The Longest Word
By cheetahnc
@cheetahnc (414)
United States
7 responses
@Lecaro (1100)
• Romania
26 Jan 07
id a very good question
i think the longest word in the English dictionary is pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters) but i found more words: spectrophotofluorometrically (28 letters), hepaticocholangiogastrostomy (28 letters), psychoneuroendocrinological (27 letters) etc...
but i wonder, those who have englisy like a primary language, does they know how to write this words?
@cheetahnc (414)
• United States
26 Jan 07
thanks for responding those are really long words
1 person likes this
@Dreamarxx (134)
• Malaysia
28 Jan 07
Thats really amazing..How do you find for these words?Nice search..
@littlefranciscan (18327)
• United States
28 Jan 07
Taken From wilkepedia: "The longest word in any major English language dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, 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.[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 "
@marief2rnurse (2704)
• United States
28 Jan 07
What ever happened to
supercalifragelisticexpialidocious
:-)
@smacksman (6053)
•
27 Jan 07
For many years it was as in post 2 above but with 'anti' put in front.
I think that a lot of the medical ones are made in the US and as someone said, made to break records.
Silly really, because the word becomes unmanageable - difficult to read and difficult to say - not what language is all about ie. communication.
@dragonmojo (103)
• United States
18 Feb 07
I thought you were referring to the old joke about the word SMILES...
there's a MILE between the two S's.
That is longer than all the other responses!
@lindad (56)
• United Arab Emirates
26 Jan 07
I guess there are quite a few scientific terms that are awfully long. But as to what i have come across so far, i think its 'disestablishmentarianism'. Here's another cute little long word, 'incomprehensibilities', can't match up to the first one though.