Whats the longest word in the dictonary?

Question

Searously whats the longest word in the dictonary and pleas don't be sarcastic like.... smiles its sgot a mile between the first letter and the last..... thats just lame.
thanks megan

Answer 1

there is no easy answer that we can give when you ask us for the longest word in the English language. Most very long words only occur in one or two dictionaries, and often they are debatably not words at all. For example, ANTI­DIS­ESTABLISH­MENT­ARIAN­ISM has possibly never really been used to mean "the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state." Certainly 99 in 100 times it is used as an example of a long word. And who says you can't put NON– (for example) on the beginning to make it even longer?

This problem is even more evident in chemical names. Most chemicals are named using a systematic naming system which methodically describes the molecule's structure. Some molecules, such as proteins, are huge, so it is possible to come up with genuine words containing millions of letters. But of course no chemist uses these really long names in practice.

Here we look at some of the longest words in English dictionaries, and discuss whether they should be considered to be real words. Interesting long chemical terms and place names are listed separately afterwards.

Longest Words
(45) PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­CONIOSIS (also spelled PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­KONIOSIS) = a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust.
This is the longest word in any English dictionary. However, it was coined by Everett Smith, the President of The National Puzzlers' League, in 1935 purely for the purpose of inventing a new "longest word". The Oxford English Dictionary described the word as factitious. Nevertheless it also appears in the Webster's, Random House, and Chambers dictionaries.
(37) HEPATICO­CHOLANGIO­CHOLECYST­ENTERO­STOMIES = a surgical creation of a connection between the gall bladder and a hepatic duct and between the intestine and the gall bladder.
This is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary.

(34) SUPER­CALI­FRAGI­LISTIC­EXPI­ALI­DOCIOUS = song title from the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins.
It is in the Oxford English Dictionary.


"But then one day I learned a word
That saved me achin' nose,
The biggest word you ever 'eard,
And this is 'ow it goes:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
(30) HIPPOPOTO­MONSTRO­SESQUIPED­AL­IAN = pertaining to a very long word.
From Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.

(29) FLOCCI­NAUCINI­HILIPIL­IFICATION = an estimation of something as worthless.
This is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Interestingly the most common letter in English, E, does not appear in this word at all, whilst I occurs a total of nine times. The word dates back to 1741. The 1992 Guinness Book of World Records calls flocci­nauci­nihili­pilification the longest real word in the Oxford English Dictionary, and refers to pneumono­ultra­micro­scopic­silico­volcano­koniosis as the longest made-up one.

(28) ANTI­DIS­ESTABLISH­MENT­ARIAN­ISM = the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state.
Probably the most popular of the "longest words" in recent decades.

(27) HONORI­FICABILI­TUDINI­TATIBUS = honorableness.
The word first appeared in English in 1599, and in 1721 was listed by Bailey's Dictionary as the longest word in English. It was used by Shakespeare in Love's Labor's Lost (Costard; Act V, Scene I):


"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."
Shakespeare does not use any other words over 17 letters in length.

(27) ELECTRO­ENCEPHALO­GRAPHICALLY
The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), joint with ethylene­diamine­tetraacetate (see below).

(27) ANTI­TRANSUB­STAN­TIA­TION­ALIST = one who doubts that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ.

(21) DIS­PRO­PORTION­ABLE­NESS and (21) IN­COM­PREHEN­SIB­ILITIES
These are described by the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest words in common usage.


CHEMICAL TERM

Two chemical terms (3,641 and 1,913 letters long) have appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records. They were withdrawn because they have never been used by chemists, and there is no theoretical limit to the length of possible legitimate chemical terms. A DNA molecule could have a name of over 1,000,000,000 letters if it was written out in full.

