Longest words

For the mathematical concept of the longest word in a Coxeter group, see Longest element of a Coxeter group.

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 Guinness World Records, and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.

Table

Max Language [ 8784 people was at Questionnarie (Real of 86 percent people)]
70/∞Turkish (Longest),(Honest)
176/∞Polish
173/∞Greek
136/∞Afrikaans
85Māori
431/∞Sanskrit (Longest)
64Icelandic
59Tagalog
56/∞Hungarian
54Spanish
53/∞Dutch
47Georgian
46Malay
45English
44Romanian
44Slovak
41Czech
40Lithuanian
39Bulgarian
35Basque
33Kazakh
30Serbo-Croatian
30Italian
29Portuguese
29Armenian
27Albanian
27French
27Latvian
26Irish
26Slovenian
25Hebrew and Indonesian
20Arabic
12/∞Esperanto (shortest)
∞Danish
∞Estonian
∞Finnish
∞German
∞Russian
∞Swedish
∞Norwegian

Afrikaans

Afrikaans, as it is the daughter language of the Dutch language, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length in the same way as in the Dutch language. According to the Total Book of South African Records, the longest word in the language is[1] Tweedehandsemotorverkoopsmannevakbondstakingsvergaderingsameroeperstoespraakskrywerspersverklaringuitreikingsmediakonferensieaankondiging (136 letters), which means issuable media conference's announcement at a press release regarding the convener's speech at a secondhand car dealership union's strike meeting. This word, however, is contrived to be long and does not occur in everyday speech or writing.

Albanian

The longest word in the Albanian language is thought to be Kundërzhurmëkrijuesabërësave,[2] which is 27 letters long, and means "Against noise maker makers".

Arabic

A common misconception is that the 9 letter word فسيكفيكهم (fasayakfeekahumu, "so he will save you from them") is the longest word in the Qur'an and Arabic language. This word is not the longest word in the Qur'an and not the longest in the Arabic language. For example, take the word فأسقيناكموه (’fa’asqaynakumuhu, "and We gave it to you to drink"); this word is two letters longer than the previous one and it is the longest word in the Qur'an. The actual longest word in Arabic is أفاستسقيناكموها (’afastasqaynakumuha, "did we ask you to give it to us to drink"), which is a 15 letter word.

Armenian

The longest word in Armenian language is considered the 29 letter-long Արևաճաճանչաերկրափայլատակություն (Arevajajanchaerkrapaylatakutyun). It means more or less "rays of sun lighting up everything," or, more simply, "sunshine."

The Armenian language is agglutinative and words are often formed by compounding elements and adding suffixes that modify a root word; this can be carried to extremes by creative speakers, and theoretically endless words can be made. Արեգակնաճաճանչացողապայծառափայլատակութիւն ("Arekagnajajanchatsoghabaydzarrap'ayladagoutiun") is a 40-letter variation of similar meaning to the above word ("brilliance of the solar radiation gleaming on dewdrops"). Theoretical words include 41-letter մանրաշաքարաւազանամանավաճառապետուհիներնուն ("manrashak'aravazanamanavajarrabedouhinernoon") - "for our finely ground sugar bowl chief saleswomen," and 97-letter անուշարքայամորեհամեղահամապաղպաղակադաշխուրանահմուտավաճառանդամակցմատեղակալայառաջագահապարապութիւնները ("anoushark'ayamorehameghahamabaghbaghagatashkhouranahmoudavajarrantamagts'madeghagalaharrachakahabaraboutiunnere") - "the vice chairmanship of the senior sweet raspberry-flavored ice cream vendors' association vacancies."

Basque

The longest word in Basque language is considered the 35 letter-long konstituziokontrakotasunarekikoetan followed by a 34 letter word bederatziehungarrenarenganainokoak.

The longest last name is Jaureguiñalaberrigoyakoiturrimendiolaberrigoitiechezarreta (58) followed by Gaztelubarriurrutikoberrengormaetxebarrialdeconecoa (51) and Iturriberrigorrigoicoerrotaberricoganekoechea (45).

The longest basque toponym is Azpilicuetagaraycosaroyarenberecolarrea (39).[3]

Bulgarian

The longest word in Bulgarian is considered the 39 letter-long непротивоконституционствувателствувайте (neprotivokonstitutsionstvuvatelstvuvayte).,[4] which means "do not perform actions against the constitution" (addressed to more than 1 person).

Croatian

Officially the longest word in Croatian is the 30-letter long prijestolonasljednikovičičinima (lj, nj and dj are considered as a single letters in the Croatian alphabet). Translation would be "of little heiress apparent to the throne" in plural dative case. There are also forms of long words which include numbers, but those words are never officially counted as the longest since one could form indefinitely long words in such way (e.g. 28 letters long sedamdesetsedmerogodišnjakinja which would mean "a 77-year-old woman").

Czech

Traditionally, the word nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu (adj, to the worst farmable one) is considered as the longest Czech word, but there are 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).

(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. Konstantinopolitanerinde, 24 letters, meaning female inhabitant of Constantinople, is often mentioned as the longest non-compound word.

But even longer words can be created as Danish grammar allows its user to put nouns together, forming brand new words, making it possible for a word to be arbitrarily long.

For instance, for the fairytale The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, the author Hans Christian Andersen named one of the characters Gedebukkebensoverogundergeneralkrigskommandersergenten ("General-clothes-press-inspector-head-superintendent-Goat-legs" or in direct translation "Goaty-legged-above-and-under-general-war-commanding-sergeant") as a parody on the long Danish military titles which is 54 letters long.

