What is the longest word?

Answer 1

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.

The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be flocci nauci nihili pili fication at 29 letters (More recent editions of the book have since aknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis). Defined as "the act of estimating (something) as worthless", its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.[1][2] In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd [3], and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.[4] It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Answer 2

I found this, it's interesting.

Dear Yahoo!:
What's the longest word in the English language?
Mary Poppins
London, England

Dear Mary:
We searched on "longest word in the English language" and found a number of sites that deliberate over this very question. The answer really depends on what qualifies as a "word."
For example, chemical names can be thousands of letters long. If you wrote out the name of a DNA molecule, it would be over 1,000,000,000 letters. But are these really words? It seems even dictionaries can't agree. "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoconiosis" is the longest word in non-technical English dictionaries, but according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a fictitious word created just to claim the title of longest.

One of the longest place names is 92 letters, the name of a hill in New Zealand that is typically called just "Taumata." And for those with a sense of humor, "smiles" is considered the longest word because there is a "mile" between the first and last letters.

If you think you know the longest word, join one of the lengthy online discussions. Personally, we think Red Skelton said it best -- the longest word follows the announcement, "and now a word from our sponsor."

Answer 3

The word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, also spelled pneumono­ultra­microscopic­silico­volcano­koniosis, is defined as "a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica or quartz dust." At 45 letters (a "p45" word for logologists) [citation needed], it is certainly the longest word ever to appear in a non-technical dictionary of English, Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (multiple editions). However, the Oxford English Dictionary describes it as "a factitious word ... occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word" and the Encyclopedia Britannica does not have an entry for it

Answer 4

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 (More recent editions of the book have since aknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis). Defined as "the act of estimating (something) as worthless", its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.[1][2] In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd [3], and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.[4] 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 language.

The longest word which appears in William Shakespeare's works is the 27-letter honorific­abilitudinitatibus, appearing in Love's Labour's Lost. This is arguably an English word (rather than Latin), but only because he used it.

The humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua‘a, or reef triggerfish, is Hawaii's official state fish.[5] At 22 letters (including the okina) it is one of the best known very long one-word names for an animal. It is occasionally quipped that the name is longer than the fish.

Answer 5

thanks to the guy who defined antidisestablishmentarianism I always wondered what that meant, I'll forget it again 1 minute after leaving this page more than likely but its the first time ive seen a definitiion for it.

We got to choose a bonus word in second grade spelling and I actually chose this word for mine and memorized it :)

I knew the word before hand because I always asked lots of questions to my parents. I wanted to know the longest word one day and that was the answer I got (they didn't know what it meant though :( )

Answer 6

t 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.

Answer 7

Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50." The second boy says, "That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100." The third boy says, "I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon and it takes eight people to collect all the money!"

Answer 8

antidisestablishmentarianism
This word means "originally, opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England, now opposition to the belief that there should no longer be an official church in a country"
http://zillapedia.quizilla.com/l/6721/Longest_word_in_English_Language/

Another answer is "smiles", because there is a mile between the first and last letters of the word.

Answer 9

This has been asked by someone else last week and no of them are right all I can tell you is it starts with a (A) sorry cant help out more lol think its something like Anti­disestablishment­arianis

Answer 10

smiles because there is a MILE between the 2 letter s