exact spelling of the word, but the word itself existed even before Mary Poppins made it popular. 

floccinaucinihilipilification

Here’s one that is also very meta: floccinaucinihilipilification is a rarely used word that means “the estimation of something as valueless.” It is usually used in reference to itself! Dating back to the 1700s, the word contains four Latin roots that all mean “of little value” or “trifling”: floccī, naucī, nihilī, and pilī.

honorificabilitudinitatibus

The word honorificabilitudinitatibus, which is said to mean “capable of receiving honor,” has two major honors to its name. Firstly, it is the longest word to ever appear in the works of William Shakespeare. Billy the Bard only ever used it once, in his play Love’s Labour’s Lost (1590s). Secondly, honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest English word wherein the consonants and vowels alternate back and forth. Check it again if you didn’t notice! 

uncharacteristically

Uncharacteristically for most of the really long words you’ve seen so far, the word uncharacteristically is often said to be the longest word that the average English speaker will commonly see or actually use in everyday life. As you may already know, uncharacteristically is an adverb that describes something as not being typical or acting in a characteristic manner. 

incomprehensibilities

At 21 characters, another one of the longest words you might actually use yourself is incomprehensibilities. We define incomprehensible as “impossible to comprehend or understand,” so incomprehensibilities are “things you can’t comprehend.” ¿Comprendes?

uncopyrightables 

If you look closely at the spelling, you’ll notice a peculiar thing about this word with 16 letters. It does not repeat any letter; each character is used only once. This word is sometimes called an isogram among lovers of words and word games.

One of the longest isograms is subdermatoglyphic, at 17 characters. But, since subdermatoglyphic (dermatoglyphics studies the patterns of skin markings on the hands and feet) is a bit scientific and certainly not one that is used often, we’re spotlighting uncopyrightables instead because it’s one we can all remember. It means, of course, “items that are unable to be copyrighted.”

rhythms 

The word rhythms may not look like much at only seven letters long, but it is said to be the longest English word without one of the five main vowels in it. The letter Y, that wishy-washy “sometimes vowel,” is filling in while A, E, I, O, and U are taking a break. As we all know, the word rhythms means “movements or procedures with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like.” 

Are there really words without vowels? Depending on the definition, the answer might elicit a hmm.

strengths 

Strengths is another smaller word with a big achievement under its belt. It is the longest English word with only a single vowel in it. Considering it is only eight letters long, that really shows you how much we value our vowels. The plural strengths is most often used to mean “positive or valuable attributes or qualities.”  

squirrelled 

We go nuts for this word. While the word squirreled usually only has one L in American English, some dictionaries accept this British English version as an alternate spelling. Some Americans pronounce the word squirrelled as a one-syllable word (rhyming with “curled”). This makes squirrelled the longest one-syllable word in the English language at 11 letters. If all of that sounds too squirrely for you, the one-syllable verb broughammed from the noun brougham, a type of carriage, is also 11 letters long. 

As an aside, some may tell you that the word schtroumpfed is actually the longest “English” word with only a single syllable. This word has been used in some translations of The Smurfs (which is Les Schtroumpfs in French) in place of the more commonly used nonsensical verb smurfed. In our opinion, claiming schtroumpfed is the longest one-syllable word is just a bunch of smurf. 

Aegilops

Aegilops sounds like the name of a mythical monster, but it is actually the name of a genus of wild grasses commonly known as goatgrass. In addition to that, Aegilops is also commonly said to be the longest English word that has all of the letters in alphabetical order.

Indulge your inner sesquipedalian and take the quiz!

Think you’re ready to ace our longest English words quiz? Or is it a long shot? It won’t be long before you find out. Remember that a little practice goes a long way!

Have you ever thought about what the longest word in English might be? Or have you come across long English words like floccinaucinihilipilification, and wondered what it means? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are more than 171,476 words currently in use in English, and some are confusing words and difficult to pronounce because of their unusual length. You might even need an interpreter or translator for them. Nevertheless, we have got you covered. In this article, you will discover the longest English words used in the dictionary, in different places and specializations, as well as learn how to pronounce them. Learning these words will make you sound more eloquent and knowledgeable in your English language learning adventure! Let’s dive right into this unusual but interesting article.

Common Longest English Word in English Dictionary

1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

This is the most common longest word in the English dictionary. I would advise taking a deep breath before pronouncing it. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a type of inflammatory lung disease caused by inhaling ash and sand dust mostly near volcanoes. The word is an invented term that was coined by Everett M. Smith, the president of the National Puzzlers’ League. While the word is made up, the disease is real, and it’s known under the names pneumoconiosis, silicosis, or black lung in the UK.

2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters)

Do you have a phobia of long words? If yes, then perhaps you are suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. This word is used for someone that has a persistent fear of long words. That’s ironic, isn’t it? This word ranks as the second longest word in English.

3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters)

You might have heard this word from the film by Mary Poppins. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a word you can say when you actually have nothing to say. It’s also used as an expression of excitement. This word ranked as one of the longest words in English. This word also appears in some (but not all) dictionaries.

4. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters)

This term is used to describe an inherited medical disorder wherein the individual has the phenotypic appearance of pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1A but has (unexpected for the phenotype) normal labs including calcium and Potassium.

5. Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)

How important do you regard things? Do you know that the act of regarding something as unimportant is called Floccinaucinihilipilification. This word is often cited as the longest non-technical word in the English language, being one letter longer than the commonly cited antidisestablishmentarianism. It is the longest word ever recorded by Hansard after the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg used the word in Parliament.

6. Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters)

Opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England. This term is used to refer to the political movement in the 19th century when Britain sought to separate church and state by disestablishing the Church of England as the official state church of England, Ireland, and Wales. This word has been cited as the longest word in the English language (excluding coined and technical terms like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis), although some sources say that it is not used enough to carry that title.

7. Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters)

This is the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels, and it is also the longest word in Shakespeare’s works. The term means a state of being able to achieve honors.

8. Thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters)

This is a medical term used to define the surgical removal of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the body

9. Dichlorodifluoromethane (23 letters)

This is a compound known as chlorofluoromethane (CF2Cl2). Dichlorodifluoromethane is a colorless gas usually sold under the brand name Freon-12, and a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane (CFC) used as a refrigerant and aerosol spray propellant.

Longest Word in English without Vowels

There are also some long English words that have no vowels in them. For example

Twyndyllyngs

This word is officially the longest word in the English language without using any of the five vowels. It is a Welsh-originated word that basically means twins.

Symphysy

This is the second longest English word without a vowel, and it means the fusion of two bodies or parts.

Longest One-Syllable Word in English

The majority of the longest words in the English language are technical or medical terms formed by a string of individual parts. But there are also some unusually long words that only have one syllable. Some of them include:

Schlepped

Scratched

Scrounged

Scrunched

Logest Palindrome Word in English

A palindrome is a word that reads the same forward and backward. Words such as level, mom, noon, etc. But what’s the longest palindrome word in English? The word is Tattarrattat. This word is invented by James Joyce to describe the sound of the knock on the door

Longest word in English for place names

Interestingly there are names of places you will never believe exist in this world not because they never existed but because of the length of their name. Let us look at some

1. Taumatawhakatangi­hangakoauauotamatea­turipukakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu (85 letters)

Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu is the name of a hill near Porangahau, in the south of Waipukurau in southern Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The height of the hill is 305 metres (1,001 ft) and its notable primarily for its unusually long name, which is of Māori origin; it is often shortened to Taumata for brevity. It has gained a measure of fame as it is the longest place name found in any English-speaking country, and possibly the longest place name in the world, according to World Atlas. The name of the hill has also been listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest place name in the world

2. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 letters)

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll is a large village and local government community on the island of Anglesey, Wales, on the Menai Strait next to the Britannia Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. Both shortened (Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG) and lengthened (Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch) forms of the place name are used in various contexts.

3. Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (45 letters)

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, also called Lake Chaubunagungamaug or Webster Lake, lake, central Massachusetts, USA is located in southern Worcester county near the town of Webster. The lake’s name is reportedly given by the Nipmuc people (Algonquian-speaking North American Indian group) means “You fish on your side; I fish on my side; nobody fishes in the middle,”. Although there is evidence that this interpretation was fabricated by a local news correspondent in the early 20th century.

4. Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein (44 letters)

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is the name of a farm in the North West province of South Africa, located about 200 km west of Pretoria and 20 km east of Lichtenburg, whose 44-character name has entered South African folklore. It is the longest place name in South Africa. The name means “the spring where two buffaloes were shot stone-dead with one shot” (Afrikaans: Twee buffels met een skoot morsdood geskiet fontein). This name illustrates the compounding nature of Germanic languages including Afrikaans, which itself derived from Dutch.

5. Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik (31 letters)

Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik Lake is a lake in Manitoba, Canada. The name is from the Cree region where the wild trout are caught by fishing with hooks. It is the longest place name in Canada at 31 letters long and it is located just southeast of Red Sucker Lake in northeastern Manitoba, near its border with Ontario.

6. Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya (26 letters)

Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill (or Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya) is a hill in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara, approximately 108km away from a town called Marla.

7. Bullaunancheathrairaluinn (25 letters)

Bullaunancheathrairaluinn is the official longest-place name in Ireland. It is a name of a townland in County Galway, Ireland. This name is written in Irish rather than English.

8. Nunathloogagamiutbingoi (23 letters)

Nunathloogagamiutbingoi is the name of a beach on the southeastern coast of Nunivak Island in Bethel Census Area, Alaska, USA. Summer temperatures in the area are frequently 50 to 59 °F (10 to 15 °C), and the night is commonly 40 to 49 °F (4 to 9 °C).

Real Longest word in English?

Can you believe that we have actually not yet mentioned the real, globally accepted longest word in the English language? The longest word in English history has 189,819 letters and takes about 3 hours to pronounce. This word is a technical term for the chemical compound composed of titin. Titin is the largest known protein responsible for maintaining the passive elasticity of the muscles. The reason why this word is so long is that titin is formed by 244 individual protein domains, which are connected into one sequence. Now, imagine 244 names of chemical compounds squashed together into one word. Let’s show you a glimpse. The word is methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine. The entire word looks like a string of letters you accidentally wrote when you sat on your keyboard.

FAQs About Longest Word in English

Learn More Long Words in English!

As we mentioned, there are some unusually long English words that can either be found in dictionaries, used in our everyday conversations, or used as technical terms. Pronouncing these words may be difficult but you can memorize these words by first splitting them up and pronouncing each split word. For example, the longest word Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis can be pronounced by splitting into Pneumono (new-moh-no)- ultra (ul-truh) – microscopic (my-kro-skop-ick) – silico (sil-ih-koh)- volcano (vohl-kay-no)- coniosis (koh-nee-oh-sis). There are more English terms you can learn such as words about nature and names of tools used both at home and industry. To develop your English communication skills, check out AmazingTalker to connect with online English tutors who can assist you in learning the English language easily, efficiently, and quickly, and you would be speaking English like a native in a short time.