what is the longest word in English?

Answer 1

The longest word currently listed in Oxford dictionaries is rather of this kind: it is the supposed lung-disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters).

Answer 2

1) Sticking to "ordinary" words found in English dictionaries:

The standard answer is now
"pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis", a 45-letter word supposed to refer to a lung disease

This is the longest word in any major English language dictionary. It was originally created as a hoax, but has been adopted as a legitimate term because it closely resembles the characteristics of the condition and has been recognized in other major dictionaries.

It you find that unacceptable, the longest "real English word" according to the Guinness Book of Records (and attested from at least 1741) is the 29-letter word "floccinaucinihilipilification"("the act of estimating (something) as worthless")

Of course, "antidisestablishmentarianism" is ALSO 29 letters, though some question whether IT is not simply another a word created for length, rather than for USE. Also at 29-letters is "electromicrographically".

2) Technical terms -- in principle no limit to length; a chemical compond with 61 letters =
sodium­meta­diamino­para­dioxy­arseno­benzoe­methylene­sulph­oxylate

3) Place Names -
Taumatawhakatang­ihangakoauauot­amateaturipukaka­pikimaunga­horonuku­pokaiwhenuak­itanatahu (85 letters) -- a hill in New Zealand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English


For FUN, the longest word is "beleaguered" (with a LEAGUE in the middle!). Or Red Skelton's answer -- the longest word is the one following the announcement, “And now a word from our sponsor”!

Answer 3

The longest word in any major English language dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a 45-letter word supposed to refer to a lung disease, but research has discovered that this word was originally intended as a hoax. It has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended context, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim. See the separate article for details.

The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Defined as "the act of estimating (something) as worthless", its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741. In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd [1], and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically. It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Antidisestablishmentarianism (a nineteenth century movement in England opposed to the separation of church and state) at 28 letters is one of the longest words in the English.

Answer 4

It might be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (which appears in the Oxford English Dictionary), unless you want to count names of diseases (such as 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis', defined by the OED as "a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word"), places (such as 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch', a village in Wales), chemical compounds (apparently there is one that is 1,913 letters long), and also a few words found only in Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Other words famous for being sesquipedalian:

antidisestablishmentarianism ("opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England")
floccinaucinihilipilification
honorificabilitudinitatibus (Which appears in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, and which has been cited as [dubious] evidence that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays)
Or perhaps smiles is the longest word — after all, there is a mile between the first letter and the last.

Answer 5

I don't know how to spell it. But there is a crazy word. Take some fat word, now put dis in front of it, now put anti in front of it.
It’s just a big word with a lot of extra letters added to it.

Answer 6

lot of debate on this as people argue what should be counted as a real word
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 29 letters is actually a hoax
Floccinaucinihilipilification meaning to make something worthless is a better canidate

Answer 7

Yes, I always thought 'antidisestablishmentarianism'. But there are probably longer words than that now and diseases are probably longer.

Answer 8

Klo-Mann:
All those websites say that there are arguments over this issue.

Try the source:

Answer 9

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS. This word consists of 45 letters. It is a lung disease caused by volcanic eruptions.

Answer 10

systematicautomaticpseudolympathicorganisticdifiblutaration. I haven't got a clue what it means.