Longest word

[alc112]

Les dejo este chistecito malo:
Cual es la palabra mas larga?
Arroz (porque va de la A a la Z) ajajaja


En realidad la palabra más larga de nuestra lengua es:
Electroencefalográficamente (27)

 

[walnut]

Hola Alc

La palabra mas larga en mi idioma es

precipitevolissimevolmente (26)

Ciao! Walnut

 

[alc112]

Hola Wal que significa eso????

 

[valerie]

En Francés, la palabra más larga es:
Anticonstitutionnellement (25)

 

[Edwin]

En Francés, la palabra mas larga es:
Anticonstitutionnellement (25)

The Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters.

So says Wikipedia's entry for Longest Word in English at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English

This Wikipedia entry also mentions other famous long words such as:

sesquipedalianism

Antidisestablishmentarianistically

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,

This 1185-letter "word" is the chemical name for "Coat Protein":

acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylserylglutaminyl-
phenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyltryptophylalanyl-
aspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinyl-
threonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanyl-
glutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonyl-
glutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyl-
tryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalyl-
arginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosyl-
arginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucylisoleucyl-
threonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenylalanylaspartylthreonyl-
arginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylvalylglutamyl-
asparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamyl-
threonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartyl-
alanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginylisoleucyl-
asparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycyl-
threonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonyl-
phenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltryptophyl-
threonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine

 

[walnut]

Hola Wal que significa eso????

No se como se dice en espanol En inglès creo que puede ser ( )

very, very, very precipitously

Walnut

PS My second try ever with spanish, please be merciful!

 

[badger]

I’ve two candidates for the longest word in English.

“disestablishmentarianism” or “smiles”

The latter because it’s a mile between the first and last letter.

Badge

 

[cuchuflete]

Badger!

You write just as you look!

Edwin- Please use each of your candidate words in a sentence, and then combine them all into one sentence. Then we can start a new contest to come up with a neologism to describe the use of excessively long words in a sentence!

abrazotes,
Cuchu

 

[Edwin]

Edwin- Please use each of your candidate words in a sentence, and then combine them all into one sentence.

No problem -- unless you rephrase the request to rule out trivial solutions such as:

The 1185-letter word for "Coat Protein" is
acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylproly lserylglutaminyl-
phenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyl tryptophylalanyl-
aspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucylasparag inylvalylcysteinyl-
threonylserylserylleucylglycylasparaginylglutaminy lphenylalanyl-
glutaminylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginy lthreonylthreonyl-
glutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylser ylglutaminylvalyl-
tryptophyllysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminyls erylthreonylvalyl-
arginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosy llysylvalyltyrosyl-
arginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartyl prolylleucylisoleucyl-
threonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenylalan ylaspartylthreonyl-
arginylasparaginylarginylisoleucylisoleucylglutamy lvalylglutamyl-
asparaginylglutaminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonyl threonylalanylglutamyl-
threonylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginyl valylaspartylaspartyl-
alanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalan ylasparaginylisoleucyl-
asparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylval ylarginylglycyl-
threonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminylas paraginylthreonyl-
phenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucy lvalyltryptophyl-
threonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine.

Or things like:

The words X, Y and Z are examples of long words.

 

[Lems]

¡Hola, alc112!

¡Eres tan joven y ya empezaste por lo menos 3 hilos interesantísimos y muy concurridos! ¿Quizás nosotros ancianos deseamos pero no tenemos el atrevimiento de iniciarlos?

Un sitio interesante relacionado al tema es www.fun-with-words.com/word_longest.html

Saludos

Lems

 

[Artrella]

The two invented longest
place names and train stations in the UK are in Wales:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Gorsafawddacha'idraigodanheddogleddoll�npenrhynareurdraethceredigio


Wow!!!! What I don't know is that square above!!! Which letter would that be???


Kissies!!!

 

[guille69]

ola a todos.

