The longest English word:
The question of determining the longest English word inevitably boils down
to defining what is acceptable as a word, since prefixes/suffixes can be
adjoined to words to make longer words and because medical/chemical terms
can get arbitrarily long. Further, most contenders for the honor of being
the longest word are likely to be very rare in actual usage - so rare, in
fact that they could be considered nonce words. The most common candidates
for the crown, in my opinion, are antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters),
floccinaucinihilipilification
(29 letters) and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis (45 letters).
The first is the only one of the three that was not specifically constructed
for the purpose of being a very long word. It means opposition to the
separation of church and state. The second, meaning the estimation of
something as worthless, is the longest non-technical word in the OED. The
latter, supposedly a lung disease, appears to be a semi-serious concoction.
Lexically interesting words.
Longest word without a vowel:
symphysy. Runners-up: nymphly, rhythms, gypsyfy, gypsyry.
Excluding 'y': crwths.
Longest word with at most 1 vowel:
glycyphyllin, psychorhythm. Word with most vowels:
counterrevolutionaries. Word with most consecutive vowels (5):
cooeeing, miaoued, miaouing, queueing. (Euouae, consisting of nothing but 6
vowels, is of doubtful legitimacy.) Smallest word with all 5 vowels:
eulogia, miaoued, sequoia. Longest word with only 3 distinct alphabets:
seeresses. Longest word with only 4 distinct alphabets:
senselessness. Longest word with no repeated letter:
dermatoglyphics. Longest word with letters in alphabetical order:
aegilops. Longest word with letters in reverse alphabetical order:
trollied. Longest word that can be typed with the right hand alone
(on a qwerty keyboard): phyllophyllin. Longest word that can be typed with
the left hand alone
(on a qwerty keyboard): devertebrated. Longest word that can be typed using
the top row
(of a qwerty keyboard): rupturewort. Runners-up: peppertree, pepperwort,
perpetuity, proprietor, repertoire, tetterwort, typewriter.
Interesting words with the substring 'uu':
continuum, fatuus, menstruum, residiuum, vacuum. Word with the maximum
number of distinct alphabets (16):
blepharoconjunctivitis, formaldehydesulphoxylic, pneumoventriculography,
pseudolamellibranchiate, superacknowledgment. Word with most a's (6):
astragalocalcaneal, calcaneoastragalar, taramasalata. Word with most e's
(7):
electrotelethermometer. Word with most i's (6):
impossibilification, indistinguishability, indivisibility, minimifidianism,
pericardiomediastinitis. Word with most o's (6):
choledochoduodenostomy, duodenocholedochotomy, monogonoporous,
odontonosology, proctocolonoscopy, pseudomonocotyledonous,
zoologicoarchaeologist. Word with most u's (5):
untumultous. Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing
consecutively:
mnop: cremnophobia, gymnopaedic, gymnoplast, limnophile, somnopathy (and a
few others). rstu: overstudy, overstuff, understudy, afterstudy,
overstudious, superstuff, understuff.
Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing consecutively
in reverse order:
ponm: tamponment, weaponmaker. Words with 3 consecutive s's:
bossship, headmistressship, patronessship. The last word:
zyzzyva. TYPEWRITER (10 letters) can be typed using only the top row of keys
on a standard keyboard.
FICKLEHEADED and FIDDLEDEEDEE are the longest English words consisting only
of letters in the first half of the alphabet, each being 12 letters long.
PARADIGM was the word most frequently looked up in 1998 in the
Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct
spelling) according to a study of Usenet traffic some years ago were
DUMBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI,
PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and
PRONUNCIATION.
HIRSCHSPRUNG'S (DISEASE) has seven consecutive consonants, as does
SCHTSCHUROWSKIA.
Beijing and Fiji have three dotted letters in a row.
The alphabetical sequence -RSTU- is contained in OVERSTUFF, OVERSTUDIOUS,
OVERSTUNK, UNDERSTUFF, UNDERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUD, OVERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUFF,
UNDERSTUDY, and BIERSTUBE.
