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Re: Longest English words

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:20:33 GMT

Words

What is the longest English word containing no letter more than once?

There are two 15-letter words that we know of: uncopyrightable and dermatoglyphics.

What is the longest English word?

We do have genuine (if rather obviously deliberate) examples in our files of antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters) and floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters), which are listed in some of our larger dictionaries. Other words (mainly technical ones) recorded in the complete Oxford English Dictionary include:

otorhinolaryngological (22 letters),
immunoelectrophoretically (25 letters),
psychophysicotherapeutics (25 letters),
thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters),
pneumoencephalographically (26 letters),
radioimmunoelectrophoresis (26 letters),
psychoneuroendocrinological (27 letters)
hepaticocholangiogastrostomy (28 letters),
spectrophotofluorometrically (28 letters),
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters).

Most of the words which are given as 'the longest word' are merely inventions, and when they occur it is almost always as examples of long words, rather than as genuine examples of use. For example, the medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas (honourableness) was listed by some old dictionaries in the English form honorificabilitudinity (22 letters), but it has never really been in use. The longest word currently listed in Oxford dictionaries is rather of this kind: it is the supposed lung-disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters).

In Voltaire's Candide, Pangloss is supposed to have given lectures on metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology (34 letters). In Thomas Love Peacock's satirical novel Headlong Hall (1816) there appear two high-flown nonce words (one-off coinages) which describe the human body by stringing together adjectives describing its various tissues. The first is based on Greek words, and the second on the Latin equivalents; they are osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 letters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 letters), which translate roughly as 'of bone, flesh, blood, organs, gristle, nerve, and marrow'.

Some editions of the Guinness Book of Records mention praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters), used in Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963), and aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic (52 letters), attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737).

This kind of verbal game originates, so far as records attest, with the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, inventor of Cloud-Cuckoo-Land (Nephelokokkygia).

The formal names of chemical compounds are almost unlimited in length (for example, aminoheptafluorocyclotetraphosphonitrile, 40 letters), but longer ones tend to be sprinkled with numerals, Roman and Greek letters, and other arcane symbols. Dictionary writers tend to regard such names as 'verbal formulae', rather than as English words

What is the name for a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet?

These things are called pangrams, and the most famous is the one typists use to test their keyboards: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. We don't know of a sentence that only uses each letter once, but there is a 28-letter example that uses the letters "i" and "u" twice: Brick quiz whangs jumpy veldt fox.

What comes after primary, secondary, tertiary?

The sequence continues with quaternary, quinary, senary, septenary, octonary, nonary, denary. Words also exist for `twelfth order' (duodenary) and `twentieth order' (vigenary).

Chemical Terms

Two chemical terms (3,641 and 1,913 letters long) have appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records. They were withdrawn because they have never been used by chemists, and there is no theoretical limit to the length of possible legitimate chemical terms. A DNA molecule could have a name of over 1,000,000,000 letters if it was written out in full. (1,185) ACETYLSERYLTYROSYLSERYLISOLEUCYLTHREONYLSERYLPROLYLSERYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLVALYLPHENYLALANYLLEUCYLSERYLSERYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLALANYLASPARTYLPROLYLISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLLEUCYLLEUCYLASPARAGINYLVALYLCYSTEINYLTHREONYLSERYLSERYLLEUCYLGLYCYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLGLUTAMINYLTHREONYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLALANYLARGINYLTHREONYLTHREONYLGLUTAMINYLVALYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLSERYLGLUTAMINYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLLYSYLPROLYLPHENYLALANYLPROLYLGLUTAMINYLSERYLTHREONYLVALYLARGINYLPHENYLALANYLPROLYLGLYCYLASPARTYLVALYLTYROSYLLYSYLVALYLTYROSYLARGINYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYLALANYLVALYLLEUCYLASPARTYLPROLYLLEUCYLISOLEUCYLTHREONYLALANYLLEUCYLLEUCYLGLYCYLTHREONYLPHENYLALANYLASPARTYLTHREONYLARGINYLASPARAGINYLARGINYLISOLEUCYLISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLVALYLGLUTAMYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLSERYLPROLYLTHREONYLTHREONYLALANYLGLUTAMYLTHREONYLLEUCYLASPARTYLALANYLTHREONYLARGINYLARGINYLVALYLASPARTYLASPARTYLALANYLTHREONYLVALYLALANYLISOLEUCYLARGINYLSERYLALANYLASPARAGINYLISOLEUCYLASPARAGINYLLEUCYLVALYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMYLLEUCYLVALYLARGINYLGLYCYLTHREONYLGLYCYLLEUCYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLASPARAGINYLTHREONYLPHENYLALANYLGLUTAMYLSERYLMETHIONYLSERYLGLYCYLLEUCYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLTHREONYLSERYLALANYLPROLYLALANYLSERINE = Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Dahlemense Strain.
This word has appeared in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts and is thus considered by some to be the longest real word. (39) TETRAMETHYLDIAMINOBENZHYDRYLPHOSPHINOUS = a type of acid.
This is the longest chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.). It does not have its own entry but appears under a citation for another word. (37) FORMALDEHYDETETRAMETHYLAMIDOFLUORIMUM
Chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.). (37) DIMETHYLAMIDOPHENYLDIMETHYLPYRAZOLONE
Chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.). (31) DICHLORODIPHENYLTRICHLOROETHANE = a pesticide used to kill lice; abbrv. DDT.
It is the longest word in the Macquarie Dictionary and is also in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.). (29) TRINITROPHENYLMETHYLNITRAMINE = a type of explosive.
This is the longest chemical term in Webster's Dictionary (3rd Ed.). (27) ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATE
The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), joint with electroencephalographically (see above). (26) ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETIC = a type of acid; abbrv. EDTA.
This word appears in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.).