Las palabras mas largas que conzoco son:

Esternocleidomastoideo

con 22 letras y 9 silabas, es como se llama un hueso que tenemos en el cuello (no me pregunteis cual, xk no tengo ni idea.

y mas larga todavia:

FLOQUINAUCINIHILPILIFICACION

con 28 letras y 10 silabas, que describe la tendencia a desdeñar o conceder nulo valor a las cosas.

Si ya parece complicado escribirla y leerla, intentar decirla en alto. cuesta.

 

[aeiou235]

SEPAN ESTA ES LA PALABRA MÁS LARGA DE LENGUA ESPAÑOLA:


PSICOINMUNONEUROENDOCRINOLOGÍA (30 LETRAS)

ES UNA RAMA DE LA PSICOLOGÍA

 

[heidita]

I wonder why no German person has found his way to this thread. In German there are so many "normal" words which have like one hundred letters that I am just going to mention one, which my husband saw in my home town and he was so impressed that he said: there you are, bright and clear!

Fussgaengerunterfuerungspassage

31 letters and just a plain

paso subterraneo/subway

of course, if you wish to lstretch this word:

Fussgaengerunterfuerungspassagengeschaeft

(a shop in the passway)

Fussgaengerunterfuerungspassagenverkaufsangebot (46 letters)

a special offer in the subway (I wonder if this is the correct word actually?)

I really don't think the German language can be beaten for long words. Normal and plain ones anyway, because this English whatever that may be was reeeeeeeeeeally long.

Would you like me to stretch the word a little longer? (jeje)

The Guinness Book of Records lists this as the longest 'word' in the German language:

Donaudampfschiffahrtselectrizitaetenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

The Guinness Book of Records translates this as: The club for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services.

Thanks to our friend Tresley, I have found this word. That's really something, don't you think?

 

[Krümelmonster]

When I was in Spain, my spanish friend looked into my dictionary and did not believe that we have words like "Fünfunddreißigstundenwoche", what is normal to any German...
By then she thought that in Germany you may take every sentence and make one large word out of it

 

[ukuca]

In Turkish words are composed of suffixes, we simply add them to the words (like math ). For exemple: "geliyorum" = gel -i -yor -um (I'm coming). So for a foreigner it seems like the Turkish words are very long. The longest one is:
Çekoslavakyalılaştıramadıklarımız = çekoslavakya-lı-laş-tır-a-ma-dık-lar-ı-mız. What's in your language?

Mod Edit: This thread is being merged with one that was started in 2005. Please remember to always use our SEARCH feature to see if a similar thread has already been started. You're always welcome to add to the discussion.

 

[emma42]

English - floccinaucinihilipilification - [facetious] - setting at little or no value.

English - antidisestablishmentarianism - a movement against the removal of state recognition of an established church, especially the Anglican church in the 19th century.

 

[Sidjanga]

Hi ukuca
well I think the German language has an easy game here, given that you can actually combine as many words to form a noun as you please and there´s no general limit to that, the question is just where it starts to become rediculous and incomprehensible...
The last noun of the word chain is the main word, an all the others are used to define it more closely.
The most famous and often quoted word is probably
Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwenrente (..)

Hope that helps, please don´t ask me to translate that

Well, actually, in case you should be really interested I might even consider that possibility, but not before a few hours sleep.

Cheers,

PD: I´ve just remembered that it actually goes on a little further:

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwenrentenauszahlungsstelle

Well, ok, I´ll have a go at the translation:

Donau- dampf-schiff-fahrt-s- gesellschaft-s-kapitän-s-witwen-r
enten-auszahlung-s-stelle

Danube (the river), steam ship, journey, society, captain, widow, pension, payment, place/office
So it´s: the place where the widows of captains who drive steam ships on which you can go for a "trip" on the danube can collect their pesion

 

[linguist786]

I always thought:

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertrangungsgesetz

was the longest word in German lol!!
(until I came on this thread!)

