posted
I have often asked this question, and never gotten an answer...
'WHAT IS THE LONGEST WORD IN THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY?'
Thank You!
-------------------- "If something's hard to do... it's not worth doing!" - H J Simpson Posts: 78 | From: Durham, England | Registered: Sep 2005
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Which dictionary?
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" is one standard answer (28 letters)... also "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (45 letters) if you're allowed compound medical terms which aren't really used. After that (or even before that) it tends to get silly.
Did you Ask Oxford? That page lists quite a few very long words from the OED, with the longest word in there currently being "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis".
You just didn't ask the right people!
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Joey: That 45 letter one is class how in hell is someone meant to say that?!!?
Just pronounce it like it is spelled!
If compound chemical names with hyphens are allowed, it would be infinite, because you can just add a group as you go.
Posts: 400 | From: Maryland | Registered: Jun 2005
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(chairman of the commission for the introduction of food supply rationment - 56 letters), but as you can practically create infinite words in German, the question is somewhat irrelevant.
-------------------- Desperate, but not serious. Posts: 689 | From: Confoederatio Helvetica | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Joey: Oxford dictionary.
That 45 letter one is class how in hell is someone meant to say that?!!?
Thanks though
According to Merriam Webster, you are meant to say it '[th]at or [th]&t .
I tried hard to resist, but I couldn't.
Gen (Here, I'll get it ) Yus
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Joey: I have often asked this question, and never gotten an answer...
'WHAT IS THE LONGEST WORD IN THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY?'
Thank You!
"The" has three letters, "English" seven, and "dictionary" ten letters. So it's "dictionary".
-------------------- "I've allowed my love of gravy to distract from my prescriptivist linguistic crusade!" -T-Rex, Dinosaur Comics Posts: 726 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2004
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Angstskrik (cry of terror) is the word with most consonants in a row. Saueøyaeier (sheep island owner) wins the prize for word with most vowels in a row.
The longest word is fylkestrafikksikkerhetsutvalgssekreteriatslederfunksjonene - 58 letters.
However, the longest English word is without a doubt 'smile'
quote:Originally posted by Needless Pins: The longest word is fylkestrafikksikkerhetsutvalgssekreteriatslederfunksjonene - 58 letters.
länstrafiksäkerhetskommittésekretariatsledarskapsfunktionerna has 61 letters.
"en mil mellan s och e" - gah!
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
A quick google brought up my memory from high school.
floccinaucinihilipilification
was in the Guinness book of World Records in 1992 at 29 letters. It means
quote:the act of estimating (something) as worthless, its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741. In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Jesse Helms, and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.
Posts: 2064 | From: New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Aug 2004
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Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis can be pluralised by adding "es" onto the end.
Strengths is the longest one syllable word, and Knightsbridge has 6 consonants in a row, but is not a real word
And typewriter is the longest word you can type using the letters of the top row of a typewriter
Posts: 216 | From: Lincoln, UK | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
German features Angstschweiß (sweat caused by fear) as an actually really common word with 8 consonants in a row.
If we were only allowed to use the Russian "Borschtsch" (in German spelling, in English it'd probably have to be "Borshch"), we could of course go on.
The longest series of vowels I can think of in German would be "Teeeier" (tea balls). Common as well, but I doubt that there is no better word.
About one vowel: I've once heard, that there is a Skandinavian (only theoretically existing, don't know whether Danish, Norwegian or Swedish) word of Åååål, which should transcribe to Aaaaaaaal, giving eight identical vowels in a row. Translation should be something like "Åå-å-ål"=Eel (ål) of the river (å) named Åå. It would take me by surprise though, if that wasn't a joke.
Terveisiä, Ulkomaalainen
-------------------- Movie characters never make typing mistakes. Posts: 586 | From: Hamburg, Germany | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ulkomaalainen: About one vowel: I've once heard, that there is a Skandinavian (only theoretically existing, don't know whether Danish, Norwegian or Swedish) word of Åååål, which should transcribe to Aaaaaaaal, giving eight identical vowels in a row. Translation should be something like "Åå-å-ål"=Eel (ål) of the river (å) named Åå. It would take me by surprise though, if that wasn't a joke.
