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{{Short description|List of longest words in the English language}} | |||
The '''longest word in English''' depends upon the definition of what constitutes an ] ]. English allows new words to be formed by ]; long words are ]; ] may be considered words; ] may be arbitrarily long. Length can be in terms of ] and number of written ] or ] and the number of ]s. | |||
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}} | |||
The identity of the ] in ] depends on the definition of a ] and of length. | |||
Words may be derived naturally from ] or formed by ] and ]. Additionally, comparisons are complicated because ] may be considered words, ] may 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. | |||
{| align="center" border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 1em; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%" | |||
!Word !! Length !! Pros !! Cons | |||
|- | |||
The ''length'' of a word may also be understood in multiple ways. Most commonly, length is based on ] (conventional spelling rules) and counting the number of written ]. Alternate, but less common, approaches include ] (the spoken language) and the number of ] (sounds). | |||
|]||189,819 letters||Longest full chemical name of a protein<ref>http://s12.invisionfree.com/chibisboard/ar/t146.htm</ref>||Technical; not in a major dictionary | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right:auto; font-size:95%" | |||
|- | |||
!Word !! Letters | |||
!Meaning!! Claim !! Dispute | |||
|- | |||
|{{mono|]}}||189,819 | |||
|The chemical composition of ], the largest known protein||Longest known word overall by magnitudes. Attempts to say the entire word have taken two<ref>{{cite web |title=Reading The Longest English Word (190,000 Characters) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZVbzNRUlQI | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211110/IZVbzNRUlQI| archive-date=2021-11-10 | url-status=live|website=YouTube | date=2 June 2017 |access-date=2 August 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> to three and a half hours.<ref>{{Cite web|title=World's longest word takes 3.5 hours to pronounce|url=https://cw39.com/newsfix/worlds-longest-word-takes-3-5-hours-to-pronounce/|date=2012-12-08|website=CW39 Houston|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-18|archive-date=2020-05-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527051837/https://cw39.com/newsfix/worlds-longest-word-takes-3-5-hours-to-pronounce/|url-status=dead}}</ref>||Technical; not in dictionary; whether this should actually be considered a word is disputed | |||
|- | |||
|{{mono|]}}||1,909 | |||
|The chemical name of '']'' ] ({{Uniprot|P0A877}}) | |||
|Longest published word<ref name="P0A877">{{cite book |author=Moore |first=Colista |url=https://archive.org/details/studentsdictiona00coli/page/524/mode/2up |title=A Student's Dictionary & Gazetteer |date=1 January 2006 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-9771777-5-2 |edition=11th |location=] |page=524 |url-access=registration}}</ref>||Technical | |||
|- | |||
|{{mono|]}}||183 | |||
|A fictional dish of food||Longest word ] by a major author,<ref>see separate article ]</ref> the longest word ever to appear in literature<ref>{{cite book| author = Donald McFarlan|author2=Norris Dewar McWhirter |author3=David A. Boeh | title = Guinness book of world records: 1990| url = https://archive.org/details/guinnessbookofwo00don_0e9| url-access = registration| year = 1989| publisher = Sterling| isbn = 978-0-8069-5790-6| page = }}</ref>||Contrived ]; not in dictionary; ] transliteration | |||
|- | |||
|{{mono|]}}||45 | |||
|The disease ]||Longest word in a major dictionary<ref name="p45" />||Contrived coinage to make it the longest word; technical, but only mentioned and never actually used in communication | |||
|- | |- | ||
|{{mono|]}}||34 | |||
|]||85 letters||Longest officially recognized place name<ref>http://www.linz.govt.nz/apps/placenames/index.html?p=56389</ref>||Place name; not in a major dictionary | |||
|Unclear – generally understood as a positive adjective or a ]||Made popular in the ] and ]<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/origin-supercalifragilisticexpialidocious| title = Merriam Webster: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious}}</ref>||Contrived coinage | |||
|- | |- | ||
|{{mono|]}}||30 | |||
|]||45 letters||Longest word in a major dictionary<ref name="p45"/>||Technical; coined to be the longest word | |||
|A hereditary medical disorder||Longest non-contrived word in a major dictionary<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword |title=What is the longest English word? |publisher=AskOxford |access-date=2010-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022192048/http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword |archive-date=2008-10-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ||Technical | |||
|- | |- | ||
|{{mono|]}}||28 | |||
|]||30 letters||Longest non-coined word in a major dictionary ||Technical | |||
|The political position of opposing ]||Longest non-contrived and nontechnical word<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/longestword?view=uk|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131032923/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/longestword?view=uk|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2013|title=What is the longest English word?|work=oxforddictionaries.com}}</ref>||Not all dictionaries accept it due to lack of usage.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/no-antidisestablishmentarianism-is-not-in-the-dictionary| title = Merriam Webster: "Antidisestablishmentarianism is not in the dictionary."}}</ref> | |||
|- | |- | ||
|{{mono|]}}||27 | |||
|]||29 letters||Longest nontechnical word | |||
|The state of being able to achieve honors | |||
|Longest word in ]'s works; longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels<ref> fact 99. ''InnocentEnglish.com''. Retrieved 2019-03-13.</ref>||Latin | |||
|} | |} | ||
== Major dictionaries == | == Major dictionaries == | ||
The longest word in any of the major ] ] is '']'' (45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine ] particles,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0642240#m_en_gb0642240|title=pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in English from the Oxford dictionary|work=oxforddictionaries.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719114141/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis#m_en_gb0642240|archive-date=2012-07-19}}</ref> specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as ]. The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English,<ref name="p45">Coined 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 at ].</ref> and has since been used{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim. | |||
