A Catalogue of Useless Facts

Long Words

Long Words
- linguistics -

​​​Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconeosis -- defined as a lung disease contracted from inhaling volcanic dust -- is frequently listed as the longest word in the English dictionary. Its title is disputed, though, as it was coined in 1935 with the specific intent of creating the longest word, and its usage is mainly limited to examples of long words.

Another disputed term is the full name of the protein titin ("methionyl[...]isoleucine") which clocks in at 189,819 letters. As it is derived from a systematic method of describing chemical compounds instead of standard linguistic use, it is not considered a real English word.

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Sources ▼

http://jeff560.tripod.com/words11.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20100114221953/http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminar...