The Longest Words…

The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries at 45 letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which refers to a lung disease from inhalation of fine silica particles. The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English. The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. It is ‘the act of estimating something as worthless.’ The next longest word at 28 letters is antidisestablishmentarianism. Antidisestablishmentarianism is often accepted as the best-known ‘longest word.’

Twyndyllyngs, 12 letters long, is the longest word in the English language without any of the five main vowels. Euouae, a medieval musical term, at 6 letters long, is the longest English word consisting only of vowels, and, also, the English word with the most consecutive vowels. The longest word in the English language containing only one vowel is strengths. Uncopyrightable and dermatoglyphics at 15 letters each are the two longest English words containing no letter more than once. The longest word one is likely to encounter on an everyday basis is uncharacteristically at 20 letters. The longest word which appears in William Shakespeare’s works is the 27 letter honorificabilitudinitatibus, appearing in Love’s Labour’s Lost. There is some debate as to whether a place name is a legitimate word. The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu(85 letters), a Maori name for a hill in New Zealand.

Names of chemical compounds can be extremely long if written as one word. The longest word cited by the Guinness Book of Records, which represents the name for human mitochondrial DNA, is more than 207,000 letters long. The nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to words as Methionylthreonylthreonyl…isoleucine (189,819 letters), Methionylalanylthreonyl…leucine (64,060 letters), Methionylglutaminyl…serine (1913 letters), and Acetylseryltyrosylserylisol…serine (1185 letters. However, lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as verbal formulae rather than English words.

My favourite longest word in English: Smiles, and it’s a mile long. What’s yours?