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What Is The Longest English Word

The document discusses the longest English words, including antidisestablishmentarianism at 28 letters and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters. It also notes that the longest place name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales, usually abbreviated to Llanfair PG. Very long technical and medical words are also included from reference texts, the longest being pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism at 30 letters.

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150 views

What Is The Longest English Word

The document discusses the longest English words, including antidisestablishmentarianism at 28 letters and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters. It also notes that the longest place name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales, usually abbreviated to Llanfair PG. Very long technical and medical words are also included from reference texts, the longest being pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism at 30 letters.

Uploaded by

suhaibqaisar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is the longest English word?

The longest words in Oxford Dictionaries Online are:


antidisestablishmentarianism opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England - 28 letters floccinaucinihilipilification the estimation of something as worthless - 29 letters pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis a supposed lung disease - 45 letters

You're unlikely to come across these words in genuine use: they're generally just provided as answers to questions about the longest words in the English language. In terms of sheer size, however, the longest word to be found in Britain is the Welsh place name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. For obvious reasons, it's usually abbreviated to Llanfair PG. The 20-volume historical Oxford English Dictionary includes other very long words, most of which are highly technical. These 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

People sometimes ask whether a DNA string can be considered as the longest English word, given that they can run to many thousands of letters. The answer is no: they're regarded as chemical names rather than genuine words in the sense of meaningful items of vocabulary. The same is true of the formal names of chemical compounds. These can be almost unlimited in length (for example, aminoheptafluorocyclotetraphosphonitrile, 40 letters) and many contain numerals, Roman and Greek letters, and other symbols, as well as ordinary letters. We don't tend to regard these terms as proper 'words'.

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