Longest words

The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration. Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Even non-agglutinative languages may allow word formation of theoretically limitless length in certain contexts. Words consisting of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of characters have been coined with the goal of being ranked among the world's longest words; technical scientific terms can run to hundreds of thousands of characters in length. Place names may not be accepted on lists of longest words despite their length. Longest word candidates may be judged by their acceptance in major dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary or in record-keeping publications like the Guinness World Records, and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.

Bulgarian

The longest word in Bulgarian is the 39 letter long Непротѝвоконститу̀цио̀нствувателству̀вайте(written in the Cyrillic alphabet). Written in the Latin alphabet the word would look - Neprotivokonstitutionstvuvatelstvuvaite. The word is written at the beginning of the Bulgarian constitution and it means "not to take actions which are against the constitution of the country".

Chinese

In terms of pronunciation, Chinese characters (Mandarin) are strictly monosyllabic. As such, a majority of words are limited to a length of three phonemes, but in the Beijing area, a fourth phoneme, usually "r", can be added (see Erhua). In Romanized spelling, no more than six letters are needed for any single Chinese character in standard pronunciation, being the likes of 双, which is spelled "shuang" in pinyin.

It should be noted that individual characters are not direct equivalents of words in the English sense, as many Chinese "words" require more than one character to express, one being 葡萄, or "grapes" in English.

Czech

Traditionally, the word nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu is considered as the longest Czech word, but there ɑre some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like -able).^{[citation needed]}

• nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu, "to the least farmable one", 30 letters
• nejzdevětadevadesáteroroznásobitelnějšími, "by the most possible to be 99-tuplable out", 41 letters
• nejnerestrukturalizovávatelnějšímu, "to the least restructurable one", 34 letters
• nejneznesrozumitelňovávatelnějšímu, "to the least able to be making less understandable", 34 letters
• nejnevykrystalizovávatelnějšímu, "to the least crystallizable one", 31 letters

(See also the Czech article.)

Danish

Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode, which is 51 letters, is the longest Danish word that has been used in an official context. It means "Period of plan stabilising for a specialist doctor's practice," and was used during negotiations with the local government.^{[citation needed]} Konstantinopolitanerinde, meaning female inhabitant of Constantinople, is often mentioned as the longest non-compound word.^{[citation needed]}

For the fairytale The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, the author Hans Christian Andersen named one of the characters Gedebukkebensoverogundergeneralkrigskommandersergenten as a parody on the long Danish military titles.

Dutch

Dutch is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length. The 49-letter word Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamheden, meaning "preparation activities for a children's carnival procession," was cited by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Dutch word.

The longest word in the authoritative Van Dale Dutch dictionary is wapenstilstandsonderhandelingen; 31 letters long, meaning "cease-fire negotiations".

The free OpenTaal dictionary, that was certified by the Dutch Language Union (i.e. the formal Dutch language institute) and that is included in many open-source applications, contains the following longest words that are 40 letters long:

• vervoerdersaansprakelijkheidsverzekering, "carriers' liability insurance";
• bestuurdersaansprakelijkheidsverzekering, "directors' liability insurance";
• overeenstemmingsbeoordelingsprocedures, "conformity assessment procedures"

English

Main article: Longest word in English

The longest technical word in English is the scientific name for the protein titin, at 189,819 letters. Titin is the largest known polypeptide in the human body, composed of 34,350 amino acids. Though lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as verbal formulae rather than English words, for its sheer length it is often included in longest-word lists.

The 45-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest English word that appears in a major dictionary. Originally coined to become a candidate for the longest word in English, the term eventually developed some independent use in medicine. It is referred to as "P45" by researchers.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, at 34 letters, is a long English word that became famous after inclusion in a song sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in the Mary Poppins 1964 film.

Antidisestablishmentarianism, at 28 letters, is the longest non-coined, non-technical English word. It refers to a 19th century political movement that opposed the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state church of England.^{[citation needed]}

Floccinaucinihilipilification, at 29 letters (and meaning the act of estimating something as being worth so little as to be practically valueless, or the habit of doing so), is the longest non-technical, coined word in the English language.^{[citation needed]}

Esperanto

The longest official Esperanto roots are 12 letters long, shown here with added the substantive "-o" ending:

• administracio (administration),
• aŭtobiografio (autobiography),
• diskriminacii (to discriminate),
• konservatorio (conservatory),
• paleontologio (palaeontology),
• paralelogramo (parallelogram), and
• trigonometrio (trigonometry).

