What is the Longest Word?

Have you ever wondered what the longest word in the English language is? Did you think back to childhood days and recall Mary Poppins describing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as a word used when you have nothing else to say? Well, bear in mind that this 34-letter word isn’t officially recognized as being a true English word. So, where does that leave us?

What is the longest word in the dictionary?

The longest non-technical word found in the dictionary is Floccinaucinihilipilification. The term is used to describe something of worthless value. This is ironic because this 29 lettered word serves little purpose, except when used as an example of a long word. It certainly isn’t used in everyday English.

Coming in at just 28 letters, and one that most people would be able to pronounce is the word antidisestablishmentarianism. The term was originally used to describe opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England. In modern times, the word is used in a more general sense and refers to opposing the withdrawal of government support from a particular church or religion.

The longest accepted technical word to appear in a Standard English dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. At 45 letters in length, this word is considered superfluous. It describes a medical condition of the lungs caused by the inhalation of fine silica dust. The term was coined by Everett M. Smith, president of the National Puzzlers’ League to capture the longest word in the English dictionary.

What is the longest word?

If you are looking for a truly long word, consider that it has 189,819 letters. It would take you more than three hours to pronounce correctly, that’s if you were able to pronounce it in its entirety without a mistake and did not have to start from the beginning again.

The abbreviation is Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine. Since this post has no intention of being the longest blog post ever, the full word will not be shown. If you’re truly interested in this word, you can watch it being pronounced on YouTube.

Good luck with trying to sit through the entire video or attempting to rattle it off to your friends since it takes over three hours to pronounce. It basically describes a type of protein which provides elasticity in muscles.

What is the longest place name?

The longest place name from an English speaking country is 85 letters in length. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu is a Maori word for a particular hill in New Zealand.

What is the longest town name?

With just 58 letters, the Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest name of a town or city in the world. It translates as St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave. The abbreviation Llanfair PG. is usually employed and the town was so named to be the longest place name in Britain.

What is the longest word with only vowels?

The longest word to contain only vowels is euouae. Although the word only comprises six letters, it has the distinction of holding two Guinness World Records. These are for being the longest word consisting exclusively of vowels, as well as being the word with the most consecutive vowels. Although this word is not commonly used, it refers to a musical term from the medieval times.

What is the longest word with only consonants?

The longest word to contain only consonants is tsktsk. This word is used fairly frequently in modern times. It means to express disapproval or disdain. For example, if a young child is thinking about doing something bad and looks at you before doing it, you could tsktsk.

What is the longest word with alternating vowels and consonants?

The longest word consisting of alternating consonants and vowels is honorificabilitudinitatibus. Yes, you can double check that if you want to. The word means “with honorableness” and is 27 letters in length. Do not attempt to pronounce this word while under the influence of alcohol.

What is the longest palindrome?

The longest palindrome, or word which is spelled the same forward and backward, is rotavator. A rotavator is a type of soil plow and the word is made up of 9 letters. You checked that too, didn’t you?

What is the longest word to use all 5 vowels only once and in alphabetical order?

The longest word to use all 5 vowels only once and in alphabetical order is abstentious. It refers to one who does not indulge in the excessive intake of food, alcohol or narcotics. You certainly checked that.

Conclusion

There are many other really long words. Many of these are very technical or are words used to describe chemical composition. For example, a DNA strand could run into several thousand letters. However, these technical terms often contain numerals or letters from the Greek alphabet. As such they are not considered to be true English words.

Although these words all contain a stupendous amount of letters, for those who still like childhood riddles, by far the longest word of all is smiles. Why is this? Because it has a MILE between the first and last letters, silly!

(Photo courtesy of John Earl)