The only other four-letter alphabetical sequence found in English is -MNOP-,
which is found, for example, in these words: CREMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPAEDIC,
GYMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPLAST, LIMNOPHILE, LIMNOPHORA, LIMNOPHORID, LIMNOPLANKTON,
SEMNOPITHECINE, SOMNOPATHY, and THAMNOPHILE.
If the alphabet is treated as a continuous loop, however, there is also
-YZAB- in ANALYZABLE.
Here are some examples words containing double letters, for each letter of
the alphabet: AARDVARK, ABBOT, ACCENT, ADD, FEED, OFF, EGG, WITHHOLD,
SKIING, AVIJJA, BOOKKEEPER, ILL, IMMUNE, ANNOY, HOOP, APPLE, HUQQA, ARRAY,
KISS, LITTLE, VACUUM, SAVVY, SLOWWORM, WAXXENN, CUBBYYEW, and DAZZLE.
HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of
alternating vowels and consonants.
The longest common word without any of the five vowels is RHYTHMS.
The shortest word containing all five vowels exactly once is the six-letter
EUNOIA, meaning alertness of mind an will (and also the title of a book by
Canadian poet Christian Bok).
The shortest word with the five vowels occurring in alphabetical order is
AERIOUS (airy), which has seven letters. The longest such word is
PHRAGELLIORHYNCHUS (a protozoan) with 18 letters.
ULTRAREVOLUTIONARIES has each vowel exactly twice. The shortest such word is
CUBOIDEONAVICULARE, and the longest, USSOLZEWIECHINOGAMMARUS (a small
crustacean).
Some English words..................
Floccinaucinihilipilification = It means "the estimation of something as
worthless."
Examples: I loved him for nothing so much as his
floccinaucinihilipilification of money. --William Shenstone, Letters
Some more english words:
They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccinaucinihilipilification
of all that can gratify the outward man. --Sir Walter Scott, Journal
The longest word in the dictionary containing no letter more than once is
"smiley." (There is a mile between the first and last letter.) AMAZING
ENGLISH WORDS The longest English word:
The question of determining the longest English word inevitably boils down
to defining what is acceptable as a word, since prefixes/suffixes can be
adjoined to words to make longer words and because medical/chemical terms
can get arbitrarily long. Further, most contenders for the honor of being
the longest word are likely to be very rare in actual usage - so rare, in
fact that they could be considered nonce words. The most common candidates
for the crown, in my opinion, are antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters),
floccinaucinihilipilification
(29 letters) and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis (45 letters).
The first is the only one of the three that was not specifically constructed
for the purpose of being a very long word. It means opposition to the
separation of church and state. The second, meaning the estimation of
something as worthless, is the longest non-technical word in the OED. The
latter, supposedly a lung disease, appears to be a semi-serious concoction.
Lexically interesting words. .
Longest word without a vowel:
symphysy. Runners-up: nymphly, rhythms, gypsyfy, gypsyry.
Excluding 'y': crwths.
Longest word with at most 1 vowel:
glycyphyllin, psychorhythm. Word with most vowels:
counterrevolutionaries.
Word with most consecutive vowels (5):
cooeeing, miaoued, miaouing, queueing. (Euouae, consisting of nothing but 6
vowels, is of doubtful legitimacy.)
Smallest word with all 5 vowels:
eulogia, miaoued, sequoia. Longest word with only 3 distinct alphabets:
seeresses.
Longest word with only 4 distinct alphabets:
senselessness.
Longest word with no repeated letter:
dermatoglyphics.
Longest word with letters in alphabetical order:
aegilops. Longest word with letters in reverse alphabetical order:
trollied.
Longest word that can be typed with the right hand alone
(on a qwerty keyboard): phyllophyllin. Longest word that can be typed with
the left hand alone
(on a qwerty keyboard): devertebrated. Longest word that can be typed using
the top row
(of a qwerty keyboard): rupturewort. Runners-up: peppertree, pepperwort,
perpetuity, proprietor, repertoire, tetterwort, typewriter.
