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Longest word in English

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The identity of thelongest wordinEnglishdepends on the definition of awordand of length.

Words may be derived naturally fromthe language's rootsor formed bycoinageandconstruction.Additionally, comparisons are complicated becauseplace namesmay be considered words,technical termsmay be arbitrarily long, and the addition of suffixes and prefixes may extend the length of words to create grammatically correct but unused or novel words. Different dictionaries include and omit different words.

Thelengthof a word may also be understood in multiple ways. Most commonly, length is based onorthography(conventional spelling rules) and counting the number of writtenletters.Alternate, but less common, approaches includephonology(the spoken language) and the number ofphonemes(sounds).

Word Letters Meaning Claim Dispute
methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl...isoleucine 189,819 The chemical composition oftitin,the largest known protein Longest known word overall by magnitudes. Attempts to say the entire word have taken two[1]to three and a half hours.[2] Technical; not in dictionary; whether this should actually be considered a word is disputed
methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl...serine 1,909 The chemical name ofE. coliTrpA(P0A877) Longest published word[3] Technical
lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano...pterygon 183 A fictional dish of food Longest wordcoinedby a major author,[4]the longest word ever to appear in literature[5] Contrivednonce word;not in dictionary;Ancient Greektransliteration
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis 45 The diseasesilicosis Longest word in a major dictionary[6] Contrived coinage to make it the longest word; technical, but only mentioned and never actually used in communication
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 34 Unclear – generally understood as a positive adjective or anonsense word Made popular in theMary Poppinsfilmandmusical[7] Contrived coinage
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism 30 A hereditary medical disorder Longest non-contrived word in a major dictionary[8] Technical
antidisestablishmentarianism 28 The political position of opposingdisestablishment Longest non-contrived and nontechnical word[9] Not all dictionaries accept it due to lack of usage.[10]
honorificabilitudinitatibus 27 The state of being able to achieve honors Longest word inShakespeare's works; longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels[11] Latin

Major dictionaries

The longest word in any of the majorEnglish languagedictionariesispneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis(45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very finesilicaparticles,[12]specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same assilicosis.The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English,[6]and has since been used[citation needed]in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.

TheOxford English Dictionarycontainspseudopseudohypoparathyroidism(30 letters).

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionarydoes not containantidisestablishmentarianism(28 letters), as the editors found no widespread, sustained usage of the word in its original meaning. The longest word in that dictionary iselectroencephalographically(27 letters).[13]

The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries isflocci­nauci­nihili­pili­ficationat 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.[14][15][16]

Ross Ecklerhas noted that most of the longest English words are not likely to occur in general text, meaning non-technical present-day text seen by casual readers, in which the author did not specifically intend to use an unusually long word. According to Eckler, the longest words likely to be encountered in general text aredeinstitutionalizationandcounterrevolutionaries,with 22 letters each.[17]

A computer study of over a million samples of normal English prose found that the longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday basis isuncharacteristically,at 20 letters.[18]

Creations of long words

Coinages

In his playAssemblywomen(Ecclesiazousae), theancient Greekcomedic playwrightAristophanescreated a word of 171 letters (183 in thetransliterationbelow), which describes adishby stringing together its ingredients:

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

Thomas Love Peacockput these creations into the mouth of the phrenologist Mr. Cranium in his 1816 bookHeadlong Hall:osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous(44 characters) andosseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary(51 characters).

James Joycemade up nine 100-letter words plus one 101-letter word in his novelFinnegans Wake,the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall ofAdam and Eve.As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word.Sylvia Plathmade mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novelThe Bell Jar,when the protagonist was readingFinnegans Wake.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious",the 34-letter title of a song from the movieMary Poppins,does appear in several dictionaries, but only as aproper noundefined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is "a word that you say when you don't know what to say." The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwritersRobert and Richard Sherman.

Agglutinative constructions

The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. This is sometimes referred to asagglutinativeconstruction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixespseudo(false, spurious) andanti(against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. More familiarly, the addition of numerous "great" s to a relative, such as "great-great-great-great-grandparent", can produce words of arbitrary length. Inmusical notation,an 8192nd note may be called asemihemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver.

Antidisestablishmentarianismis the longest common example of a word formed byagglutinativeconstruction.

Technical terms

Para­stratio­sphe­com­yia stratio­sphe­com­yioi­des

A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words.

TheIUPACnomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical nameMethionyl­threonylthreonyl . . . iso­leucinefor the protein also known astitin,which is involved in striated muscle formation. In nature, DNA molecules can be much bigger than protein molecules and therefore potentially be referred to with much longer chemical names. For example, the wheat chromosome 3B contains almost 1 billion base pairs,[19]so the sequence of one of its strands, if written out in full likeAdenilyl­adenilyl­guanilyl­cystidylthymidyl . . . ,would be about 8billion letters long. The longest published word,Acetyl­seryl­tyrosyl­seryliso . . . serine,referring to the coat protein of a certain strain oftobacco mosaic virus(P03575), is 1,185 letters long, and appeared in theAmerican Chemical Society'sChemical Abstracts Servicein 1964 and 1966.[20]In 1965, the Chemical Abstracts Service overhauled its naming system and started discouraging excessively long names. In 2011, a dictionary broke this record with a 1909-letter word describing thetrpAprotein (P0A877).[3]

John Horton ConwayandLandon Curt Nolldeveloped an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which onesexmillia­quingen­sexagin­tillion,coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 103(6560+1)= 1019683.Under thelong number scale,it would be 106(6560)= 1039360.[21]

Gammara­canthus­kyto­dermo­gammarus lori­cato­baica­lensisis sometimes cited as the longestbinomial name—it is a kind ofamphipod.However, this name, proposed byB. Dybowski,was invalidated by theInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclaturein 1929 after being petitioned byMary J. Rathbunto take up the case.[22]

Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensisis the longest accepted binomial name for an organism. It is a bacterium found in soil collected atLlan­fair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­(discussed below).Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioidesis the longest accepted binomial name for any animal, or any organism visible with the naked eye. It is a species ofsoldier fly.[23]The genus nameParapropalaehoplophorus(a fossilglyptodont,an extinct family of mammals related toarmadillos) is two letters longer, but does not contain a similarly long species name.

Aequeo­salino­calcalino­ceraceo­aluminoso­cupreo­vitriolic,at 52 letters, describing thespawaters atBath,England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).[24]The word is composed of the following elements:

  • Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo[25])
  • Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus)
  • Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
  • Ceraceo: waxy (Latin,cera)
  • Aluminoso:alumina(Latin)
  • Cupreo: from "copper"
  • Vitriolic: resemblingvitriol

Notable long words

Place names

The sign atTaumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu
The station sign atLlan­fair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­gogery­chwyrn­drob­wlll­lanty­silio­gogo­gochin NorthWales
Main article:List of long place names

The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country isTaumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu(85 letters), which is a hill inNew Zealand(see the signpost photo on this page). The name is in theMāori language.There are several variant spellings of the name, including some that are longer. In Māori, the digraphsngandwhare each treated as single letters.

InCanada,the longest place name isDysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde,atownshipinOntario,at 61 letters or 68 non-space characters.[26]

The 58-letter nameLlan­fair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­gogery­chwyrn­drob­wlll­lanty­silio­gogo­gochis the name of a town onAnglesey,an island ofWales.In terms of the traditional Welsh Alpha bet, the name is only 51 letters long, as certain digraphs inWelshare considered as single letters, for instancell,ngandch.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 isLlanfairpwllgwyngyll,commonly abbreviated toLlanfairpwllorLlanfair PG.

The longest non-contrived place name in the United Kingdom which is a single non-hyphenated word isCottonshopeburnfoot(19 letters) and the longest which is hyphenated isSutton-under-Whitestonecliffe(29 characters).

The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) isChar­gogga­gogg­man­chau­ggagogg­chau­buna­gunga­maugg,a lake inWebster,Massachusetts.It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries – Neutral Meeting Grounds" and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake is also known as Webster Lake.[27]The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. areWinchester-on-the-Severn,a town inMaryland,andWashington-on-the-Brazos,a notable place inTexashistory. The longest single-word town names in the U.S. areKleinfeltersville, PennsylvaniaandMooselookmeguntic, Maine.

The longest official geographical name in Australia isMa­mungku­kumpu­rang­kunt­junya.[28]It has 26 letters and is aPitjantjatjaraword meaning "wherethe Devilurinates ".[29]

Liechtensteinis the longest single-word country name in English, and the second-longest isTurkmenistan.

See also:List of short place names

Personal names

Guinness World Recordsformerly contained a category for longestpersonal nameused.

  • From about 1975 to 1985, the recordholder was Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegelstein­hausenberger­dorffvoraltern­waren­gewissenhaft­schaferswessen­schafewaren­wohlgepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihrraubgierigfeinde­welche­voraltern­zwolftausend­jahres­vorandieerscheinen­wander­ersteer­dem­enschderraumschiff­gebrauchlicht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraftgestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartigraum­auf­der­suchenach­diestern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neurasse­von­verstandigmen­schlichkeit­konnte­fortplanzen­und­sicher­freuen­anlebens­langlich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartigraum, Senior (746 letters), also known asWolfe+585, Senior.
  • After 1985 Guinness briefly awarded the record to a newborn girl with a longer name. The category was removed shortly afterward.

Long birth names are often coined in protest of naming laws or for other personal reasons.