(1,185) ACETYL­SERYL­TYROSYL­SERYL­ISO­LEUCYL­THREONYL­SERYL­PROLYL­SERYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­VALYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­LEUCYL­SERYL­SERYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­ALANYL­ASPARTYL­PROLYL­ISOLEUCYL­GLUTAMYL­LEUCYL­LEUCYL­ASPARAGINYL­VALYL­CYSTEINYL­THREONYL­SERYL­SERYL­LEUCYL­GLYCYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMINYL­THREONYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­ALANYL­ARGINYL­THREONYL­THREONYL­GLUTAMINYL­VALYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­SERYL­GLUTAMINYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­LYSYL­PROLYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­GLUTAMINYL­SERYL­THREONYL­VALYL­ARGINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­GLYCYL­ASPARTYL­VALYL­TYROSYL­LYSYL­VALYL­TYROSYL­ARGINYL­TYROSYL­ASPARAGINYL­ALANYL­VALYL­LEUCYL­ASPARTYL­PROLYL­LEUCYL­ISOLEUCYL­THREONYL­ALANYL­LEUCYL­LEUCYL­GLYCYL­THREONYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­ASPARTYL­THREONYL­ARGINYL­ASPARAGINYL­ARGINYL­ISOLEUCYL­ISOLEUCYL­GLUTAMYL­VALYL­GLUTAMYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­SERYL­PROLYL­THREONYL­THREONYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMYL­THREONYL­LEUCYL­ASPARTYL­ALANYL­THREONYL­ARGINYL­ARGINYL­VALYL­ASPARTYL­ASPARTYL­ALANYL­THREONYL­VALYL­ALANYL­ISOLEUCYL­ARGINYL­SERYL­ALANYL­ASPARAGINYL­ISOLEUCYL­ASPARAGINYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­ARGINYL­GLYCYL­THREONYL­GLYCYL­LEUCYL­TYROSYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­ASPARAGINYL­THREONYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMYL­SERYL­METHIONYL­SERYL­GLYCYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­THREONYL­SERYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­ALANYL­SERINE = Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Dahlemense Strain.
This word has appeared in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts and is thus considered by some to be the longest real word.

Answer 2

This 1185-letter "word" is the chemical name for "Coat Protein, Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Dahlemense Strain". It is supposedly the longest word in the English language. The term was published in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts in 1972, and is considered by some to be the longest real word. It does hold the record for the longest word published in an English language publication in a serious context — that is, for some reason other than to publish a very long word. In its complete form, the 1185-letter word is: acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonyl... phenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylseryl... aspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleu... threonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginy... glutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylal... glutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylpheny... tryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylg... arginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylv... arginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleuc... threonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonyl... arginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleu... asparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprol... threonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylargi... alanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginy... asparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamy... threonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylgl... phenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylg... threonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine

Answer 3

The longest word in any major English language dictionary is pneumonoultra­micro­scopic ­silico­volcano­coniosis, a 45-letter word supposed to refer to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of volcanic ash, 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.

The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypo parathyroidism (30 letters).

The longest non-technical word is flocci­nauci­ nihili­pili­fication at 29 letters.

They are without spaces but otherwise yahoo doesn´t show them.

Answer 4

This word isn't in many dictionaries. You can find it on the internet at www.dictionary.com, but this is the longest word ever made:

pneumonoultramicro-
scopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

(I had to cut it in half like that cause Yahoo! Answers won't show all of it. Just put the two pieces together.)

It's a type of volcanic disease that is caused by inhaling volcanic ash.

Answer 5

Naturally this depends on what sort of dictionary you use. Obviously medical dictionaries and the huge, hulking Oxford dictionaries would have longer words than, say, your average pocket dictionary.

Aequeo salinocalcali noceraceoalumino socupreovitriolic (52 letters)

(The spaces were included just so yahoo wouldn't cut off the word. Normally, however, it has no space in it.)

Answer 6

The longest word in the english language has 1,909 letters (which is too long for me to type here). It is the term for the formula C1289H2051N3430375S8. A Tryptophan synthetase A protein, an enzyme that has 267 amino acids.

Answer 7

antidissestablishmentarianism

Answer 8

pneumono­ultra­micro­scopic­silico­volcano­coniosis