The longest word in any of the major ] ] is '']'', a 45-letter word which refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine ] particles specifically from a volcano. Research has discovered that this word was originally a ]. It has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim.<ref name="p45">See the separate article | |||
] for details.</ref> | |||
The '']'' contains '']'' (30 letters). | The '']'' contains '']'' (30 letters). | ||
'']'' does not contain ''antidisestablishmentarianism'' (28 letters), as the editors found no widespread, sustained usage of the word in its original meaning. The longest word in that dictionary is '']'' (27 letters).<ref>{{cite web|title=The Longest Word in the Dictionary|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0048-longest_word_in_dictionary.htm|work=Ask the Editor|publisher=]|access-date=14 November 2013|format=Video|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121212903/http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0048-longest_word_in_dictionary.htm|archive-date=21 November 2013}}</ref> | |||
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is '']'' 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.<ref>;</ref><ref>http://www.google.com/goodword/word/floccinaucinihilipilification "Floccinauci­nihili­pilification" Dr. Goodword ''Alpha Dictionary'']</ref><ref> | |||
The '']'', in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be ''floccinaucinihilipilification''. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged ''pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis''. </ref><ref> In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator ] Discussion 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 by ]'s press secretary ], 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."</ref> | |||
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is '']'' 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.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821091705/http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-flo2.htm |date=2006-08-21 }};</ref><ref>The '']'', in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to be ''floccinaucinihilipilification''. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged ''pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis''. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060826181850/http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword?view=uk |date=2006-08-26 }}</ref><ref>In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator ] Discussion 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 by ]'s press secretary ], 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."</ref> | |||
== Other notable long words == | |||
] has 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 are '']'' and '']'', with 22 letters each.<ref>Eckler, R. ''Making the Alphabet Dance'', p 252, 1996.</ref> | |||
'']'' (a nineteenth century movement in England opposed to the ]) at 28 letters is still in colloquial currency for being one of the longest words in the English language. But the use of additional suffixes could stretch the word to 'antidisestablishmentarianistically,' with 34 letters. See below: ]. | |||
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 is ''uncharacteristically'', at 20 letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maltron.com/words/words-longest-modern.html |title=Longest Common Words – Modern |publisher=Maltron.com |access-date=2010-08-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090427054251/http://www.maltron.com/words/words-longest-modern.html |archive-date=27 April 2009 }}</ref> | |||
The longest word which appears in ]'s works is the 27-letter '']'', appearing in '']''. This is arguably an English word (rather than ]), only because it was Shakespeare who used it. | |||
== Creations of long words == | |||
==Coinages== | |||
=== Coinages === | |||
In his play '']'' (''Ecclesiazousae''), the ] comedic playwright ] created: ], a word of 183 letters which describes a ] by stringing together its ingredients. | |||
In his play '']'' (''Ecclesiazousae''), the ] comedic playwright ] created a word of 171 letters (183 in the ] below), which describes a ] by stringing together its ingredients: | |||
<div style="overflow:auto"> | |||
:]. | |||
</div> | |||
]'s farce '']'' ( |
]'s farce '']'' (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?" | ||
] put these creations into the mouth of the phrenologist Mr. Cranium in his 1816 book '']'': ''osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous'' (44 characters) and ''osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary'' (51 characters). | |||
] made up nine 100 and one 101-letter words in his novel '']'', the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of ]. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. ] made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel '']'', when the protagonist was reading ''Finnegans Wake''. | |||
] made up nine 100-letter words plus one 101-letter word in his novel '']'', the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of ]. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. ] made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel '']'', when the protagonist was reading ''Finnegans Wake''. | |||
"]", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie '']'', does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a ] defined 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 songwriters ]. | |||
"]", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie '']'', does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a ] defined 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 songwriters ]. | |||
===Advertising coinages === | |||
In 1973, ]'s advertising agency ] used a 100-letter but several-word term "Lipsmackinthirstquenchinacetastinmotivatingoodbuzzincooltalkinhighwalkinfastlivinevergivincoolfizzin" in ]. <ref></ref> | |||
=== Agglutinative constructions === | |||
In 1975, the 71-letter (but several-word) advertising jingle ] was first used in a ] advertisement to describe the ] sandwich. <ref></ref> | |||
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 as ] construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes ''pseudo'' (false, spurious) and ''anti'' (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. In ], an 8192nd note may be called a ''{{not a typo|semihemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver}}''. | |||
'']'' is the longest common example of a word formed by ] construction. | |||
==Constructions== | |||
English is a language which permits the legitimate extension of existing words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. This is sometimes referred to as ] construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes ''pseudo'' (false, spurious) and ''anti'' (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. A word like '']'' (pertaining to the defense against aircraft) is easily extended to ''anti-anti-aircraft'' (pertaining to counteracting the defense against aircraft, a legitimate concept) and can from there be prefixed with an endless stream of "anti-"s, each time creating a new level of counteraction. More familiarly, the addition of numerous "great"s to a relative, e.g. great-great-great-grandfather, can produce words of arbitrary length. | |||