  • Thenaming law in Swedenwas challenged by parents Lasse Diding and Elisabeth Hallin, who proposed the given name "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" for their child (pronounced[ˈǎlːbɪn],43 characters), which was rejected by adistrict courtinHalmstad,southern Sweden.

Words with certain characteristics of notable length

Main article:List of the longest English words with one syllable
  • Schmaltzedandstrengthed(10 letters) appear to be the longestmonosyllabicwords recorded inThe Oxford English Dictionary,whilescraunchedandscroonchedappear to be the longestmonosyllabicwords recorded inWebster's Third New International Dictionary;butsquirrelled(11 letters) is the longest if pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted inThe Shorter Oxford English DictionaryandMerriam-Webster Online Dictionaryatsquirrel,and inLongman Pronunciation Dictionary).Schtroumpfed(12 letters) was coined byUmberto Eco,whilebroughammed(11 letters) was coined byWilliam Harmonafterbroughamed(10 letters) was coined byGeorge Bernard Shaw.
  • Strengthsis the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel letter.[30]
  • Euouae,amedievalmusical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply amnemonicconsisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of thelesser doxology.(Althoughuwas often used interchangeably withv,and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, thevin these cases would still be a vowel.)
  • Thelongest wordswithno repeated lettersaresubdermatoglyphic,dermatoglyphics,anduncopyrightable.[31]
  • The longest word whose letters are in Alpha betical order is the eight-letterAegilops,a grass genus. However, this is arguably aproper noun.There are several six-letter English words with their letters in Alpha betical order, includingabhors,almost,begins,biopsy,chimpsandchintz.[32]There are few 7-letter words, such as "billowy" and "beefily". The longest words whose letters are in reverse Alpha betical order aresponged,wrongedandtrollied.
  • The longest word without any of the main five vowels but including Y:Twyndyllyng.
    Main article:English words without vowels
  • The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, areabstemiously,affectiously,andtragediously(OED).Fracedinouslyandgravedinously(constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters;Gadspreciously,constructed fromGadsprecious(in OED), has fourteen letters.Facetiouslyis among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all six vowels (countingyas a vowel).
  • The longest word withoutdescendersorascendersisovernumerousnesses.
  • The longest singlepalindromicword in English isrotavator,another name for arotary tillerfor breaking and aerating soil.

Typed words

  • The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on aQWERTYkeyboard aretesseradecades,aftercataracts,dereverberated,dereverberates[33]and the more common but sometimes hyphenatedsweaterdresses.[32]Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed isjohnny-jump-up,or, excludinghyphens,monimolimnion[34]andphyllophyllin.
  • The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters:rupturewort.The wordteetertotter(used inNorth American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
  • The longest using only the middle row isshakalshas(10 letters). Nine-letter words includeflagfalls;eight-letter words includegalahadsandalfalfas.
  • Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed.[35]
  • The longest word typable by alternating left and right hands isantiskepticism.[32]
  • On aDvorakkeyboard, the longest "left-handed" words areepopoeia,jipijapa,peekapoo,andquiaquia.[36]Other such long words arepapaya,Kikuyu,opaque,andupkeep.[37]Kikuyuis typed entirely with the index finger, and so the longest one-fingered word on the Dvorak keyboard. There are no vowels on the right-hand side, and so the longest "right-handed" word iscrwths.