I've never heard of that. Scandinavian languages utilise compound words, but not in that manner. To describe that eel, you'd say 'ålen fra (åen) Åå' - the eel from (the river) Åå. For what it's worth, I think it's only in Norwegian and Danish 'Å' can be transcribed to 'Aa'.
quote:Angstskrik (cry of terror) is the word with most consonants in a row. Saueøyaeier (sheep island owner) wins the prize for word with most vowels in a row.
Most -ng- clusters in English, while "two consonants," represent one sound...
As for our "sheep island owner," many languages can use Glides (in this case your Y and I) as consonants...
As for the example of "rhythms," you're all assuming, quite urbanlegendly, that a vowel must be the nucleus/center of a syllable, which is just not the case....It's a two syllable word with the (M) acting as the nucleus (vowel-like element) of the second syllable.
quote:Originally posted by zakor: If you are going to count agglutinating languages, the point becomes moot.
This is a difficult point: Although such words aren't typically listed in dictionaries, agglutination is a recognized system of linguistics.
One of my favorites is "contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality." Of course, in Finnegans Wake, Joyce whole-heartedly uses the process, the most famous example being a case where he employs several languages' word for "thunder" to create the crackling e/affect: "bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk"
-------------------- The salty fragrance of L’EauD’I’mNotDedalus - made entirely of and entirely for sea turtles. Posts: 1983 | From: Chicagoland, IL | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ulkomaalainen: About one vowel: I've once heard, that there is a Skandinavian (only theoretically existing, don't know whether Danish, Norwegian or Swedish) word of Åååål, which should transcribe to Aaaaaaaal, giving eight identical vowels in a row. Translation should be something like "Åå-å-ål"=Eel (ål) of the river (å) named Åå. It would take me by surprise though, if that wasn't a joke.
I've never heard of that. Scandinavian languages utilise compound words, but not in that manner. To describe that eel, you'd say 'ålen fra (åen) Åå' - the eel from (the river) Åå. For what it's worth, I think it's only in Norwegian and Danish 'Å' can be transcribed to 'Aa'.
A small river is in Swedish å. There's a place in Southern Sweden called Råå, which takes it name from the river Råån (read Rå-ån, the river Rå). In the river is an eel, which could be described as a Rå-å-ål (Needless Pins, there is absolutely nothing strange with this construction, at least not in Swedish). Write this word in Danish and you get Raaaaaal.
ETA In case you wonder how to pronounce this: å is approximately the same sound(s) as -o- in gone (short) and -oo- in door (long).
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Subbookkeeper has 4 double letters in a row. Arcenious uses every vowel in order. Uncopyrightable does not use any letter twice.
-------------------- "I always tell the truth. Even when I lie." - Tony Montana Posts: 890 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Floater: A small river is in Swedish å. There's a place in Southern Sweden called Råå, which takes it name from the river Råån (read Rå-ån, the river Rå). In the river is an eel, which could be described as a Rå-å-ål (Needless Pins, there is absolutely nothing strange with this construction, at least not in Swedish). Write this word in Danish and you get Raaaaaal.
You know what, you're absolutely right. * s self* I had my mind on two things when I wrote that, and for some reason I thought the eel's name was supposed to be Åå. Anyway, the word would be legitimate in Norwegian as well, mea culpa.
quote:Originally posted by Andrew of Ware, England: Sorry - you're wrong. It's smiles becauses there's a mile between the two 's's!
What about "mailbox"? It has hundreds of letters in it.
-------------------- "I always tell the truth. Even when I lie." - Tony Montana Posts: 890 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Apr 2005
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-------------------- "You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could. Posts: 200 | From: Dallas, TX | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Damian: Arcenious uses every vowel in order.
So does facetious.
-------------------- "The fact that "uvula" and "vulva" look and sound similar was just a happy coincidence." - Lainie Posts: 548 | From: England | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Take a look at Long Words After going through pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis and a bunch of chemical names, the page discusses long words in all sorts on languages--from Spanish to French to Lithuanian and Nahuatl.
-------------------- The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Posts: 4255 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Floccinaucinihilipilification is the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in Websters.
James Joyce's Finnegans Wake contains ten different hundred letter words which occasionally pop up in unabridged and online dictionaries.
The longest proper name for a place is the eighty five letter name of a hill in New Zealand named Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, but it is usually shortened to Taumata.
The longest scientific term is the complete ammino acid compound of Tryptophan Synthetase A which clocks in at an amazing 1,913 letters.
But honestly I think Red Skeleton is right. The longest word in the English language is "And now a word from our sponsors."
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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