Interesting words with the substring 'uu':
continuum, fatuus, menstruum, residiuum, vacuum.
Word with the maximum number of distinct alphabets (16):
blepharoconjunctivitis, formaldehydesulphoxylic, pneumoventriculography,
pseudolamellibranchiate, superacknowledgment. Word with most a's (6):
astragalocalcaneal, calcaneoastragalar, taramasalata.
Word with most e's (7): electrotelethermometer.
Word with most i's (6): impossibilification, indistinguishability, indivisibility, minimifidianism,pericardiomediastinitis.
Word with most o's (6): choledochoduodenostomy, duodenocholedochotomy, monogonoporous,odontonosology, proctocolonoscopy, pseudomonocotyledonous,
zoologicoarchaeologist.
Word with most u's (5):untumultous.
Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing
consecutively:
mnop: cremnophobia, gymnopaedic, gymnoplast, limnophile, somnopathy (and a
few others). rstu: overstudy, overstuff, understudy, afterstudy,
overstudious, superstuff, understuff.
Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing consecutively
in reverse order:
ponm: tamponment, weaponmaker. Words with 3 consecutive s's:
bossship, headmistressship, patronessship. The last word:
zyzzyva. TYPEWRITER (10 letters) can be typed using only the top row of keys
on a standard keyboard.
FICKLEHEADED and FIDDLEDEEDEE are the longest English words consisting only
of letters in the first half of the alphabet, each being 12 letters long.
PARADIGM was the word most frequently looked up in 1998 in the
Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct
spelling) according to a study of Usenet traffic some years ago were
DUMBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI,
PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and
PRONUNCIATION.
HIRSCHSPRUNG'S (DISEASE) has seven consecutive consonants, as does
SCHTSCHUROWSKIA.
Beijing and Fiji have three dotted letters in a row.
The alphabetical sequence -RSTU- is contained in OVERSTUFF, OVERSTUDIOUS,
OVERSTUNK, UNDERSTUFF, UNDERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUD, OVERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUFF,
UNDERSTUDY, and BIERSTUBE.
The only other four-letter alphabetical sequence found in English is -MNOP-,
which is found, for example, in these words: CREMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPAEDIC,
GYMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPLAST, LIMNOPHILE, LIMNOPHORA, LIMNOPHORID, LIMNOPLANKTON,
SEMNOPITHECINE, SOMNOPATHY, and THAMNOPHILE.
If the alphabet is treated as a continuous loop, however, there is also
-YZAB- in ANALYZABLE.
Here are some examples words containing double letters, for each letter of
the alphabet: AARDVARK, ABBOT, ACCENT, ADD, FEED, OFF, EGG, WITHHOLD,
SKIING, AVIJJA, BOOKKEEPER, ILL, IMMUNE, ANNOY, HOOP, APPLE, HUQQA, ARRAY,
KISS, LITTLE, VACUUM, SAVVY, SLOWWORM, WAXXENN, CUBBYYEW, and DAZZLE.
HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of
alternating vowels and consonants.
The longest common word without any of the five vowels is RHYTHMS.
The shortest word containing all five vowels exactly once is the six-letter
EUNOIA, meaning alertness of mind an will (and also the title of a book by
Canadian poet Christian Bok).
The shortest word with the five vowels occurring in alphabetical order is
AERIOUS (airy), which has seven letters. The longest such word is
PHRAGELLIORHYNCHUS (a protozoan) with 18 letters.
ULTRAREVOLUTIONARIES has each vowel exactly twice. The shortest such word is
CUBOIDEONAVICULARE, and the longest, USSOLZEWIECHINOGAMMARUS (a small
crustacean).
Some English words..................
Floccinaucinihilipilification = It means "the estimation of something as
worthless."
Examples: I loved him for nothing so much as his
floccinaucinihilipilification of money. --William Shenstone, Letters
Some more english words:
They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccinaucinihilipilification
of all that can gratify the outward man. --Sir Walter Scott, Journal
The longest word in the dictionary containing no letter more than once is
"smiley." (There is a mile between the first and last letter.)
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