See also

References

  1. ^"Reading The Longest English Word (190,000 Characters)".YouTube.2 June 2017.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-11-10.Retrieved2 August2020.
  2. ^"World's longest word takes 3.5 hours to pronounce".CW39 Houston.2012-12-08. Archived fromthe originalon 2020-05-27.Retrieved2020-05-18.
  3. ^abMoore, Colista (1 January 2006).A Student's Dictionary & Gazetteer(11th ed.).Sullivan's Island:The Dictionary Project.p. 524.ISBN978-0-9771777-5-2.
  4. ^see separate articleLopado...pterygon
  5. ^Donald McFarlan; Norris Dewar McWhirter; David A. Boeh (1989).Guinness book of world records: 1990.Sterling. p.129.ISBN978-0-8069-5790-6.
  6. ^abCoined around 1935 to be the longest word; press reports on puzzle league members legitimized it somewhat. First appeared in the MWNID supplement, 1939. Today OED and several others list it, but citations are almost always as "longest word". More detail atpneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
  7. ^"Merriam Webster: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
  8. ^"What is the longest English word?".AskOxford. Archived fromthe originalon 2008-10-22.Retrieved2010-08-22.
  9. ^"What is the longest English word?".oxforddictionaries.Archived fromthe originalon January 31, 2013.
  10. ^"Merriam Webster:" Antidisestablishmentarianism is not in the dictionary. "".
  11. ^"Cool, Strange, and Interesting Facts,"fact 99.InnocentEnglish.Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  12. ^"pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in English from the Oxford dictionary".oxforddictionaries.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-07-19.
  13. ^"The Longest Word in the Dictionary"(Video).Ask the Editor.Merriam-Webster.Archivedfrom the original on 21 November 2013.Retrieved14 November2013.
  14. ^"Floccinaucinihilipilification" by Michael QuinionWorld Wide WordsArchived2006-08-21 at theWayback Machine;
  15. ^TheGuinness Book of Records,in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to befloccinaucinihilipilification.More recent editions of the book have acknowledgedpneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.What is the longest English word? - Oxford Dictionaries OnlineArchived2006-08-26 at theWayback Machine
  16. ^In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by SenatorRobert ByrdDiscussion between Sen. Moynihan and Sen. Byrd "Mr. President, may I say to the distinguished Senator from New York, I used that word on the Senate floor myself 2 or 3 years ago. I cannot remember just when or what the occasion was, but I used it on that occasion to indicate that whatever it was I was discussing it was something like a mere trifle or nothing really being of moment." Congressional Record June 17, 1991, p. S7887, and at the White House byBill Clinton's press secretaryMike McCurry,albeit sarcastically. December 6, 1995, White House Press Briefing in discussing Congressional Budget Office estimates and assumptions: "But if you – as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification going on here."
  17. ^Eckler, R.Making the Alphabet Dance,p 252, 1996.
  18. ^"Longest Common Words – Modern".Maltron. Archived fromthe originalon 27 April 2009.Retrieved2010-08-22.
  19. ^Paux et al. (2008) Science, Vol. 322 (5898) 101–104. A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3BPaux, Etienne; Sourdille, Pierre; Salse, Jérôme; Saintenac, Cyrille; Choulet, Frédéric; Leroy, Philippe; Korol, Abraham; Michalak, Monika; Kianian, Shahryar; Spielmeyer, Wolfgang; Lagudah, Evans; Somers, Daryl; Kilian, Andrzej; Alaux, Michael; Vautrin, Sonia; Bergès, Hélène; Eversole, Kellye; Appels, Rudi; Safar, Jan; Simkova, Hana; Dolezel, Jaroslav; Bernard, Michel; Feuillet, Catherine (2008)."A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B".Science.322(5898): 101–104.Bibcode:2008Sci...322..101P.doi:10.1126/science.1161847.PMID18832645.S2CID27686615.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-09-03.Retrieved2012-12-01.
  20. ^Chemical Abstracts Formula Index, Jan.–June 1964,Page 967F;Chemical Abstracts 7th Coll. Formulas, C23H32-Z, 56–65, 1962–1966,Page 6717F
  21. ^Noll, Landon Curt (8 July 2022)."How high can you count?".isthe.Retrieved2 September2024.
  22. ^"Opinion 105. Dybowski's (1926) Names of Crustacea Suppressed".Opinions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: Opinions 105 to 114.Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 73. 1929. pp. 1–3.hdl:10088/23619.BHLpage 8911139.
  23. ^rjk."World's longest name of an animal. Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Stratiomyid Fly Soldier Fly".thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.Archived from the original on 2011-11-17.Retrieved2011-12-17.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  24. ^cited in some editions of theGuinness Book of Recordsas the longest word in English, seeAskoxfordon the longest English word
  25. ^[1][dead link‍]
  26. ^"GeoNames Government of Canada site".Archived fromthe originalon 2009-02-06.
  27. ^Belluck, Pam (2004-11-20)."What's the Name of That Lake? It's Hard to Say".The New York Times.
  28. ^"Geoscience Australia Gazetteer".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-10-01.
  29. ^"South Australian State Gazetteer".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-10-01.
  30. ^"Guinness Records".
  31. ^"Longest Word Without Repeating Letters".December 2014.
  32. ^abc"Typewriter Words".Questrel.Archivedfrom the original on 2010-09-27.Retrieved2010-08-22.
  33. ^"Science Links Japan | Two Unique Aftercataracts Requiring Surgical Removal".Sciencelinks.jp. 2009-03-18. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-02-17.Retrieved2010-08-22.
  34. ^"Dictionary entry for monimolimnion, a word that, at 13 letters, is longer than any of the words linked in the source above".Archivedfrom the original on 2009-09-09.Retrieved2009-08-15.
  35. ^"Word Records".Fun-with-words.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-08-26.Retrieved2012-08-13.
  36. ^"Typewriter Words".Wordnik.Archivedfrom the original on 2011-07-17.Retrieved2011-01-15.
  37. ^"The Dvorak Keyboard and You".Theworldofstuff. Archived fromthe originalon 2010-08-20.Retrieved2010-08-22.
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