=== Technical terms === | |||
"]" is the longest common example of a word formed by ] construction, as follows (the numbers succeeding the word refer to the number of letters in the word): | |||
]'']] | |||
;''establish (9)'': to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin ''stare'', to stand) | |||
;''] (12)'': ending the established status of a body, in particular a church, given such status by law, such as the ] | |||
;''disestablish-ment (16)'': the separation of church and state (specifically in this context it is the political movement of the 1860s in Britain) | |||
;''anti-disestablishment (20)'': opposition to disestablishment | |||
;''antidisestablishment-arian (25)'': an advocate of opposition to disestablishment | |||
;''antidisestablishmentarian-ism (28)'': the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment | |||
Of course, the process need not stop there: prefixes like ''neo-'' and ''contra-'' can be added, or ''-istically'' can be used in place of ''-ism''. | |||
==Technical terms== | |||
A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words. | A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words. | ||
The ] nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name ''Methionyl{{shy}}threonyl{{nowrap|threonyl{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}iso}}{{shy}}leucine'' for the protein also known as ], 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,<ref>Paux et al. (2008) Science, Vol. 322 (5898) 101–104. A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B {{cite journal |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1161847 |doi=10.1126/science.1161847 |access-date=2012-12-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903222353/http://www.sciencemag.org/content/322/5898/101.full |archive-date=2015-09-03 |title=A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B |year=2008 |last1=Paux |first1=Etienne |last2=Sourdille |first2=Pierre |last3=Salse |first3=Jérôme |last4=Saintenac |first4=Cyrille |last5=Choulet |first5=Frédéric |last6=Leroy |first6=Philippe |last7=Korol |first7=Abraham |last8=Michalak |first8=Monika |last9=Kianian |first9=Shahryar |last10=Spielmeyer |first10=Wolfgang |last11=Lagudah |first11=Evans |last12=Somers |first12=Daryl |last13=Kilian |first13=Andrzej |last14=Alaux |first14=Michael |last15=Vautrin |first15=Sonia |last16=Bergès |first16=Hélène |last17=Eversole |first17=Kellye |last18=Appels |first18=Rudi |last19=Safar |first19=Jan |last20=Simkova |first20=Hana |last21=Dolezel |first21=Jaroslav |last22=Bernard |first22=Michel |last23=Feuillet |first23=Catherine |journal=Science |volume=322 |issue=5898 |pages=101–104 |pmid=18832645 |bibcode=2008Sci...322..101P |s2cid=27686615 }}</ref> so the sequence of one of its strands, if written out in full like ''Adenilyl{{shy}}adenilyl{{shy}}guanilyl{{shy}}cystidyl{{nowrap|thymidyl{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}}}'', would be about 8{{spaces}}billion letters long. The longest published word, ''Acetyl{{shy}}seryl{{shy}}tyrosyl{{shy}}seryl{{nowrap|iso{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}serine}}'', referring to the coat protein of a certain strain of ] ({{uniprot|P03575}}), is 1,185 letters long, and appeared in the ]'s ] in 1964 and 1966.<ref>''Chemical Abstracts Formula Index, Jan.–June 1964'', Page 967F; ''Chemical Abstracts 7th Coll. Formulas, C<sub>23</sub>H<sub>32</sub>-Z, 56–65, 1962–1966'', Page 6717F</ref> 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 the ''trpA'' protein ({{Uniprot|P0A877}}).<ref name=P0A877/> | |||
''Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis'' is sometimes cited as the longest ]—it is a kind of ]. However, this name, proposed by ], was invalidated by the ]. | |||
] and ] developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one ''{{Not a typo|sexmillia{{shy}}quingen{{shy}}sexagin{{shy}}tillion}}'', coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 10<sup>3(6560+1)</sup> = 10<sup>19683</sup>. Under the ], it would be 10<sup>6(6560)</sup> = 10<sup>39360</sup>.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Noll |first1=Landon Curt |title=How high can you count? |url=http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/number/howhigh.html |website=www.isthe.com |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=8 July 2022}}</ref> | |||
''Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic'', describing the ] waters at ], England, is attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737)<ref>cited in some editions of the ] as the longest word in English, see on the longest English word</ref>. The word is composed of the following elements: | |||
*Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo<ref>http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/morph.jsp?l=aequo&la=la</ref>) | |||
*Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus) | |||
*Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx) | |||
*Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, ''cera'') | |||
*Aluminoso: ] (Latin) | |||
*Cupreo: from "copper" | |||
*Vitriolic: resembling ] | |||
''{{visible anchor|Gammara{{shy}}canthus{{shy}}kyto{{shy}}dermo{{shy}}gammarus lori{{shy}}cato{{shy}}baica{{shy}}lensis}}'' is sometimes cited as the longest ]—it is a kind of ]. However, this name, proposed by ], was invalidated by the ] in 1929 after being petitioned by ] to take up the case.<ref>{{citation|mode=cs1|title=Opinions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: Opinions 105 to 114|chapter=Opinion 105. Dybowski's (1926) Names of Crustacea Suppressed|series=Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections|date=1929|volume=73|issue=6|pages=1–3|hdl-access=free|hdl=10088/23619|id={{BHL page|8911139}}}}</ref> | |||
John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one sexmilliaquingentsexagintillion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 10<sup>3(6560+1)</sup> = 10<sup>19683</sup>. In British usage, it would be 10<sup>6(6560)</sup> = 10<sup>39360</sup>. | |||
'']'' is the longest accepted binomial name for an organism. It is a bacterium found in soil collected at ] (discussed below). '']'' is the longest accepted binomial name for any animal, or any organism visible with the naked eye. It is a species of ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long428.html|title=World's longest name of an animal. Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Stratiomyid Fly Soldier Fly.|author=rjk|work=thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117001007/http://www.thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long428.html|archive-date=2011-11-17|access-date=2011-12-17}}</ref> The genus name '']'' (a fossil ], an extinct family of mammals related to ]s) is two letters longer, but does not contain a similarly long species name. | |||
Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one word, as is sometimes done. An example of this is sodiummetadiaminoparadioxyarsenobenzoemethylenesulphoxylate, an arsenic-containing drug. There are also other chemical naming systems, using numbers instead of "meta", "para" etc. as descriptive dividers, breaking up the name, which then no longer can be considered a single long word. One example, with 1,185 letters, is a chemical term referring to the coat protein of a certain strain of ]. | |||
''{{visible anchor|Aequeo{{shy}}salino{{shy}}calcalino{{shy}}ceraceo{{shy}}aluminoso{{shy}}cupreo{{shy}}vitriolic}}'', at 52 letters, describing the ] waters at ], England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).<ref>cited in some editions of the ] as the longest word in English, see on the longest English word</ref> The word is composed of the following elements: | |||
The ] nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl...isoleucine, the shortened version of a protein also known as ], or sometimes connectin, which is involved in striated muscle formation. Its chemical formula is C<sub>132983</sub>H<sub>211861</sub>N<sub>36149</sub>O<sub>40883</sub>S<sub>693</sub>. | |||
* Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo<ref>{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref>) | |||
* Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus) | |||
* Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx) | |||
* Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, ''cera'') | |||
* Aluminoso: ] (Latin) | |||
* Cupreo: from "copper" | |||
* Vitriolic: resembling ] | |||
== Notable long words == | |||
==Place names==<!-- This section is linked from ] --> | |||
=== Place names ===<!-- This section is linked from ]. --> | |||
There is some debate as to whether a place name is a legitimate word. | |||
]]] | |||
] in North ]]] | |||
{{Main|List of long place names}} | |||
The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is | |||
The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is ] (85 letters), which is a hill in ] (see the signpost photo on this page). The name is in the ]. There are several variant spellings of the name, including some that are longer. In Māori, the digraphs ''ng'' and ''wh'' are each treated as single letters. | |||
'']'' (85 letters) which is a hill in ]. | |||
In ], the longest place name is '']'', a ] in ], at 61 letters or 68 non-space characters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/info/trivia_e.php |title=GeoNames Government of Canada site |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206201115/http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/info/trivia_e.php |archive-date=2009-02-06 }}</ref> | |||
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is '']'', a lake in ], ]. It means "Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary" 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 known to Americans as Webster Lake. The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are '']'', a town in ], and '']'', a notable place in ] history. | |||
The 58-letter name '']'' is the name of a town on ], an island of ]. In terms of the traditional Welsh alphabet, the name is only 51 letters long, as certain digraphs in ] are considered as single letters, for instance ''ll'', ''ng'' and ''ch''. 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 is ''Llanfairpwllgwyngyll'', commonly abbreviated to ''Llanfairpwll'' or ''Llanfair PG''. | |||
] in North ]]] | |||
The 58-character name '']'' is the famous name of a town on ], an island of ]. This place's name is actually 51 letters long, as certain character groups in ] are considered as one letter, for instance ''ll'', ''ng'' and ''ch''. 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 is ''Llanfairpwllgwyngyll'', commonly abbreviated to ''Llanfairpwll'' or the somewhat jocular ''Llanfair PG''. | |||
The longest non-contrived place name in the United Kingdom which is a single non-hyphenated word is ] (19 letters) and the longest which is hyphenated is ] (29 characters). | |||
The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazd01?rec=204304|title=Geoscience Australia Gazeteer}}</ref> It is a ] word meaning "where the Devil urinates".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/pno/pnores.phtml?recno=SA0078626|title=South Australian State Gazeteer}}</ref> | |||
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is ''{{not a typo|]}}'', a lake in ], ]. 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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/national/20lake.html | work=The New York Times | first=Pam | last=Belluck | title=What's the Name of That Lake? It's Hard to Say | date=2004-11-20}}</ref> The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are '']'', a town in ], and '']'', a notable place in ] history. The longest single-word town names in the U.S. are ] and ]. | |||
In ], the longest English placename at 22 letters is ] (from the ], ''Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile'', meaning "pig-marsh between two saltwater inlets") in ]. If this is disallowed for being derived from Irish, or not a town, the longest at 19 letters is ] in ]. | |||
The longest official geographical name in Australia is ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazd01?rec=204304 |title=Geoscience Australia Gazetteer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001005330/http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazd01?rec=204304 |archive-date=2007-10-01 }}</ref> It has 26 letters and is a ] word meaning "where ] urinates".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/pno/pnores.phtml?recno=SA0078626 |title=South Australian State Gazetteer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001000850/http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/pno/pnores.phtml?recno=SA0078626 |archive-date=2007-10-01 }}</ref> | |||
It is questionable whether any of the above (with the exception of Newtownmountkennedy) are properly considered English words, being derived from ], ], Welsh, Aboriginal and Irish words respectively, or being a conjunction of individual English words. | |||
] is the longest single-word country name in English, and the second-longest is ]. | |||
{{See also|List of short place names}} | {{See also|List of short place names}} | ||
=== Personal names === | |||
==Scrabble== | |||
'']'' formerly contained a category for longest ] used. | |||
The longest hypothetically legal ] word in North American play is '']'' (28 letters). It is the plural of a word found in ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition'', which was the dictionary of reference in North American Scrabble play for words of at least 10 letters until ], ]. Naturally, this word is 'legal' in name only, since it would not fit on the board. There are many 15-letter words; the highest-scoring word on a Scrabble board is either ''benzoxycamphors'' (45) or ''sesquioxidizing'' (42). Because ''sesquioxidizing'' has the high-scoring Q and Z, it would score 62 × 27 = 1674 if played across an edge of the board with three triple word squares and two double letter squares involved. This is possible by the first player laying 'ox', the second player adding 'idizing' and the first player adding 'sesqui' to the beginning. ''Benzoxycamphors'' would score only 59 × 27 = 1593. ''Sesquioxidizing'' is not found in Webster's dictionary, although the roots of the word, ] and ], are.<ref>The Scrabble Omnibus, ], ISBN 0-00-218081-2</ref> | |||
