what is the longest english word?

Answer 1

The longest word in English depends upon the definition of an "English word". English allows new words to be formed by construction; long words are coined; place names may be considered words; technical terms may be arbitrarily long. Length can be in terms of orthography and number of written letters or phonology and the number of phonemes. 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 meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.[1]

The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

The longest non-technical word 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.[2][3][4] In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd [5], and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.[6]

Antidisestablishmentarianism (a nineteenth century movement in England opposed to the separation of church and state) at 28 letters is still in colloquial currency for being 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 it was Shakespeare who used it.

The humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua‘a, or reef triggerfish, is Hawaii's official state fish.[7] 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.

Although only fourteen letters long, sesquipedalian, deserves a mention. It is derived from a nonce word used by the Roman author Horace, in his work Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry). The quote is as follows: "Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba," which means, "He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long." The Oxford English Dictionary lists sesquipedalianism ("the practice of using words one and a half feet long"), and further derivations can be created as described in the Constructions section below. In his play Ecclesiazousae ("The Assemblywomen"), the ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes created: Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphio-paraomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonop-tekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon, a word of 183 letters that describes a dish by stringing together its ingredients.

James Joyce made up nine 100 and one 101-letter words 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 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 Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, was reading Finnegans Wake. Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963) contains praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters).[8] The well-known song title from the movie Mary Poppins, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", with 34 letters, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. Hence, it can be dismissed as an unreal word, particularly since the song assigns no meaning to it other than to say that it's impressive. The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman In the 1970s, there were Pepsi advertisements for Lipsmackinthirstquenchinacetastinmotivatingoodbuzzincooltalkinhighwalkinfastlivinevergivincoolfizzin, coining a 100-letter but several-word term. In 1975, the 71-letter (but also several-word) advertising jingle,Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun was first used in a McDonald's Restaurant advertisement to describe the Big Mac. The character Big Bird of Sesame Street sings the Latin alphabet, thinking it is a word. He reads abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz aloud as /æbkədɛfgiʤɛkl̩mn̩ɔpkwɝːˈstuːvwɪksɪz/ and breaks into song (ABC-DEF-GHI). Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?" A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words.

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.

Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737)[10]. The word is composed of the following elements:
Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo[2])
Salino: containing salt (Latin, salīnus)
Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
Ceraceo: "waxy" (Latin, cera)
Aluminoso: alumina (Latin)
Cupreo: from Copper
Vitriolic: containing vitriol (in this case Copper sulphate pentahydrate)

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. In British usage, it would be 106(6560) = 1039360.

Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one word, which is sometimes done. An example of this is sodiummetadiaminoparadioxyarsenobenzoe­methylenesulphoxylate, an arsenic-containing drug. There are also other chemical naming systems, using numbers instead of "meta", "para" etc. as descriptive dividers, breaking up the name, which then no longer can be considered a single long word. One example is a chemical term that has 1,185 letters, "acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylserylglutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyltryptophylal- anylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylpheny- lalanylglutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylgl- utaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyro- syllysylvalyltyrosylarginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreo- nylphenylalanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglutaminylse- rylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartylalanylthreonylvaly- lalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylg- lycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine"

The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to such words as Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine (189,819 letters).[11]

British science writer Brian J. Ford published the most polysyllabic book title (popularly known, for short, simply as Nonscience) in 1971. It is a satire on those who delude the public with unnecessarily complex lengthy terms.

The longest place name in the world spelled in English is Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimar- navatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit in Thailand, although it is more commonly known as Bangkok.

There is some debate as to whether a place name is a legitimate word. However, the longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand.

The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. This is incorrectly said to be Algonquin for "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". It actually means "Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary". The lake is known to Americans as Webster Lake. 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 58 character name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the famous name of a town on Anglesey an island in Wales, Great Britain. This place's name is actually 51 letters long, as certain character groups in Welsh are considered as one letter, 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 the somewhat jocular Llanfair PG. The longest station name in the UK, at 68 letters, is also in Wales: Gorsafawddacha'idraigodanheddogleddollônpenrhynareurdraethceredigion was specifically contrived to "beat" Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

In Ireland, the longest English placename at 22 letters is Muckanaghederdauhaulia (from the Irish language, Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile, meaning pig-marsh between two saltwater inlets) in County Galway. If this is disallowed for being derived from Irish, or not a town, the longest at 19 letters is Newtownmountkennedy in County Wicklow.

It is questionable whether any of the above (with the exception of Newtownmountkennedy) are properly considered English words, being derived from Māori, Nipmuck, Welsh and Irish words respectively, or being a conjunction of individual English words.

Answer 2

this is the longest word in the English language!!!:Methionylthreonylthreonylglu... yllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycy... ycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamy... cylglutamylalanylglycylalanylaspartylala... spartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylp... arginylalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylgly... tamylmethionylleucylalanylleucylisoleucy... eucylglycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosyla... soleucylaspartylglutamylphenylalanyltyro... rtylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylv... inylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylh... ylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylasp... lseryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylt... cylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginylalany... sylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginyl... lisoleucylserylalanylprolylaspartylgluta... nylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylseryl... idylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylgl... anylvalylglutaminylprolylmethionyllysyla... nylserylprolylserylglutaminylphenylalany... prolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylaspar... utaminylphenylalanylglutaminylthreonylgl... ylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylg... lserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylalanylpr... aginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleu... laspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylargin... lglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylal... alylaspartylaspartylalanylthreonylvalyla... leucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvaly... asparaginylthreonylphenylalanylglutamyls... nylprolylalanyltitinmethionylglutaminyla... einylprolylprolylaspartylalanylaspartyla... yrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyl... nylglutamylasparaginylarginylalanylalany... cyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanyl... ucylserylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylv... ycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalany... sparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamy... alylglutaminylprolylmethionyllysylalanyl... ylprolylserylglutaminylphenylalanylvalyl... soleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylv... nylphenylalanylglutaminylthreonylglutami... aminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutami... threonylvalylarginylphenylalanylprolylgl... ylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucyli... artylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylis... aminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylg... aspartylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalany...