Place Names

There are many long place names around the world. Here are a few of the largest. (85) TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUOTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKIMAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU
A hill in New Zealand. This Maori name was in general use, but is now generally abbreviated to Taumata. The name means: the summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one. (66) GORSAFAWDDACHAIDRAIGODANHEDDOGLEDDOLONPENRHYNAREURDRAETHCEREDIGION
A town in Wales. The name means: the Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan bay. (58) LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
A town in North Wales. The name roughly translates as: St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. (41) CHARGOGAGOGMANCHARGOGAGOGCHARBUNAGUNGAMOG
Another name for Lake Webster in Massachusetts. Probably the longest name in the United States. Alternative spellings are:
(44) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMOGG,
(45) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG,
(44) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHABUNAGUNGAMAUGG. (23) NUNATHLOOGAGAMIUTBINGOI
The Eskimo name for some dunes in Alaska, according to The Book of Names by J. N. Hook.

Longest Words

(45) PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS (also spelled PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOKONIOSIS) = a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust.
This is the longest word in any English dictionary. However, it was coined by Everett Smith, the President of The National Puzzlers' League, in 1935 purely for the purpose of inventing a new "longest word". The Oxford English Dictionary described the word as factitious. Nevertheless it also appears in the Webster's, Random House, and Chambers dictionaries. (37) HEPATICOCHOLANGIOCHOLECYSTENTEROSTOMIES = a surgical creation of a connection between the gall bladder and a hepatic duct and between the intestine and the gall bladder.
This is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary. (34) SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS = song title from the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins.
It is in the Oxford English Dictionary. "But then one day I learned a word
That saved me achin' nose,
The biggest word you ever 'eard,
And this is 'ow it goes:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"(30) HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPEDALIAN = pertaining to a very long word.
From Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words. (29) FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION = an estimation of something as worthless.
This is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Interestingly the most common letter in English, E, does not appear in this word at all, whilst I occurs a total of nine times. The word dates back to 1741. The 1992 Guinness Book of World Records calls floccinaucinihilipilification the longest real word in the Oxford English Dictionary, and refers to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis as the longest made-up one. (28) ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM = the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state.
Probably the most popular of the "longest words" in recent decades. (27) HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS = honorableness.
The word first appeared in English in 1599, and in 1721 was listed by Bailey's Dictionary as the longest word in English. It was used by Shakespeare in Love's Labor's Lost (Costard; Act V, Scene I): "O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."Shakespeare does not use any other words over 17 letters in length. (27) ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHICALLY
The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), joint with ethylenediaminetetraacetate (see below). (27) ANTITRANSUBSTANTIATIONALIST = one who doubts that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ. (21) DISPROPORTIONABLENESS and (21) INCOMPREHENSIBILITIES
These are described by the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest words in common usage. Some say SMILES is the longest word because there is a MILE between the first and last letters!

The longest word in popular usage is ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM (a movement opposed to the separation of church and state) at 28 letters.