 

[Lemminkäinen]

Hi caligula

An interesting question, and the lenght'll vary from language to language as some are agglutanative (they just combine words into one to form compounds) while others are not.

Norwegian uses compound words, and according to the Guinness' Book of World Records, the longest Norwegian word is minoritetsladningsbærerdiffusjonskoeffisientmålingsapparatur - a machine used to measure the distance between two particles in a crystalline matter.

However, these words are mostly theoretical, and it'll be more interesting to narrow it down to words that are actually in use:

- Sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximal likelihood) is a statistical method of finding, well, the maximum likelihood of an action.
- Høyesterettsjustitiarius is the leader of the judges in the supreme court (høyesterett)
- Mesterligakvalifiseringskampene is a nice word, describing the qualification matches in the Champion's League

And two words I used frequently in history class last year:

- menneskerettighetsprinsippet - the principle of human rights
- maktfordelingsprinsippet - the principle of splitting the power (in the legislative, executive and judiciary branches)

However, as you in theory can continue adding words to these, there really is no point in trying to find a "longest word", other than for some trivia fun

 

[Ilmo]

The exact same thread has been created before

That's true, but, in fact, I would not have accepted any of those words, because they were mostly compound words.There is actually no limit how long a compound word can be, at least according to the Finnish grammar. In my opinion the Norwegian word
minoritetsladningsbærerdiffusjonskoeffisientmålingsapparatur
consists of seven different words. And the German Donau- dampf-schiff-fahrt-s- gesellschaft-s-kapitän-s-witwen-r
enten-auszahlung-s-stelle consists of ten different words.

The longest word of the Finnish language is, according to Guinnes Book of Records, epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän.


That's really one word, not any compound word, construed on basis of a verb that can be translated "to systemize", and thereafter it has been turned to a noun, with a negation affix and several suffixes, one of which means "without" and another "his/her" and a third one "even", a fourth one makes a question of the word, etc.

There are 51 letters in that word, and I guarantee, that it does contain any other words. Of course, it isn't used very ofter, I guess never.

Let's agree upon that no chemical compound names or corresponding medical/anatomic terms will be accepted.

 

[Namakemono]

The longest Spanish word is esternocleidomastoideo. I think it's the name of a facial muscle.

 

[Lemminkäinen]

No compound words seems like a clever rule

The longest Norwegian word in that instance will be onomatopoetikon with a measly 15 letters (it grows to 18 if you add the definite plural suffix -ene), and I'm not even sure that counts as it really is a Greek word.

 

[linguist786]

And the German Donau- dampf-schiff-fahrt-s- gesellschaft-s-kapitän-s-witwen-r
enten-auszahlung-s-stelle consists of ten different words.

Since you've talked about it, I might as well comment on it:

"s" isn't a word in itself, it is just an inflection to make the word plural

edit - just realised you haven't actually counted "s" as a word .. but I won't bother deleting the above.

..and yes, I agree with you that the OP should have mentioned compound forms in the opening posts. Compound forms are a bit misleading and wouldn't really count as "the longest word".

 

[Chazzwozzer]

Afyonkarahisarlılaştıramadıklarımızdan mısınız?
Aren’t you one of those people whom we couldn't make resemble the citizens of Afyonkarahisar?

Sure there are much longer words but this is the best I can come up with for now.

 

[Lillita]

The longest Hungarian word is:

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

 

[Chazzwozzer]

The longest Hungarian word is:

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

...and it means what?

 

[Outsider]

We had a thread about this in the Portuguese forum, but personally I think these kinds of questions, or rather the answers they usually get, are a bit silly. Normally, the supposed longest word is some jargon term that 99% of the population has never even heard of.

 

[Lillita]

...and it means what?

Well, it is very difficult to translate... Something like "for the fact that nobody can make you (plural) deny God".

This is the best translation I can come up with right now.