Since Esperanto allows word compounding, there are no limits on how long a word can theoretically become. A relatively short example is the 46-letter komencopaleontologiokonservatoriaĉestriĝontajn, which is an (accusative and plural) adjective that means "about to begin to become the leader of a contemptible palaeontology conservatory". (Such clusters are not considered good style, but are permissible under the rules of Esperanto grammar.)

Estonian

Estonian has many long words; one of the more notable ones, at 24 characters, is kuulilennuteetunneliluuk, meaning "the hatch a bullet flies out of when exiting a tunnel". It is notable as it is also a palindrome, meaning it can be read from both ends.

One other long word is uusaastaöövastuvõtuhommikuidüll at 31 characters, denoting an ideallistic morning after the new year. It can be used in a sentence such as Maalilist jõuluööeelootusaega ja illuminaarses aoõhetuses uusaastaöövastuvõtuhommikuidülli to say "merry Christmas and a happy new year".

French

The longest usual word in French is anticonstitutionnellement (25 letters), meaning "anticonstitutionally" (in a way which is not conforming to the constitution).^{[citation needed]}

Like in English, the longest technical word in French is the scientific name for titin (189,819 letters).^{[citation needed]}

German

In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) are expressed as single words, which makes siebenhundertsiebenundsiebzigtausendsiebenhundertsiebenundsiebzig (777,777) a 65 letter word. In combination with -fach or, as a noun, (das ...) -fache, all numbers are written as one word. This makes (das) Neunmilliardeneinhundertzweiundneunzigmillionensechshunderteinunddreißigtausendsiebenhundertsiebzigfache (the 9,192,631,770-fold) the longest word in the database of the Duden dictionary^{[citation needed]}. It has 104 letters, but even higher compounds of this kind are possible. Aside from this, long compound words are both relatively common and comprehensible. A 79 letter word, Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. The word refers to a division of an Austrian shipping company named the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft which transported passengers and cargo on the Danube. The longest word that is not created artificially as a longest-word record seems to be Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetzeshüter at 70 letters.

The longest known word that is not a compound word seems to be the 23 letter word Unkameradschaftlichkeit. It uses only derivations.^{[citation needed]}

Greek

In his comedy Assemblywomen (c. 392 BC) Aristophanes coined the 173-letter word λοπαδο­τεμαχο­σελαχο­γαλεο­κρανιο­λειψανο­δριμ­υπο­τριμματο­σιλφιο­καραβο­μελιτο­κατακεχυ­μενο­κιχλ­επι­κοσσυφο­φαττο­περιστερ­αλεκτρυον­οπτο­κεφαλλιο­κιγκλο­πελειο­λαγῳο­σιραιο­βαφη­τραγανο­πτερύγων. A fictional food dish consisting of a combination of fish, poultry and other meat, hare usually refers to rabbit, it is cited as the longest ancient Greek word ever written and it is the longest word ever to appear in literature.

Hebrew

The longest Hebrew word is 19 letters long: ושכשאנציקלופדיותינו - ushekshe entsiklopedioteinu (transliteration: wkšlʾnṣjḳlwpdjwtjnw), which means: "and that when our encyclopedias"

Explanation: ו - u - and (when waw is preceding an "e" sound, sounds "u", in other cases sounds "ve")

u she - and that - וש

ushe kshe - and that when - ושכש

ushekshe entsiklopediot - and that when encyclopaedias - ושכשאנציקלופדיות

ushekshe entsiklopediot einu - and that when our encyclopedias - ושכשאנציקלופדיותינו

The 11-letter word "וְהָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִים" is the longest word to appear in the Hebrew Old Testament. Its meaning is "and the satraps".

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. For this reason, it is possible to create words such as összetettszóhosszúságvilágrekorddöntéskényszerneurózistünetegyüttes-megnyilvánulásfejleszthetőségvizsgálatszervezésellenőrzésiügyosztály-létszámleépítésellenesakciócsoporttagságiigazolványmegújításikérelem-elutasítóhatározatgyűjteményértékesítőnagyvállalatátalakításutó-finanszírozáspályázatelbírálóalapítványkuratóriumelnökhelyettesellenes-merényletkivizsgálóbizottságiüléselnapolásindítványbenyújtásiforma-nyomtatványkitöltögetésellenőrizhetőség-próba, which is 447 characters long and refers to a committee and its cognizance. Of course in reality, such a committee could not exist; in addition, it contradicts the Hungarian orthography.

The longest dictionary form word is the non-morphed form of the longest word in use, megszentségteleníthetetlen, with 25 characters, and means "cannot be desecrated".

Another word that conforms to Hungarian orthography: legeslegtöredezettségmentesíthetetlenebbeskedéseitekért can be translated to something like "because of your highest unfragmentationability factor".

