What is the longest word in the English language?

Leading answer:
Most of the sources name "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis" or "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (there are discrepancies regarding the spelling) as the longest word in the English language, or at least the longest word to appear in standard (unabridged) dictionaries. This was first recognized as the longest word in the English language by the National Puzzlers' League at their 103rd semi-annual meeting in February 1935, as reported by the New York Herald Tribune on February 23, 1935.

Selected answers from the ETNI Community

(Thanks to all of you who sent in answers this time. Since there are so many answers, we are not able to post all of them here, but are posting only the first few sent in.)

Julie Stroli julie@netvision.net.il
1) It might be 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' (which appears in the Oxford English Dictionary http://www.dictionary.com/bookstore/oed.html), unless you want to count names of diseases

2)antidisestablishmentarianism ("opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England")
http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/faq/

3)Or perhaps smiles is the longest word, because there's a mile between the first letter and the last. http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/faq/l/longestword.html

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Bari Nirenberg" b_nirenberg@yahoo.com
The answer to this question depends on what you consider a "word". Names of chemicals and diseases (the technical terms) can be much longer than any word that you'd find in everyday usage. Most of the sources I found name "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis" or "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (there are discrepancies regarding the spelling) as the longest word in the English language, or at least the longest word to appear in standard (unabridged) dictionaries.This is supposedly a lung disease caused by volcanic dust, though several sources I found stated that the Oxford English Dictionary actually calls this a "fictitious" word. My own Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines it as "A pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust". This was first recognized as the longest word in the English language by the National Puzzlers' League at their 103rd semi-annual meeting in February 1935, as reported by the New York Herald Tribune on February 23, 1935.

If we don't include diseases, the longest "word" would be "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". This is actually a nonsense word, made famous by Walt Disney's 1964 movie, "Mary Poppins" (apparently, it was first used before the movie, as early as the 1940s). Apparently, some people now use a shortened version ("supercalifragilistic") to mean "amazingly excellent", though to be honest, I've never heard this. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" does not appear in my Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary or in the American Heritage Dictionary that comes with Microsoft Bookshelf, but it reportedly appears in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Another long word that I found was " floccinaucinihilipilification", which means "unimportance". I did find this one in the American Heritage Dictionary, though some of the sources that I read suggested that this, too, was created as a "nonsense" word in order to be the longest word in the English language.

The longest word I found that is actually considered to be a word by all sources (though it doesn't appear in my American dictionaries in this form) is "antidisestablishmentarianism", which means "opposition to the disestablishment (that word DOES appear in the American Heritage Dictionary) of the Church of England".

If we're going to say "anything goes" and count chemical names as words, then by far the longest word that I found was
Methionylglutaninylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalanylalanyl-
glutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalanylphenylalanyl-
valylprolylphenylalanylyallythreonylleucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucyl-
glutamylglutaminylserylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucyl-
glutamylalanylglycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucyl-
prolylphenylalanylserylaspartylprolylleucelalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreo-
nylisoleucylglutaminylasparaginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylphenyl-
alanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcysteinylphenyl-
alanylglutamylmethionylleucyalanylleucylisoleucylarginylgutaminyllysyl-
histidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylmethionyl-
tyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalylphenylalanylasparaginyllysysglycylisoleucyl-
aspartylglutamylphenylalanyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysysvalyl-
glycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglutaminyl-
glutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginyl-
histidylasparaginylvalylalanylprolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolyl-
prolylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminyliso-
leucylalanylseryltyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucyl-
serylarginylalanylglyclyvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginyalrginyl-
anylalanylleucylprolylleucylaspaaginylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucyllysyl-
glutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalanylprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenyl-
alanylglycylisoleucylserylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanyl-
isoleucylaspartylalanylglycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylseryl-
alanylisoleucylbalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginyl-
isoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethionylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalyl-
phenylalanylvalylgutaminylprolylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine

(I added line breaks so that no one will have to scroll 10 miles right to read that). According to Charles Memminger of Honolulu Lite, this word has 1,909 letters (I didn't count them) and it is a type of protein enzyme.

Sources:

James Lambert's Homepage http://www.webspinning.com.au/users1/lambertj/public_html/long.html

Triviastic http://www.triviastic.com/items/19.html

Linus Corner http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f95lith/longword.html

rec.puzzles archive http://ladybug.xs4all.nl/arlet/puzzles/sol.pl/language/english/spelling/longest

Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com//askeds/10-6-98askeds.phtml

Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/faq/l/longestword.html

Honolulu Lite Charles Memminger http://www.starbulletin.com/96/11/14/features/memminger.html

Uselessknowledge.com http://www.uselessknowledge.com/uk/search.cgi?query=longest+word

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1981)

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Microsoft Bookshelf 98

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Ruchie Avital rachela@haaretz.co.il

1> Floccipoccinihilipilification
Pronounced: flox-ee-pox-ee-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-cay-shun.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this is the longest word in the English language.
It means "the act of rendering as useless."
This word is one letter longer than antidisestablishmentarianism, and contains much fewer morphemes.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanicconiosis
[new-mono-ultra-micro-scopic-silico-volcanic-coniosis] Is the name of a lung disease caused by the inhilation of volcanic dust.
This can also be found in a (comprehensive) english dictionary, even though the Guinness Book of World Records pretends that it does not exist.
http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f95lith/longword.html

2. Today's Question:
What is the longest word in your dictionary?
The Answer:
The longest word in the Infoplease Dictionary is:
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
In a field of over 122,000 headwords, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis beats out its closest competitor (supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) by 11 letters.Other long words include:
antidisestablishmentarianism
floccinaucinihilipilification
trinitrophenylmethylnitramine

With the exception of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, these words are rarely seen in print and almost never heard in spoken English. http://www.infoplease.com//askeds/10-6-98askeds.phtml

3. A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, Page 11
PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS (45 letters; a lung disease caused by breathing in certain particles) is the longest word in any English-language dictionary. (It is also spelled -koniosis.)
On Feb. 23, 1935, the New York Herald-Tribune reported on page 3:
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis succeeded electrophotomicrographically as the longest word in the English language recognized by the National Puzzlers' League at the opening session of the organization's 103d semi-annual meeting held yesterday at the Hotel New Yorker.
The puzzlers explained that the forty-five-letter word is the name of a special form of silicosis caused by ultra-microscopic particles of siliceous volcanic dust.

The word appears in the 1936 Supplement to OED1, the OED2, the addendum to W2 (spelled -koniosis), W3 (spelled -coniosis), RHUD2, and Chambers.
The OED2 has: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (-koniosis), a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word.
1936 F. Scully Bedside Manna 87
*Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanakoniosis [sic], a disease caused by ultra-microscopic particles of sandy volcanic dust, might give even him laryngitis.
1966 Word Study Oct. 7/2 The resources of Greek have enriched the modern world as well as the ancient one. Perhaps this is most dramatically illustrated by the longest and most fantastic word now in an English dictionary (the Merriam-Webster?s great Unabridged) which is forty-five letters in length: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,..meaning 'a disease of the lungs caused by extremely small particles of ash and dust'.
1973 R. Megarry Second Miscellany-at-Law 160 It has been said that 'floccinaucinihilipilification' is the longest word in the English language... The word's proud title must yield to some technical terms, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words11.html

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