 

[Aleco]

In Norwegian you can have
Fabrikkeierskesunderkjoler
onomatopoetikonssetningene
reagensrørsreklamasjonistenene
rekommendasjonsuniversitetslærerene

 

[Maja]

The longest I can think of, at the moment, in Serbian is:
Otorinolaringologija (otorhinolaryngology) and that is Latin .

 

[Outsider]

Not Latin, Greek.

 

[avalon2004]

If we're referring to common words (not obscure medical terms etc...), then αυτοκινητοβιομηχανία [aftokinitoviomikhanía] is one of the longest Greek words I can think of, meaning "car industry"

 

[Maja]

Not Latin, Greek.

Really? I've found on the net that it is of Latin origin... Go figure!

 

[mytwolangs]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Now while this is no longer than even the simplest German words, it is quite the monstrosity in English.
It has about the same number of letters as the number of times in this thread that someone pointed out "this has been talked about before..."

The weird thing about this word - it is defined as "The fear of long words"

Do the math

 

[Whodunit]

Since you've talked about it, I might as well comment on it:

"s" isn't a word in itself, it is just an inflection to make the word plural

That's not entirely correct. Look at the example:

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwenrentenauszahlungsstelle

Not any of the S's marks the plural:
Fahrt - Fahrten
Gesellschaft - Gesellschaften (if at all!)
Kapitän - Kapitäne
Auszahlung - Auszahlungen

The "s" is just the letter to merge several nouns. Of course there are other possibilities to form compounds (by using the plural or the genitive of a word, for example).

I think the longest non-compound word in German is "Kameradschaftlichkeit" with 21 letters. It means more or less "comradeship," although the better word for this would be "Kameradschaft."

It's just an artificial word with three suffixes (-schaft, -lich, -keit).

 

[optimistique]

I think the longest non-compound word in German is "Kameradschaftlichkeit" with 21 letters. It means more or less "comradeship," although the better word for this would be "Kameradschaft."

It's just an artificial word with three suffixes (-schaft, -lich, -keit).

Maybe the longest non-compound word in Dutch?:

kameraadschappelijkheidjes (26 letters) with 5 suffixes(-schap, -lijk, -heid, -je, -s) and one binding phoneme (-e-).

 

[Hakro]

That's not entirely correct. Look at the example:

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwenrentenauszahlungsstelle

Not any of the S's marks the plural:
Fahrt - Fahrten
Gesellschaft - Gesellschaften (if at all!)
Kapitän - Kapitäne
Auszahlung - Auszahlungen

The "s" is just the letter to merge several nouns. Of course there are other possibilities to form compounds (by using the plural or the genitive of a word, for example).

I have learned that this 's' is exactly for German genitive. Do you think I'm wrong?

Can you give an example of forming compound words by using the plural? Is it really possible?

 

[Lemminkäinen]

I have learned that this 's' is exactly for German genitive. Do you think I'm wrong?

I don't know German, so I'm not completely sure about this, but I think the genetiv 's' is a different thing than this 's'.

We have it in Norwegian too, and it's commonly called fuge-s, or "jointing s".

From my linguistics text book (my translation):

When a lexeme is in a prefix position, it sometimes has a different form than when it is alone or in a suffix position. This special prefix form is known as a compound form

To give an example in Norwegian, the word for kindergarten:

barnehage

- Barn - child
- hage - garden

As you see, the word barne is the compound form used in prefixes in compound words in Norwegian.
I suspect the same goes for German.

 

[Nu971]

I am sorry that I dunno what is the longest word in my language,Thai, but the real name of "Bangkok" is the most longest city name in the word. We thai call "Krungthep" in short for "Bangkok"

กรุงเทพมหานครอมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินราอยุทธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ราชธานีบุรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทุติยะ วิศณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

(Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit)

Meaning
The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.


The meaning of the word is quite complex because this name is on the concept of Hindu which in the basis of Buddhism in Thailand.
Thanks to into-asia.com

 

[jonquiliser]

Looking for something entirely different, I came across this great thread (what a good reason to always use the search function an extra time ).

