What is the longest word in English, and what is the twa1332830436

What is the longest word in English, and what is the longest word in the world, in all languages?

Thanks for your answer ;)

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Industry/Domain: Translation & localization
Category: Internationalization (I18N)
Created: 01:40, 27 March 2012

Answers (5)

laluse

I would put my money on Finnish for longest words. One example from the Finnish edition of Guinness Book of Records would be "lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas" which is a 61 character word roughly meaning "technical warrant officer trainee specialized in aircraft jet engines". It's a specialised term used in the Air Force and overall from what my Finnish friends have told me, it's easy to combine words to prolong them in a way not practised in English.

06:17, 23 May 2012

Candy-Candace

Bulgarian-The longest word in Bulgarian is the 39 letter long Непротивоконституционствувателствувайте. Czech-Traditionally, the word nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu is considered as the longest Czech word, but there are some longer artificial words. Danish-Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode, which is 51 letters, is the longest Danish word that has been used in an official context. Dutch-The 49-letter word Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamheden. English-The 45-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest English word that appears in a major dictionary. French-The longest usual word in French is anticonstitutionnellement (25 letters), meaning "anticonstitutionally" (in a way which is not conforming to the constitution). German-Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. Greek-The 173-letter word λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων. Hungarian- Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért, with 44 letters is officially the longest word in the Hungarian language and means something like "for your [plural] continued behaviour as if you could not be desecrated". It is already morphed, since Hungarian is an agglutinative language. Italian-The longest word in Italian is traditionally precipitevolissimevolmente, which is a 26-letter-long adverb. Latvian-The longest technical terms are common with other European languages, but the longest non-technical word is pretpulksteņrādītājvirziens, 27 letters long, which means "counter-clockwise direction". Māori-The 85-letter place name Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikomaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu was the longest place name in the Māori language. Polish-The Longest Polish word is Czterystaczterdzieściczterymiliardyczterystaczterdzieściczterymilionyczterystaczterdzieściczterytysiąceczterystaczterdziestoczteroletni (135 letters, meaning "444,444,444,444 years old"). Portuguese-The 46-letter word pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconióticos (plural of pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico) is the longest word. Romanian-The 44-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză is the longest word. It is a substantive referring to a disease. Serbian-The 38 letter word СемпаравThe longest Slovak word is Znajneprekryštalizovávateľnejšievajúcimi (40 letters), which means "with most anticrystallizing" Spanish-The 24-letter word electroencefalografistas, referring to people who practice electroencephalography, has been cited as the longest Spanish word in actual use. Swedish-The longest word in the Swedish language, according to Guinness World Records, is Nordöstersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmaterielunderhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten (130 letters). It means "Northern Baltic Sea Coast Artillery Reconnaissance Flight Simulator Facility Equipment Maintenance Follow-Up System Discussion Post Preparation Work(s). Turkish-Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, at 70 letters, has been cited as the longest Turkish word, though it should be noted that it is a compound word and that Turkish, as an agglutinative language, carries the potential for words of theoretically infinite length. I remember doing this at school here is a bounus we learnt a English senetece that has all the letters of the alaphabet:The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

11:41, 7 May 2012

kokopelli

In Welsh: "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"

00:47, 28 March 2012

Adam.ONeill

This question isn't as simple as it sounds I'm afraid. The common answer you'll get for English is antidisestablishmentarianism. It is what is known as a "stunt word" - a word made only to prove a point, but which doesn't carry much of a meaning and will rarely if ever be used. In this case, it's just combining smaller words and prefixes into the longest one possible. The general meaning is that it refers to a movement of people in the 1800s who were against removing the Church of England from power in the UK. However, you can go longer than this if you allow medical terms to be used. Many medical terms are, similarly, just long strings of smaller words and prefixes. For example, you can have the word Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which more or less means the same thing as silicosis. There's an industry that takes it to an even more ridiculous extreme though - chemistry. The scientific names of chemicals have to exactly contain all of the atoms that comprise the chemical, and some proteins can be really very long... As far as I can remember, there is a protein name that is about 200,000 letters long, but chemists are always making new proteins, so this record could easily be beaten anytime. UPDATE: Here's the full chemical name for you http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminaryuprise/longest-word.php

05:53, 27 March 2012

barbszeder

I vote for "megszentsegtelenithetetlensegeskedes" in Hungarian: it is ten times suffixed and means sg like "impossibiltiy of subsacrificing", but if you find a longer one, i am really curious. In English i have no idea.

04:07, 27 March 2012