Italian

The longest word in Italian is traditionally precipitevolissimevolmente, which is a 26-letter-long adverb. It is formed by subsequent addition of postfixes to the original root:

1. precipitevole: "hasty";
2. precipitevolissimo: "very hasty";
3. precipitevolissimevole: "[of someone/something] that acts very hastily", (not grammatically correct);
4. precipitevolissimevolmente: "in a way like someone/something the acts very hastily" (not grammatically correct, but nowadays part of the language).

The word is never used in every-day language, but in jokes. Nevertheless, it is an official part of Italian language; it was coined in 1677 by poet Francesco Moneti:

finché alla terra alfin torna repente / precipitevolissimevolmente

—Francesco Moneti, Cortona Convertita, canto III, LXV

It is to be noted that the word technically violates Italian grammar rules, the correct form being precipitevolissimamente, which is three letters and one syllable shorter. The poet coined the new word to have 11 syllables in the second verse.

Other words can be created with a similar (and grammatically correct) mechanism starting from a longer root, winding up with a longer word. Some examples are:

• sovramagnificentissimamente (cited by Dante Alighieri in De vulgari eloquentia), 27 letters, "in a way that is more than magnificent by far" (archaic)[1];
• incontrovertibilissimamente, 27 letters, "in a way that is very difficult to falsify";
• particolareggiatissimamente, 27 letters, "in an extremely detailed way";
• anticostituzionalissimamente, 28 letters, "in a way that strongly violates the constitution".

The longest accepted neologism is psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia (30 letters).^{[citation needed]}

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".^{[citation needed]}

Lithuanian

The two longest Lithuanian words are 37 letters long: 1) the adjective septyniasdešimtseptyniastraipsniuose - the plural locative case of the adjective septyniasdešimtseptyniastraipsnis, meaning "(object) with seventy-seven articles"; 2) the participle nebeprisikiškiakopūsteliaudavusiuose, "in those that were repeatedly unable to pick enough of small wood-sorrels in the past" - the plural locative case of past iterative active participle of verb kiškiakopūsteliauti meaning "to pick wood-sorrels" (edible forest plant with sour taste, word by word translation "rabbit cabbage"). The word is commonly attributed to famous Lithuanian language teacher Jonas Kvederaitis, who actually used the plural first person of past iterative tense, nebeprisikiškiakopūstaudavome.^{[citation needed]}

There are two Lithuanian words sharing 35 letters: 1) the participle nebeprisikiškiakopūsteliaudavusiems, "for those who were repeatedly unable to pick enough of small wood-sorrels in the past" - the plural dative case of past iterative active participle of the verb kiškiakopūsteliauti; 2) the adjective septyniasdešimtseptyniasluoksniuose - the plural locative case of the adjective septyniasdešimtseptyniasluoksnis meaning "(object) with seventy-seven layers".

Māori

The 85-letter place name Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikomaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu was the longest place name in the Māori language.^{[citation needed]}

Norwegian

The longest word in Norwegian, that is a real word in ordinary use, is menneskerettighetsorganisasjonene (33 letters).^{[citation needed]} The meaning is "the organizations of human rights". The physics term minoritetsladningsbærerdiffusjonskoeffisientmålingsapparatur has 60 characters, but is not a common word. Its meaning is "(a) device for measuring the distance between particles in a crystal".

In theory, though, it is possible in Norwegian to make words as long as one wants; for instance, menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretæren (the secretary of an organization of human rights), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkurset (a course for secretaries working for organizations of human rights), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkursmateriellet (material for a course for secretaries working for organizations of human rights), and so on, are possible.

Polish

Longest Polish words are adjectives created from numerals and nouns.^{[citation needed]}

Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego, 54 letters, is an inclined genitive form of word, meaning roughly "of nine-hundred and ninety-nine nationalities".

Similar words are rather artificial compounds, constructed within allowed grammar rules, but are seldom used in spoken language, although they are not nonsense words. It's possible to make even longer words that way, for example:

Czterystaczterdzieściczterymiliardyczterystaczterdzieściczterymilionyczterystaczterdzieściczterytysiąceczterystaczterdziestoczteroletni (135 letters, meaning "444,444,444,444 years old").

One of longest common words is 31-letter dziewięćdziesięciokilkoletniemu - a form of "ninety-and-some years old one". Another ones are Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka (32 letters) - an old-fashioned word for an unmarried daughter of a man from of Constantinople and pięćdziesięciogroszówka (23 letters) - "a 50 groszy coin".