The longest word of the Finnish language is, according to Guinnes Book of Records, epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän.

There are 51 letters in that word, and I guarantee, that it does contain any other words. Of course, it isn't used very ofter, I guess never.

Another version, with more letters: Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhänkin

However, I don't know if it's really possible to add that last suffix, but I claim neither responsibility or the credits for this word, as I didn't construe it myself, so...

 

[dn88]

Hello everyone,

"Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka" (32 letters) is said to be the longest Polish word. But some claim it's just a pseudoword, not a real word... Anyway, it's quite long

 

[Whodunit]

Maybe the longest non-compound word in Dutch?:

kameraadschappelijkheidjes (26 letters) with 5 suffixes(-schap, -lijk, -heid, -je, -s) and one binding phoneme (-e-).

And what do the suffixes "-je" and "-s" mean?

You could also form the plural of the German "Kameradschaftlichkeit" --> "Kameradschaftlichkeiten," which makes 23 letters.

I have learned that this 's' is exactly for German genitive. Do you think I'm wrong?

Can you give an example of forming compound words by using the plural? Is it really possible?

The "s" added to a noun is not always the genitive. The word "Autos" is the plural of "Auto" (car), for example. Forming compounds by using the plural is well-known all over the world through English: Kindergarten:

Kind - child
Kinder - children
Garten - garden

Another version, with more letters: Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhänkin

Would you mind telling us what that means, please?

Hello everyone,

"Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka" (32 letters) is said to be the longest Polish word. But some claim it's just a pseudoword, not a real word... Anyway, it's quite long

And what does it mean?

 

[DrWatson]

Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhänkin

This word doesn't in fact mean anything. The very basic root word here is järki, meaning "common sense", "mind" or "reason". It's then with the help of a negative prefix, a few suffixes and several other means derived to the current word. There are actually two prefixes -kään and -kin which are kind of opposites to each other and can't be used together in a same word.

 

[jonquiliser]

And what do the suffixes "-je" and "-s" mean?

If I'm not mistaken, it's the diminutive and the plural, respectively.

Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhänkin

This word doesn't in fact mean anything. The very basic root word here is järki, meaning "common sense", "mind" or "reason".

Hmm, but wouldn't it be more like "järjestelmä" or "järjestelmällinen" is the basic word, although derived from "järki" in a last instance? (Järjestelmällinen=methodical)

There are actually two prefixes -kään and -kin which are kind of opposites to each other and can't be used together in a same word.

Oh, yes. What a pity, such a long word it would have been..

 

[dn88]

I'm referring to post #75

I guess "Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka" is supposed to mean "a small female citizen of Constantinopole", but virtually it is not used, since nowadays we have Istanbul instead. Secondly, it sounds quite funny and is not so easy to pronounce, therefore it can be a kind of tongue twister.

 

[DrWatson]

Ehm ... sorry, but why should we call it the longest word if it has no meaning at all?

Well, it does carry a meaning, when it's "stripped" from the derivations. As jonquiliser pointed out, the word järjestelmä is perhaps better basic word to describe the meaning than järki. It's something like järki (common sense) -> järjestellä (to organize) -> järjestelmä (system) -> järjestelmällinen (systematic, methodical) -> etc. The word is just derived so long that it loses it's translatability. That's how I see it.

 

[Joannes]

And what do the suffixes "-je" and "-s" mean?

If I'm not mistaken, it's the diminutive and the plural, respectively.

Exactly.

 

[samanthalee]

In Chinese, the word with the most number of strokes is made of 4 龍

eg.

龍龍
龍龍

It refers to a person who "says so little with so much words".

That's 64 strokes altogether. I personally think it is humanly impossible to write in a normal size text.

 

[deine]

The longest Lithuanian word is nebepasikiškiakopūsteliaudamas (30 letters)