* 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 {{not a typo|Wolfe{{shy}}schlegelstein{{shy}}hausenberger{{shy}}dorffvoraltern{{shy}}waren{{shy}}gewissenhaft{{shy}}schaferswessen{{shy}}schafewaren{{shy}}wohlgepflege{{shy}}und{{shy}}sorgfaltigkeit{{shy}}beschutzen{{shy}}von{{shy}}angreifen{{shy}}durch{{shy}}ihrraubgierigfeinde{{shy}}welche{{shy}}voraltern{{shy}}zwolftausend{{shy}}jahres{{shy}}vorandieerscheinen{{shy}}wander{{shy}}ersteer{{shy}}dem{{shy}}enschderraumschiff{{shy}}gebrauchlicht{{shy}}als{{shy}}sein{{shy}}ursprung{{shy}}von{{shy}}kraftgestart{{shy}}sein{{shy}}lange{{shy}}fahrt{{shy}}hinzwischen{{shy}}sternartigraum{{shy}}auf{{shy}}der{{shy}}suchenach{{shy}}diestern{{shy}}welche{{shy}}gehabt{{shy}}bewohnbar{{shy}}planeten{{shy}}kreise{{shy}}drehen{{shy}}sich{{shy}}und{{shy}}wohin{{shy}}der{{shy}}neurasse{{shy}}von{{shy}}verstandigmen{{shy}}schlichkeit{{shy}}konnte{{shy}}fortplanzen{{shy}}und{{shy}}sicher{{shy}}freuen{{shy}}anlebens{{shy}}langlich{{shy}}freude{{shy}}und{{shy}}ruhe{{shy}}mit{{shy}}nicht{{shy}}ein{{shy}}furcht{{shy}}vor{{shy}}angreifen{{shy}}von{{shy}}anderer{{shy}}intelligent{{shy}}geschopfs{{shy}}von{{shy}}hinzwischen{{shy}}sternartigraum,}} Senior (746 letters), also known as ]. | |||
* 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. | |||
==Words with certain characteristics of notable length== | |||
* The ] was challenged by parents Lasse Diding and Elisabeth Hallin, who proposed the given name "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" for their child (pronounced {{IPA|sv|ˈǎlːbɪn|}}, 43 characters), which was rejected by a ] in ], southern Sweden. | |||
*''Strengths'' is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel. | |||
*''Scraunched'' and ''schmaltzed'' are the longest ] words in current usage. | |||
*'']'', a ] musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the ]. (Although ''u'' was often used interchangeably with ''v'', and the variant "evovae" is occasionally used, the ''v'' in these cases would still be a vowel.) | |||
*The longest words with ] are '']'', ''misconjugatedly'' and ''uncopyrightables''. <ref>http://rinkworks.com/words/oddities.shtml</ref> | |||
*The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter '']'', a grass genus. | |||
*The longest words typable with only the left hand (using conventional hand placement on a ] keyboard) are ''tesseradecades'', ''aftercataracts''<ref>http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200319/000020031903A0436636.php</ref>, and the more common but sometimes hyphenated ''sweaterdresses''.<ref name="typewriter"></ref> | |||
*Conversely, using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is '']'', or, excluding ]s, '']''. | |||
*The longest ] word typable using only the top row of letters is '']''. In ] the word ''teetertotter'' (the equivalent of what is known as a ]) is longer, though it is sometimes hyphenated and is an unknown term outside of America. | |||
*The longest words typable by alternating left and right hands are ''antiskepticism'' and ''leucocytozoans'' respectively. <ref name="typewriter"/> | |||
*On a ] keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are ], Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep.<ref>http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/</ref> Kikuyu is in fact typed entirely with the index finger, and so naturally 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 is ']. | |||
*The longest word with the vowels in order is ''abstemiously''. Actually, ''abstemiously'' and ''facetiously'' are the only two English words with all five vowels and the ] ''y'' in order. | |||
* Lauwiliwilinukunukuoi’oi (the Longnose Butterflyfish, or ''Forcipiger flavissimus'') is, at 23 letters (24 counting the apostrophe), the longest animal name. | |||
=== Words with certain characteristics of notable length === | |||
*The longest word likely to be found in most households (outside of dictionaries) is "methylchloroisothiazolinone", an ingredient in most hair conditioners and some shampoos. {{Fact|date=September 2007}} | |||
{{original research|section|date=August 2017}} | |||
{{Main|List of the longest English words with one syllable}} | |||
* ''Schmaltzed'' and ''strengthed'' (10 letters) appear to be the longest ] words recorded in '']'', while ''scraunched'' and ''scroonched'' appear to be the longest ] words recorded in '']''; but ''squirrelled'' (11 letters) is the longest if pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in ''The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' and '']'' at ''squirrel'', and in ''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''). ''Schtroumpfed'' (12 letters) was coined by ], while ''broughammed'' (11 letters) was coined by ] after ''broughamed'' (10 letters) was coined by ]. | |||
* ''Strengths'' is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel letter.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-word-in-the-english-language-with-only-one-vowel/| title = Guinness Records}}</ref> | |||
* '']'', a ] musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply a ] consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the ]. (Although ''u'' was often used interchangeably with ''v'', and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the ''v'' in these cases would still be a vowel.) | |||
* The ]s with ] are ''subdermatoglyphic'', ''dermatoglyphics'', and ''uncopyrightable''.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://riddlesbrainteasers.com/longest-word-without-repeating-letters/| title = Longest Word Without Repeating Letters| date = December 2014}}</ref> | |||
* The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter '']'', a grass genus. However, this is arguably a ]. There are several six-letter English words with their letters in alphabetical order, including ''abhors'', ''almost'', ''begins'', ''biopsy'', ''chimps'' and ''chintz''.<ref name="typewriter" /> There are few 7-letter words, such as "billowy" and "beefily". The longest words whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order are ''sponged'', ''wronged'' and ''trollied''. | |||
* The longest word without any of the main five vowels but including Y: ''Twyndyllyng''.{{Main|English words without vowels}} | |||
* The longest words recorded in OED with each vowel only once, and in order, are ''abstemiously'', ''affectiously'', and ''{{not a typo|tragediously}}'' (OED). ''Fracedinously'' and ''gravedinously'' (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; ''Gadspreciously'', constructed from ''Gadsprecious'' (in OED), has fourteen letters. ''Facetiously'' is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all six vowels (counting ''y'' as a vowel). | |||