Titin, also known as connectin, is a protein that is important in the contraction of striated muscle tissues. Titin is the largest known protein, consisting of 26,926 amino acids. The protein's chemical formula is C132983H211861N3614. As the largest known protein, it has the longest chemical name. The full chemical name, contains 189,819 letters.

Re: longest word in the english dictionary

Marvin A. — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:06:11 GMT

Mr.Dictionary wrote:
The longest words in the Oxford English Dictionary are Antidisestablishmentarianism, Floccinaucinihilipilification, and my favorite Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

Pronunsiation: Anti dis establishment arianism

Flocci nauci ni hilip ilification

pneumo ultra microscopic silico volcano con iosis

See this from Wikipedia:
However, the more serious problem is that the word was originally intended as a hoax: In Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, in several separate articles (May 1985, pp. 95-96; November 1986, pp. 205-206; May 1987, p. 82; November 1989, p. 205 ^[1]), researchers discovered that the word was invented in 1935 by Everett M. Smith, president of the National Puzzlers' League, at their annual meeting. The word occurred in a newspaper headline about the meeting, after which it was picked up by an author of puzzle books. Members of the National Puzzlers' League then campaigned to have it included in major dictionaries, eventually succeeding with the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's Second. Research into medical literature prior to 1935 has failed to find the word in the dictionary. It has since been used, albeit sparingly

Re: The longest word in the world is...

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:56:41 GMT

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.)

Re: The longest word in the world is...

Hillis — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:11:42 GMT

Who can help me?????

My teacher give me a list which have about 5000 word .she ask me to write an article use this 5000 words ,each word must be use at least once .and total words of the article is below 15000. It's so difficult for me .I am a chinese ,who want to help me ,please contact me ,email is hillis@163.com I will send you the list which include the 5000 words.

Re: no

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:17:08 GMT

hey hey hey, the ongest word in the world is ......................................................

Do you remember â when you were a child â learning (then gleefully reciting) what you thought was the longest word in the English language? Was it ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM? Or the similarly long SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS?

There are longer ones...

However, there is no easy answer that we can give when our visitors ask us for the longest word in the English language. Most very long words only occur in one or two dictionaries, and often they are debatably not words at all. For example, ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM has possibly never really been used to mean "the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state." Certainly 99 in 100 times it is used as an example of a long word. And who says you can't put NONâ (for example) on the beginning to make it even longer?

This problem is even more evident in chemical names. Most chemicals are named using a systematic naming system which methodically describes the molecule's structure. Some molecules, such as proteins, are huge, so it is possible to come up with genuine words containing millions of letters. But of course no chemist uses these really long names in practice.

Here we look at some of the longest words in English dictionaries, and discuss whether they should be considered to be real words. Interesting long chemical terms and place names are listed separately afterwards. The red numbers indicate the length (number of letters) of the word that follows.

Longest Words

(37) HEPATICOCHOLANGIOCHOLECYSTENTEROSTOMIES = a surgical creation of a connection between the gall bladder and a hepatic duct and between the intestine and the gall bladder.
This is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary.

(34) SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS = song title from the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins.
It is in the Oxford English Dictionary.

"But then one day I learned a word
That saved me achin' nose,
The biggest word you ever 'eard,
And this is 'ow it goes:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

(30) HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPEDALIAN = pertaining to a very long word.
From Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.

(29) FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION = an estimation of something as worthless.
This is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Interestingly the most common letter in English, E, does not appear in this word at all, whilst I occurs a total of nine times. The word dates back to 1741. The 1992 Guinness Book of World Records calls floccinaucinihilipilification the longest real word in the Oxford English Dictionary, and refers to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis as the longest made-up one.

(28) ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM = the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state.
Probably the most popular of the "longest words" in recent decades.

(27) HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS = honorableness.
The word first appeared in English in 1599, and in 1721 was listed by Bailey's Dictionary as the longest word in English. It was used by Shakespeare in Love's Labor's Lost (Costard; Act V, Scene I):

"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon."

Shakespeare does not use any other words over 17 letters in length.

(27) ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHICALLY
The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), joint with ethylenediaminetetraacetate (see below).

(27) ANTITRANSUBSTANTIATIONALIST = one who doubts that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ.

(21) DISPROPORTIONABLENESS and (21) INCOMPREHENSIBILITIES
These are described by the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest words in common usage.

Some say SMILES is the longest word because there is a MILE between the first and last letters!

