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Longest word in French

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List of the longest words in french

This article lists some of the longest words in the French language.

As in many languages, chemical nomenclature may be used to construct indefinitely long chemical names (if referring to fictional molecules), and therefore is not on this list. The chemical name of titin could be translated, and therefore would be the longest technical word in the French language.

The longest word listed below, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobique (38 letters) means, ironically, "suffering form the fear (or phobia) of long words". The word is formed from the Latin word sesquipedalia (singular sesquipedalis), which the Ancient Roman poet Horace used in Ars Poetica to describe excessively long words; literally, it means "a foot-and-a-half long".

Like the other adejctives in the list, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobique can be pluralised by adding the letter s to the end. The adjective interdépartemental (18 letters), which also appears in the list, can be made longer by appending the letters es, which gives its plural, grammatically gendered form.

Long words

Word Letters Syllables Part of speech Translation Ref.
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobique 38 13 Adjective hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobic
dichlorodiphényltrichloroéthane 31 11 Noun dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
hexakosioihexekontahexaphobie 29 13 Noun hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
intergouvernementalisation 26 10 Noun intergovernmentalisation
anticonstitutionnellement 25 9 Adverb anticonstitutionally
apopathodiaphulatophobie 24 10 Noun apopathodiaphulatophobia
désinstitutionnalisation 24 9 Noun deinstitutionalization
autocheirothanatophobie 23 9 Noun autocheirothanatophobia
paraskevidékatriaphobie 23 10 Noun paraskavedekatriaphobia
dyspondéromorphophobie 22 8 Noun dysponderomorphophobia
magnétoplasmadynamique 22 9 Adjective Magnetoplasmadynamic
interdépartemental 18 7 Adjective interdepartmental
triskaïdekaphobie 17 6 Noun triskaidekaphobia

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Martin, Philippe (2018). "Groupes accentuels et phrasé". Intonation, structure prosodique et ondes cérébrales: introduction à l'analyse prosodique. Série Linguistique du langage oral (in French). London: ISTE Editions. ISBN 978-1-78405-370-3. OCLC 1033658031 – via Google Books.
  2. Case 2014, p. 86–87.
  3. Case 2014, pp. 27–28.
  4. George, Kenneth E. M. (1991). Néologismes du français contemporain. Datations et documents lexicographiques (in French). Klincksieck. p. 175. ISBN 978-2-252-02749-3. OCLC 256644341.
  5. Leconte, Bernard (2007). "Diafoirus en pleine forme". A la recherche du bon français (in French). Éditions Lanore. p. 57. ISBN 978-2-85157-301-8 – via Google Books.
  6. Case 2014, p. 34–35.
  7. Case 2014, p. 125.
  8. Case 2014, p. 65.
  9. "Interdépartemental". Le Dictionnaire. Retrieved 25 June 2018.

References

External links

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