Answer 3

Floccinaucinihilipilification:

Is the "Official" longest word.

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 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 Jesse Helms, and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry. It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Answer 4

What is the longest English word?

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We do have genuine (if rather obviously deliberate) examples in our files of antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters) and floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters), which are listed in some of our larger dictionaries. Other words (mainly technical ones) recorded in the complete Oxford English Dictionary include:

otorhinolaryngological (22 letters),
immunoelectrophoretically (25 letters),
psychophysicotherapeutics (25 letters),
thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters),
pneumoencephalographically (26 letters),
radioimmunoelectrophoresis (26 letters),
psychoneuroendocrinological (27 letters)
hepaticocholangiogastrostomy (28 letters),
spectrophotofluorometrically (28 letters),
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

Most of the words which are given as 'the longest word' are merely inventions, and when they occur it is almost always as examples of long words, rather than as genuine examples of use. For example, the medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas (honourableness) was listed by some old dictionaries in the English form honorificabilitudinity (22 letters), but it has never really been in use. The longest word currently listed in Oxford dictionaries is rather of this kind: it is the supposed lung-disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters).

In Voltaire's Candide, Pangloss is supposed to have given lectures on metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology (34 letters). In Thomas Love Peacock's satirical novel Headlong Hall (1816) there appear two high-flown nonce words (one-off coinages) which describe the human body by stringing together adjectives describing its various tissues. The first is based on Greek words, and the second on the Latin equivalents; they are osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 letters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 letters), which translate roughly as 'of bone, flesh, blood, organs, gristle, nerve, and marrow'.

Some editions of the Guinness Book of Records mention praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters), used in Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963), and aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic (52 letters), attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737).

This kind of verbal game originates, so far as records attest, with the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, inventor of Cloud-Cuckoo-Land (Nephelokokkygia).

The formal names of chemical compounds are almost unlimited in length (for example, aminoheptafluorocyclotetraphosphonitrile, 40 letters), but longer ones tend to be sprinkled with numerals, Roman and Greek letters, and other arcane symbols. Dictionary writers tend to regard such names as 'verbal formulae', rather than as English words.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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 meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.



James Joyce made up nine 100 and one 101-letter words 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 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 Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, was reading Finnegans Wake.

Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963) contains praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters).

The well-known song title from the movie Mary Poppins, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", with 34 letters, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined in reference to the song title. Hence, it can be dismissed as an unreal word, particularly since the song assigns no meaning to it other than to say that it's impressive. The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman

In the 1970s, there were Pepsi advertisements for Lip­smackin­thirst­quenchin­acetastin­motivatin­good­buzzin­cool­talkin­high­walkin­fast­livin­ever­givin­cool­fizzin, coining a 100-letter but several-word term.

In 1975, the 71-letter (but also several-word) advertising jingle,Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun was first used in a McDonald's Restaurant advertisement to describe the Big Mac.


Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"


The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

The longest non-technical word 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. In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd , and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.

Anti­dis­establishment­arianism (a nineteenth century movement in England opposed to the separation of church and state) at 28 letters is still in colloquial currency for being 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 it was Shakespeare who used it.

The humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua‘a, or reef triggerfish, is Hawaii's official state fish. 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 7

If you are looking for an actual word thats the longest in the English Dictionary that is not tecnical(coz we all know there are too many of those around) is take a deap breath

floccinaucinihilipilification

which is 29 letters long.. and very very interestingly means
of little or no value.. or denoting something as of little or no worth!!!

It's actually an aggregate of Latin forms.

* "flocci" is from the Latin floccus, which means "fleece" and is related to the verb floccipendo which means, literally, "to give the value of a bit of fleece" or "to take lightly."
* "nauci" is a word meaning "few" or "almost nothing."
* "nihil," like in anihilation, is the Latin word for "nothing."
* "pili" is the plural form of the word pilus, the Latin word for "small hair," but in this case meaning "trifle."
* "fica" is from the verb facio meaning "to do" or "to make."
* "tion" is a standard English nominalization form.

When put together, we get "the making light of a few trifles of nothing." Thus, the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification becomes "the act of estimating something as worthless." Of course, the word can then be edited to form verbs, like floccinaucinihilipilificate, and adjectives, like floccinaucinihilipilificatious, or even other nouns, like floccinaucinihilipilificatism.


cheers!!!

:)

Answer 8

That word in Mary Popings, Supercallyfrag.. i dont know how to spell it lol.

But really its pneumono­ultra ­micro­scopic­ silico­volcano­coniosis

ps i had to beark it up in 3 sections cos gay yahoo just deletes half of it and puts.. at the end instead but its all one word and the longest word that ever was!

Answer 9

"antidisestablishmentarianism"


28 letters, commonly regarded as the longest accepted word in the English language.

Answer 10

Antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest word in the English dictionary. don't know what it means though lol

Answer 11

pneumonultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconeosis.

i din't count it but i think it's 45 letters long.
it's the name of a disease that you get when you breath in volcanic ash. it was kind of invented just for the sake of being a really long word though.
it as a shorter version, but i don't remember what is was.