Chemical Terms

(1,185) ACETYLSERYLTYROSYLSERYLISOLEUCYLTHREONYLSERYLPROLYLSERYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLVALYLPHENYLALANYLLEUCYLSERYLSERYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLALANYLASPARTYLPROLYLISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLLEUCYLLEUCYLASPARAGINYLVALYLCYSTEINYLTHREONYLSERYLSERYLLEUCYLGLYCYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLGLUTAMINYLTHREONYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLALANYLARGINYLTHREONYLTHREONYLGLUTAMINYLVALYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYLSERYLGLUTAMINYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLLYSYLPROLYLPHENYLALANYLPROLYLGLUTAMINYLSERYLTHREONYLVALYLARGINYLPHENYLALANYLPROLYLGLYCYLASPARTYLVALYLTYROSYLLYSYLVALYLTYROSYLARGINYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYLALANYLVALYLLEUCYLASPARTYLPROLYLLEUCYLISOLEUCYLTHREONYLALANYLLEUCYLLEUCYLGLYCYLTHREONYLPHENYLALANYLASPARTYLTHREONYLARGINYLASPARAGINYLARGINYLISOLEUCYLISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLVALYLGLUTAMYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLSERYLPROLYLTHREONYLTHREONYLALANYLGLUTAMYLTHREONYLLEUCYLASPARTYLALANYLTHREONYLARGINYLARGINYLVALYLASPARTYLASPARTYLALANYLTHREONYLVALYLALANYLISOLEUCYLARGINYLSERYLALANYLASPARAGINYLISOLEUCYLASPARAGINYLLEUCYLVALYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMYLLEUCYLVALYLARGINYLGLYCYLTHREONYLGLYCYLLEUCYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLASPARAGINYLTHREONYLPHENYLALANYLGLUTAMYLSERYLMETHIONYLSERYLGLYCYLLEUCYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLTHREONYLSERYLALANYLPROLYLALANYLSERINE = Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Dahlemense Strain.
This word has appeared in the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts and is thus considered by some to be the longest real word.

(39) TETRAMETHYLDIAMINOBENZHYDRYLPHOSPHINOUS = a type of acid.
This is the longest chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.). It does not have its own entry but appears under a citation for another word.

(37) FORMALDEHYDETETRAMETHYLAMIDOFLUORIMUM
Chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.).

(37) DIMETHYLAMIDOPHENYLDIMETHYLPYRAZOLONE
Chemical term in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.).

(31) DICHLORODIPHENYLTRICHLOROETHANE = a pesticide used to kill lice; abbrv. DDT.
It is the longest word in the Macquarie Dictionary and is also in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.).

(29) TRINITROPHENYLMETHYLNITRAMINE = a type of explosive.
This is the longest chemical term in Webster's Dictionary (3rd Ed.).

(27) ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATE
The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.), joint with electroencephalographically (see above).

(26) ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETIC = a type of acid; abbrv. EDTA.
This word appears in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.).

Place Names

There are many long place names around the world. Here are a few of the largest.

(85) TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUOTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKIMAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU
A hill in New Zealand. This Maori name was in general use, but is now generally abbreviated to Taumata. The name means: the summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one.

(66) GORSAFAWDDACHAIDRAIGODANHEDDOGLEDDOLONPENRHYNAREURDRAETHCEREDIGION
A town in Wales. The name means: the Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan bay.

(58) LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
A town in North Wales. The name roughly translates as: St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

(41) CHARGOGAGOGMANCHARGOGAGOGCHARBUNAGUNGAMOG
Another name for Lake Webster in Massachusetts. Probably the longest name in the United States. Alternative spellings are:
(44) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMOGG,
(45) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG,
(44) CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHABUNAGUNGAMAUGG.

(23) NUNATHLOOGAGAMIUTBINGOI
The Eskimo name for some dunes in Alaska, according to The Book of Names by J. N. Hook. ........................one of these....ok, so stop ur arguing

Re: I'm searching for the longest English word.

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 02:00:57 GMT

i found many words that are verry long

45) PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS (also spelled PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOKONIOSIS) = a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust.
This is the longest word in any English dictionary. However, it was coined by Everett Smith, the President of The National Puzzlers' League, in 1935 purely for the purpose of inventing a new "longest word". The Oxford English Dictionary described the word as factitious. Nevertheless it also appears in the Webster's, Random House, and Chambers dictionaries.