What is the longest word in German?

Question

German generally fuses the consecutive words (particularly noun components) together, resulting in, in comparision to the English language, incredibly long words.

What is the longest word in German?

Answer 1

The classic longest German word is Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän, which in English becomes four words: "Danube steamship company captain." But that German word has a mere 41 letters (42 with German spelling reform, which adds another f to the "schifffahrt" element), while some longest-word candidates run as long as 80 characters.

Answer 2

is there really such a thing as the longest German word... das längste deutsche Wort? Some of the suggested "longest" words are artificial creations, never used in daily spoken or written German. German numbers and scientific terms also come into the running, but a word chosen in 1999 as the longest word for that year (see below) was a "legal" word in the true sense of the term, since it referred to a law for labeling meat. But even if we accept that 63-letter word, a German-speaking person could go a very long time without ever having to read it, much less use it!

Regardless...
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerk-
bauunterbeamtengessellschaft (one word, no hyphen)
(die, 80 letters) "association of subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services" (the name of a pre-war club in Vienna) - Not really useful...

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
(das, 63 letters) "beef labeling regulation & delegation of supervision law"
This was a 1999 German Word of the Year, and it also won a special award as the longest German word for that year. It refers to a "law for regulating the labeling of beef" - all in one word, which is why it is so long. German also likes abbreviations, and this word has one: ReÜAÜG.

Answer 3

There is no such thing as a longest word in german, german grammar allows for nouns to be put together into composites infinitely, so whichever word you're thinking of, theres always a way to make it even longer.

Answer 4

Donaudampfschiffahrts gesellschaftskapitän
Donaudampfschiffahrts gesellschaftskapitän, which in English becomes four words: "Danube steamship company captain." But that German word has a mere 41 letters (42 with German spelling reform, which adds another f to the "schifffahrt" element), while some longest-word candidates run as long as 80 characters.

I split it in two because then whole word will show for your answer

pneumonoultra microscopicsilicovolcanoconio sis, a 45-letter word in english which refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silicious particles I had to split the engligh word in 3 pts

Answer 5

There is not really a limit for it.... you can always create longer words by fusing more words, so if you count these words that consist of different fused words, there is no limit for the number and length of German words. So you just need to be creative to beat the records in word length.

However that are not words that you would find in a dictionary, you would just find their components there. Such very long words are also hardly used. This Rindfleisch.... word might be one of the longest that is really used officially.

Answer 6

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. It is 63 letters long making it the longest word in the german dictionary.

Answer 7

Donaudampfschiffgesellschaftsschiffkapitän.
Although Hitler's preferred word for a film projector comes a close second: Lichtbilderanderwandwerfer. Don't know if you got all that: It's Donaudampfschiffgesellschafts-
schiffskapitän.

Answer 8

I think that was never really decided...but one of them is...

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetzesvorlagendiskussionspausenverpflegungsbeauftragtenstatistikassistent


Rindfleisch - etikettierungs - ueberwachungs - aufgabenuebertragungs - gesetzesvorlagen - diskussions - pausenverpflegungs - beaufragten - statistik - assistent...

sorry...i wont translate it...hhhh its just tooo long...^ ^

Answer 9

It's impossible to say, but a good candidate may be:
Donaudampfschifffahrts -gesellschafts -kapitänsmützen -abzeichen -rückstand ...
(and it's possible to add some components)
...slösender -kleberestentferner.

Don't force me to translate it ;-)

Answer 10

I don´t know, but it will de interesting to find out what answers are given.