Which is the lengthiest word in English dictionary?

Jump to Last Post 1-6 of 6 discussions (6 posts)
  1. Lovely 7 profile image60
    Lovely 7posted 13 years ago

    Which is the lengthiest word in English dictionary?

  2. Nare Anthony profile image69
    Nare Anthonyposted 13 years ago

    Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl...serine

    Though I hardly consider this a word.

    Others are:

    1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
    2. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
    3. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
    etc.

  3. Docmo profile image98
    Docmoposted 13 years ago

    There are many claims to the longest word. A consistent,validated, currently in use contender is worthy of 30 letters and is a medical condition 'pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism' .... A word meaning 'nonsense' was coined as far back as 18th century and is ' floccinaucinihilipilification' at 29 letters.

    Some dictionaries list ' supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' at 34 letters from ' Sound of Music' !

    There are many chemical compounds that may vie for the longest 'word' title, such as 'dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane'  but they strictly don't count and not in most dictionaries.

  4. wkhigley profile image60
    wkhigleyposted 13 years ago

    I've actually had a number of discussions about this when I taught. Kids seem to be very interested in this question. It just depends on what requirements you're putting on the term. Do coined terms count? technical words? People often seem to have an idea that there is a single, official English dictionary, when there really isn't.

    The one I always here people refer to as the longest is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, abbreviated as P45, as Nare mentioned. It refers to a problem with the lungs caused by inhaling silica dust.  Some would claim it doesn't count because it's technical and coined, though it has appeared in several common English dictionaries.

    Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl...serine, which she also mentioned is the longest technical, published word, consisting of 1909 characters. However, I'm just getting that from wikipedia, it isn't one I'm otherwise familiar with.

    The chemical name for connectin is much longer, with something like near 200,000 characters(189,819 after checking wikipedia), but you probably wont find that in a  dictionary and when you count chemical names you start to run into semantic arguments about how we define "word".

  5. profile image0
    Indigitalposted 13 years ago

    antidisestablishmentarianism - Unless those other one's are actually real.

  6. profile image50
    bill garciaposted 12 years ago

    the longest word has 1,909 letters.it is the term for a tryptophan synthetase a protein,an enyme that has 267 amino acids

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)