The longest English word

[tzfujimino]

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis:shock:

This is the longest English word that I know.
I learned it from a teacher when I was a junior high school student.
I thought, "How can you remember the spelling of the word? You are a genius!"
Much later on, I found it is actually composed of several parts:
pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coniosis
It's a lot of fun to introduce this word to students in class. They say, "What's that? Is it a sentence?":lol:

Anyway, do you know any longer words than this?

 

[englishhobby]

No.)

 

[alenjones23]

Well Wikipedia also says that your word is the longest in english dictionary, one more I would like to add is "Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism". May be not longer than yours but that's what I found.....;-)

 

[Tdol]

Another one mentioned when talking about long words, and one that is a single word in English rather than lots of bits stuck together is Floccinaucinihilipilification

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[BobK]

But that one is a joking reference to a group of Latin words that behaved the same way grammatically or semantically (not sure which :-?). Schoolboys (there was no such thing as a schoolgirl at the time) had a mnemonic jingle that started 'Flocci, nauci, [pauci...:-?] nihili, and pili...', and although many dictionaries still list it I don't imagine anyone uses it, except as a joke. (There are aren't that many contexts that call for a word that means 'The art or habit of estimating as worthless'! ;-))

b

 

[5jj]

There are aren't that many contexts that call for a word that means 'The art or habit of estimating as worthless'!

It might be a useful word for some members to use of my character when I delete some post they have lovingly crafted (?), only to find it deleted by me with the reason given - 'pointless post', 'clone of banned user' or (only once) 'drivel'.

 

[Tdol]

nauci, [pauci...:-?]

I remembered it as pauci until I searched to get the spelling right, but Oxford give it this way.

 

[Tdol]

It might be a useful word for some members to use of my character when I delete some post they have lovingly crafted (?), only to find it deleted by me with the reason given - 'pointless post', 'clone of banned user' or (only once) 'drivel'.

I like the idea; we should adopt it. And be careful about typos.

 

[Barb_D]

I don't mean to sound churlish, but these threads always start to annoy me. There are all sorts of scientific names for proteins or viruses that just go on and on and ON, but those are hardly English words. So take this as a warning to anyone who is tempted to paste in one of those four-line "words" - I'll delete it. Words that actually have meanings instead of naming proteins strung together only, please.

Besides, everyone knows that "smiles" is the longest word in English. Can you figure out why?

 

[5jj]

Because there's a ...

No, I don't want to spoil it for somebody else. ;-)

 

[BobK]

I remembered it as pauci until I searched to get the spelling right, but Oxford give it this way.

An English teacher of mine used to say both. But I don't really mind either way. In my former life as a researcher on the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations I'd have checked the OED. But now I muddle through with parentheses! ;-)

b

 

[tzfujimino]

I don't mean to sound churlish, but these threads always start to annoy me. There are all sorts of scientific names for proteins or viruses that just go on and on and ON, but those are hardly English words. So take this as a warning to anyone who is tempted to paste in one of those four-line "words" - I'll delete it. Words that actually have meanings instead of naming proteins strung together only, please.

Besides, everyone knows that "smiles" is the longest word in English. Can you figure out why?

Please forgive me if I hurt your feelings in any way.
It was not my intention. It won't happen again. I'm sorry.

P.S. 'smiles' - There's a 'mile' between the first 's' and the second 's'. I know this one.:-D

 

[BobK]

I don't think Barb's feelings are hurt - she just finds discussions of this topic irksome when they take this rather uninteresting direction.

b

 

[Barb_D]

There is little, if anything, about language that "hurts my feelings."

However, as a moderator, when threads end up 14 pages long with each post having a four-line "word" that is longer than the last because someone found the name of a protein, I find it very annoying. The thread had not yet gone in that direction. I was warning people not to let it do so.

 

[tzfujimino]

when threads end up 14 pages long with each post having a four-line "word"

Now I'm relieved.
May I ask what a "four-line" word means?
I do know "four-letter" words.

 

[Tan Elaine]

Because there is a mile between the s's.

 

[Barb_D]

A four-line "word" means that it takes four lines of text to show the "word" because it's that long. As you can see by my use of quotes, I don't consider those words at all. If you go to other English forums and search for "longest word" you may find some of those threads. Those moderators are more patient than I am!

 

[santimarti]

I don´t know if that is some kind of illness but I wouldn´t like to get that.