* The longest word without ] or ] is ''overnumerousnesses''. | |||
* The longest single ] word in English is ''rotavator'', another name for a ] for breaking and aerating soil. | |||
==== Typed words ==== | |||
==Humour== | |||
* The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a ] keyboard are '']'', '']'', '']'', '']''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200319/000020031903A0436636.php |title=Science Links Japan | Two Unique Aftercataracts Requiring Surgical Removal |publisher=Sciencelinks.jp |date=2009-03-18 |access-date=2010-08-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217081656/http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200319/000020031903A0436636.php |archive-date=2011-02-17 }}</ref> and the more common but sometimes hyphenated ''sweaterdresses''.<ref name="typewriter">{{cite web |url=http://www.questrel.com/records.html#spelling_typewriter_order |title=Typewriter Words |publisher=Questrel.com |access-date=2010-08-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927071605/http://www.questrel.com/records.html#spelling_typewriter_order |archive-date=2010-09-27 }}</ref> Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is '']'', or, excluding ]s, ''monimolimnion''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-monimolimnion.html?jse=0|title=Dictionary entry for monimolimnion, a word that, at 13 letters, is longer than any of the words linked in the source above|access-date=2009-08-15|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090909214139/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-monimolimnion.html?jse=0|archive-date=2009-09-09}}</ref> and ''phyllophyllin''. | |||
"Smiles" is humorously considered to be the longest word, as there is a ] between the two ''s''es. However, by this reckoning "beleaguered" would be the longest, as it has a ], which is about three miles. | |||
* The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: '']''. The word '']'' (used in ]) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen. | |||
* The longest using only the middle row is ''shakalshas'' (10 letters). Nine-letter words include ''flagfalls''; eight-letter words include ''galahads'' and ''alfalfas''. | |||
* Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fun-with-words.com/word_records.html |title=Word Records |publisher=Fun-with-words.com |access-date=2012-08-13 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826081140/http://www.fun-with-words.com/word_records.html |archive-date=2012-08-26 }}</ref> | |||
* The longest word typable by alternating left and right hands is ''antiskepticism''.<ref name="typewriter" /> | |||
* On a ] keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are ''epopoeia'', '']'', '']'', and ''quiaquia''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wordnik.com/lists/typewriter-words/ |title=Typewriter Words |publisher=Wordnik.com |access-date=2011-01-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717053017/http://www.wordnik.com/lists/typewriter-words/ |archive-date=2011-07-17 }}</ref> Other such long words are '']'', '']'', ''opaque'', and ''upkeep''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/ |title=The Dvorak Keyboard and You |publisher=Theworldofstuff.com |access-date=2010-08-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820154431/http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/ |archive-date=2010-08-20 }}</ref> ''Kikuyu'' is 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 is ]s. | |||
==See also== | == See also == | ||
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* ], longest published word in German | |||
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==References== | |||
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== External links == | |||
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{{Wiktionary category 2|Long English words}} | |||
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{{Spoken Misplaced Pages|En-Longest word in English.ogg|date=2011-01-08}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 04:46, 12 October 2024
List of longest words in the English languageThe identity of the longest word in English depends on the definition of a word and of length.
Words may be derived naturally from the language's roots or formed by coinage and construction. Additionally, comparisons are complicated because place names may be considered words, technical terms may 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.
The length of a word may also be understood in multiple ways. Most commonly, length is based on orthography (conventional spelling rules) and counting the number of written letters. Alternate, but less common, approaches include phonology (the spoken language) and the number of phonemes (sounds).
Word | Letters | Meaning | Claim | Dispute |
---|---|---|---|---|
methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl...isoleucine | 189,819 | The chemical composition of titin, the largest known protein | Longest known word overall by magnitudes. Attempts to say the entire word have taken two to three and a half hours. | Technical; not in dictionary; whether this should actually be considered a word is disputed |
methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl...serine | 1,909 | The chemical name of E. coli TrpA (P0A877) | Longest published word | Technical |
lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano...pterygon | 183 | A fictional dish of food | Longest word coined by a major author, the longest word ever to appear in literature | Contrived nonce word; not in dictionary; Ancient Greek transliteration |
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis | 45 | The disease silicosis | Longest word in a major dictionary | 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 a nonsense word | Made popular in the Mary Poppins film and musical | Contrived coinage |
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism | 30 | A hereditary medical disorder | Longest non-contrived word in a major dictionary | Technical |
antidisestablishmentarianism | 28 | The political position of opposing disestablishment | Longest non-contrived and nontechnical word | Not all dictionaries accept it due to lack of usage. |
honorificabilitudinitatibus | 27 | The state of being able to achieve honors | Longest word in Shakespeare's works; longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels | Latin |
Major dictionaries
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis. The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English, and 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 pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary does not contain antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters), as the editors found no widespread, sustained usage of the word in its original meaning. The longest word in that dictionary is electroencephalographically (27 letters).