Portuguese

The 46-letter word pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconióticos (plural of pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico) is the longest word^{[citation needed]} . It is an adjective referring to a sufferer of the disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The 29-letter word anticonstitucionalissimamente (in a very unconstitutional way) is recognized as being the longest non-technical word.^{[citation needed]}

Romanian

The 44-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză is the longest word. It is an substantive referring to a disease.

The 19-letter word ininteligibilităţii is the longest word which contains letter "i" repeated eight times.

Russian

The 40-letter word никотинамидадениндинуклеотидфосфатгидрин (nikotinamidadenindinukleotidfosfatgidrin), also НАДФ (NADF) - nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, is the longest word.^{[citation needed]} The longest originally-Russian word is частнопредпринимательскими, which contains 26 letters, means "[with] that which is owned by an entrepreneur". Numeral compounds, such as Тысячевосьмисотвосьмидесятидевятимикрометровый (tysiachevosmisotvosmidesiatideviatimikrometrovyi), which is an adjective containing 46 letters, means "1889-micrometer".^{[citation needed]}

Sanskrit

Sanskrit has a colossal capacity to make a word as long as one desires, as nouns and verbs and their meanings can be expressed in one word. The longest word ever used in Sanskrit literature is:

निरन्तरान्धकारिता-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-रयन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-फुल-तल्प-फल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुत्रक-मिलदलघु-लघु-लय-कलित-रमणोय-पानोय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-करुतूरिकातिसौरथ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शोतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदोय-विमल-विलोचन-मयू-रव-रेरवापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान्

from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū of Tirumalāmbā

Each hyphen separates every individual word this word is composed of.

The approximate meaning of this word is: "In it, the distress, caused by thirst, to travellers was alleviated by clusters of rays of the bright eyes of the girls; the rays that were shaming the currents of light, sweet and cold water charged with the strong fragrance of cardamom, clove, saffron, camphor and musk and flowing out of the pitchers (held in) the lotus-like hands of maidens (seated in) the beautiful water-sheds, made of the thick roots of Andropogon muricatus mixed with marjoram, (and built near) the foot, covered with heaps of couch-like soft sand, of the clusters of newly sprouting mango trees, which constantly darkened the intermediate space of the quarters, and which looked all the more charming on account of the trickling drops of the floral juice, which thus caused the delusion of a row of thick rainy clouds, densely filled with abundant nectar."

Serbian

The 38 letter word Семпаравиливичинаверсаламилитипиковски (Serbian Cyrillic script - Cirilica/ћирилица), (Semparavilivičinaversalamilitipikovski) (Serbian Latin script - Latinica/латиница) is a last name from a family in old Yugoslavia. This is the longest known word in Serbian language.

Slovak

The longest Slovak word is Znajneprekryštalizovávateľnejšievajúcimi (40 letters), which means "with most anticrystallizing" in plural.^{[citation needed]}

Spanish

Main article: Longest word in 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)." Since compound words are written together to form entirely new words, the "longest one" could be infinitely long.

Realisationsvinstbeskattning (28 letters) is the longest word in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista. It means "capital gains tax".

Tagalog

The longest known Filipino word is 32-letter, 13-syllable Nagsisipagsisinungasinungalingan, which means "trying to tell fake lies to another."

Turkish

Main article: Longest word in 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.^{[citation needed]}

1. Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, at 70 letters, means "As though you are from those we may not be able to easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones".

2. Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdan mısınız? means "Are you one of those people whom we could not make resemble from Czechoslovakia?"

3. Afyonkarahisarlılaştırabildiklerimizdenmişsinizcesine means "As if you are one of the people that we made resemble from Afyonkarahisar".

Word formation

Turkish	English
Muvaffak	Successful
Muvaffakiyet	Success
Muvaffakiyetsiz	Unsuccessful ('without success')
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek)	(To) become unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştir(-mek)	(To) make one unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştirici	Maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileş(-mek)	(To) become a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştir(-mek)	(To) make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriver(-mek)	(To) easily/quickly make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriverebil(-mek)	(To) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebil(-mek)	Not (to) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecek	One who is not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecekler	Those who are not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimiz	Those who we cannot make easily/quickly a maker unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizden	From those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmiş	(Would be) from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsiniz	You would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine	Like you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones

Vietnamese

Nghiêng, with 7 letters, meaning "inclined", is the longest word in the single-syllable Vietnamese language.^{[citation needed]}

Welsh

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a railway station on the island of Anglesey in Wales, is the longest place name in the Welsh language. At 51 letters in the Welsh alphabet, the name can be translated as "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave". However, it was artificially contrived in the 1860s as a publicity stunt, to give the station the longest name of any railway station in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Morphology (linguistics)
• Longest English sentence