The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries 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.
Ross Eckler has 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 are deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries, with 22 letters each.
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 is uncharacteristically, at 20 letters.
Creations of long words
Coinages
In his play Assemblywomen (Ecclesiazousae), the ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes created a word of 171 letters (183 in the transliteration below), which describes a dish by stringing together its ingredients:
Henry Carey's farce Chrononhotonthologos (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"
Thomas Love Peacock put these creations into the mouth of the phrenologist Mr. Cranium in his 1816 book Headlong Hall: osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 characters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 characters).
James Joyce made up nine 100-letter words plus one 101-letter word in his novel Finnegans Wake, the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of Adam and Eve. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. Sylvia Plath made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, when the protagonist was reading Finnegans Wake.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie Mary Poppins, does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a proper noun defined 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 songwriters Robert 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 as agglutinative construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes pseudo (false, spurious) and anti (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. In musical notation, an 8192nd note may be called a semihemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver.
Antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest common example of a word formed by agglutinative construction.
Technical terms
A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words.
The IUPAC nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name Methionylthreonylthreonyl . . . isoleucine for the protein also known as titin, 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, so the sequence of one of its strands, if written out in full like Adenilyladenilylguanilylcystidylthymidyl . . . , would be about 8 billion letters long. The longest published word, Acetylseryltyrosylseryliso . . . serine, referring to the coat protein of a certain strain of tobacco mosaic virus (P03575), is 1,185 letters long, and appeared in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts Service in 1964 and 1966. 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 the trpA protein (P0A877).
John Horton Conway and Landon Curt Noll developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one sexmilliaquingensexagintillion, coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 10 = 10. Under the long number scale, it would be 10 = 10.
Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus loricatobaicalensis is sometimes cited as the longest binomial name—it is a kind of amphipod. However, this name, proposed by B. Dybowski, was invalidated by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 1929 after being petitioned by Mary J. Rathbun to take up the case.
Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis is the longest accepted binomial name for an organism. It is a bacterium found in soil collected at Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (discussed below). Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides is the longest accepted binomial name for any animal, or any organism visible with the naked eye. It is a species of soldier fly. The genus name Parapropalaehoplophorus (a fossil glyptodont, an extinct family of mammals related to armadillos) is two letters longer, but does not contain a similarly long species name.
Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, at 52 letters, describing the spa waters at Bath, England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737). The word is composed of the following elements:
- Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo)
- Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus)
- Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx)
- Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, cera)
- Aluminoso: alumina (Latin)
- Cupreo: from "copper"
- Vitriolic: resembling vitriol
Notable long words
Place names
Main article: List of long place namesThe longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters), which is a hill in New Zealand (see the signpost photo on this page). The name is in the Māori language. There are several variant spellings of the name, including some that are longer. In Māori, the digraphs ng and wh are each treated as single letters.
In Canada, the longest place name is Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde, a township in Ontario, at 61 letters or 68 non-space characters.
The 58-letter name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the name of a town on Anglesey, an island of Wales. In terms of the traditional Welsh alphabet, the name is only 51 letters long, as certain digraphs in Welsh are considered as single letters, for instance ll, ng and ch. 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 is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, commonly abbreviated to Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG.
The longest non-contrived place name in the United Kingdom which is a single non-hyphenated word is Cottonshopeburnfoot (19 letters) and the longest which is hyphenated is Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe (29 characters).
The longest place name in the United States (45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, 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. The longest hyphenated names in the U.S. are Winchester-on-the-Severn, a town in Maryland, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, a notable place in Texas history. The longest single-word town names in the U.S. are Kleinfeltersville, Pennsylvania and Mooselookmeguntic, Maine.
The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya. It has 26 letters and is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning "where the Devil urinates".
Liechtenstein is the longest single-word country name in English, and the second-longest is Turkmenistan.
See also: List of short place namesPersonal names
Guinness World Records formerly contained a category for longest personal name used.
- 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 as Wolfe+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.
- The naming law in Sweden was 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 a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden.
Words with certain characteristics of notable length
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- Schmaltzed and strengthed (10 letters) appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in The Oxford English Dictionary, while scraunched and scroonched appear to be the longest monosyllabic words recorded in Webster's Third New International Dictionary; but squirrelled (11 letters) is the longest if pronounced as one syllable only (as permitted in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary at squirrel, and in Longman Pronunciation Dictionary). Schtroumpfed (12 letters) was coined by Umberto Eco, while broughammed (11 letters) was coined by William Harmon after broughamed (10 letters) was coined by George Bernard Shaw.
- Strengths is the longest word in the English language containing only one vowel letter.
- Euouae, a medieval musical term, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and the word with the most consecutive vowels. However, the "word" itself is simply a mnemonic consisting of the vowels to be sung in the phrase "seculorum Amen" at the end of the lesser doxology. (Although u was often used interchangeably with v, and the variant "Evovae" is occasionally used, the v in these cases would still be a vowel.)
- The longest words with no repeated letters are subdermatoglyphic, dermatoglyphics, and uncopyrightable.
- The longest word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops, a grass genus. However, this is arguably a proper noun. There are several six-letter English words with their letters in alphabetical order, including abhors, almost, begins, biopsy, chimps and chintz. There are few 7-letter words, such as "billowy" and "beefily". The longest words whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order are sponged, wronged and trollied.
- 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, are abstemiously, affectiously, and tragediously (OED). Fracedinously and gravedinously (constructed from adjectives in OED) have thirteen letters; Gadspreciously, constructed from Gadsprecious (in OED), has fourteen letters. Facetiously is among the few other words directly attested in OED with single occurrences of all six vowels (counting y as a vowel).
- The longest word without descenders or ascenders is overnumerousnesses.
- The longest single palindromic word in English is rotavator, another name for a rotary tiller for breaking and aerating soil.
Typed words
- The longest words typable with only the left hand using conventional hand placement on a QWERTY keyboard are tesseradecades, aftercataracts, dereverberated, dereverberates and the more common but sometimes hyphenated sweaterdresses. Using the right hand alone, the longest word that can be typed is johnny-jump-up, or, excluding hyphens, monimolimnion and phyllophyllin.
- The longest English word typable using only the top row of letters has 11 letters: rupturewort. The word teetertotter (used in North American English) is longer at 12 letters, although it is usually spelled with a hyphen.
- The longest using only the middle row is shakalshas (10 letters). Nine-letter words include flagfalls; eight-letter words include galahads and alfalfas.
- Since the bottom row contains no vowels, no standard words can be formed.
- The longest word typable by alternating left and right hands is antiskepticism.
- On a Dvorak keyboard, the longest "left-handed" words are epopoeia, jipijapa, peekapoo, and quiaquia. Other such long words are papaya, Kikuyu, opaque, and upkeep. Kikuyu is 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 is crwths.
See also
- Lipogram
- List of long species names
- List of the longest English words with one syllable
- Longest English sentence
- Longest word in French
- Longest word in Romanian
- Longest word in Spanish
- Longest word in Turkish
- Number of words in English
- Scriptio continua
- Sesquipedalianism
- Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, longest published word in German
References
- "Reading The Longest English Word (190,000 Characters)". YouTube. 2 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- "World's longest word takes 3.5 hours to pronounce". CW39 Houston. 2012-12-08. Archived from the original on 2020-05-27. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ Moore, Colista (1 January 2006). A Student's Dictionary & Gazetteer (11th ed.). Sullivan's Island: The Dictionary Project. p. 524. ISBN 978-0-9771777-5-2.
- see separate article Lopado...pterygon
- Donald McFarlan; Norris Dewar McWhirter; David A. Boeh (1989). Guinness book of world records: 1990. Sterling. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-8069-5790-6.
- ^ Coined 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 at pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
- "Merriam Webster: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
- "What is the longest English word?". AskOxford. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- "What is the longest English word?". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013.
- "Merriam Webster: "Antidisestablishmentarianism is not in the dictionary."".
- "Cool, Strange, and Interesting Facts," fact 99. InnocentEnglish.com. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-19.
- "The Longest Word in the Dictionary" (Video). Ask the Editor. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 21 November 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
- "Floccinaucinihilipilification" by Michael Quinion World Wide Words Archived 2006-08-21 at the Wayback Machine;
- The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and previous editions, declared the longest real word in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification. More recent editions of the book have acknowledged pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. What is the longest English word? - Oxford Dictionaries Online Archived 2006-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
- In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd Discussion 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 by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike 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."
- Eckler, R. Making the Alphabet Dance, p 252, 1996.
- "Longest Common Words – Modern". Maltron.com. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- Paux et al. (2008) Science, Vol. 322 (5898) 101–104. A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B Paux, 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. PMID 18832645. S2CID 27686615. Archived from the original on 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
- Chemical Abstracts Formula Index, Jan.–June 1964, Page 967F; Chemical Abstracts 7th Coll. Formulas, C23H32-Z, 56–65, 1962–1966, Page 6717F
- Noll, Landon Curt (8 July 2022). "How high can you count?". www.isthe.com. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- "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. BHL page 8911139.
- rjk. "World's longest name of an animal. Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Stratiomyid Fly Soldier Fly". thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - cited in some editions of the Guinness Book of Records as the longest word in English, see Askoxford.com on the longest English word
- "GeoNames Government of Canada site". Archived from the original on 2009-02-06.
- Belluck, Pam (2004-11-20). "What's the Name of That Lake? It's Hard to Say". The New York Times.
- "Geoscience Australia Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 2007-10-01.
- "South Australian State Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 2007-10-01.
- "Guinness Records".
- "Longest Word Without Repeating Letters". December 2014.
- ^ "Typewriter Words". Questrel.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-27. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- "Science Links Japan | Two Unique Aftercataracts Requiring Surgical Removal". Sciencelinks.jp. 2009-03-18. Archived from the original on 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
- "Dictionary entry for monimolimnion, a word that, at 13 letters, is longer than any of the words linked in the source above". Archived from the original on 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2009-08-15.
- "Word Records". Fun-with-words.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
- "Typewriter Words". Wordnik.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
- "The Dvorak Keyboard and You". Theworldofstuff.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
External links
Listen to this article (25 minutes) This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 8 January 2011 (2011-01-08), and does not reflect subsequent edits.(Audio help · More spoken articles)- A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia – Long words
- What is the longest English word?, AskOxford.com "Ask the Experts"
- What is the Longest Word?, Fun-With-Words.com
- Full chemical name of titin.
- Taxonomy of Wordplay