Another example is multiplikationsudregningstabelshæfteopbevaringsreolsproduktionsfacilitet, 77 letters, which is "Production facility of storage shelves of boxes for notebooks for the calculations of multiplication tables." This can be extended by another two letters by adding "-er" to the end of the word, causing the word to be in plural

Dutch

Dutch, like many Germanic languages, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length. The 53-letter word Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedenplan, meaning "preparation activities plan for a children's carnival procession", was cited by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Dutch word.[5]

The longest word in the authoritative Van Dale Dutch dictionary (2009 edition) in plural form is meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornissen;[6] 38 letters long, meaning "multiple personality disorders". The entry in the dictionary however is in the singular, counting 35 letters.

The free OpenTaal dictionary,[7] which has been certified by the Dutch Language Union (the official Dutch language institute) and is included in many open-source applications, contains the following longest words, which are 40 letters long:

The word often said to be the longest in Dutch – probably because of its funny meaning and alliteration – which has also appeared in print, is Hottentottensoldatententententoonstellingsbouwterrein ("exhibition ground for Hottentot soldiers' tents"); counting 53 letters.

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.[8] Originally coined to become a candidate for the longest word in English, the term eventually developed some independent use in medicine.[9] It is referred to as "P45" by researchers.[10]

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.

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.

Esperanto

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

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 letters, is "kuulilennuteetunneliluuk", meaning "hatch of the bullet pathway 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 letters, denoting an idealistic 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".

Another good example of a long word is "sünnipäevanädalalõpupeopärastlõunaväsimus" (41 letters) which means "The tiredness one feels on the afternoon of the weekend birthday party". Translated literally by parts this becomes "birth day week end party after lunch tiredness".

As Estonian uses agglutination, it is possible to create very long words by converting the first word into the next word's genitive, forming a compound which can be arbitrarily long. One example is "isapaabulinnusabakattesulesilmamunavärvivabrikukuldväravaauvahtkonnaülemapühapäevajakirinnataskusisevoodrivahe" at 114 characters, meaning "the peacock's tail's covert feather's eyeball's color factory's golden gate's guard's head's Sunday jacket's breast pocket's inner lining gap". Because of this, there is no official "longest word" in the language.

Finnish

Three examples of long words that have been in everyday use in the Finnish language are kolmivaihekilowattituntimittari which means "three phase kilowatt hour meter" (32 letters), peruspalveluliikelaitoskuntayhtymä ("a public utility of a municipal federation for provision of basic services", 34 letters)[12] and lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas "airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student" (61 letters), an actual military term, although one which has been deprecated. If conjugated forms are allowed, even longer real words can be made. Allowing derivatives and clitics allows the already lengthy word to grow even longer, although the usability of the word starts to degrade. Because Finnish uses free forming of composite words, new words can even be formed during a conversation. One can add nouns after each other without breaking grammar rules.

If one allows artificial constructs as well as using clitics and conjugated forms, one can create even longer words: such as kumarreksituteskenteleentuvaisehkollaismaisekkuudellisenneskenteluttelemattomammuuksissansakaankopahan (102 letters), which was created by Artturi Kannisto.[13]

The longest non-compound (a single stem with prefixes and suffixes) Finnish word recognised by the Guinness Book of Records is epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän (see also Agglutination#Extremes), based on the stem järki (reason, sanity), and it means: I wonder if – even with his/her quality of not having been made unsystematized

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä and a defunct bar named after it, Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsi-baari, are the longest place names in use.

French

The longest usual word in French is intergouvernementalisations (27 letters), plural form of intergouvernementalisation (26 letters) [14] but the longest known word is "anticonstitutionnellement" (25 letters).

As in English, the longest technical word in French is the scientific name for titin (189,819 letters).

Georgian

In Georgian, გადმოსაკონტრრევოლუციონერებლებისნაირებისათვისაცო (gadmosakontrrevolutsionerebulebisnairebisatvisatso) is the most commonly accepted longest word. It contains 47 letters and means: (he/she) said that it is also for those who are like the ones that need to be back/again counter-revolutionized.

German

In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) can be 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 can be written as one word. A 79 letter word, Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1972 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. The word was the name of a prewar Viennese club for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the electrical division of the company named the Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft, which operated steam boats on the Danube river.

The longest word that is not created artificially as a longest-word record seems to be Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz at 63 letters. The word means "law delegating beef label monitoring" but as of 2013, it was removed from the books because European Union regulations have changed and that particular law became obsolete, leading to news reports that Germany "had lost its longest word".[15]

Greek

In his comedy Assemblywomen (c. 392 BC) Aristophanes coined the 173-letter word Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleio-lagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon, a fictional food dish consisting of a combination of fish and other meat. The word is cited as the longest ancient Greek word ever written.[16] A modern Greek word of 22 letters is ηλεκτροεγκεφαλογράφημα (ilektroenkefalográfima) (gen. ηλεκτροεγκεφαλογραφήματος (ilektroenkefalografímatos), 25 letters) meaning "electroencephalogram".

Hebrew

The longest Hebrew word is the 19-letter-long (including vowels) וכשלאנציקלופדיותינו (u'chshelentsiklopedioténu), which means "and when our encyclopedias...." The Hebrew word "אנציקלופדיה" (encyclopedia) is of a European origin. The longest word in Hebrew that doesn't originate from another language is "וכשלהתמרמרויותינו," (u'lechshehitmarmeruyoteno) which crudely means "and when, to our resentments...."

The 11-letter-long (including vowels) וְהָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִים (veha'aḥashdarpením) is the longest word to appear in the Hebrew Bible. Its meaning is "and the satraps". This word also does not have a Hebrew origin.

Hungarian

Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért, with 44 letters is one example of a long 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. The language does not have a "longest word" due to its agglutinating nature. It is always possible to construct a longer one with enough creativity. For example, legösszetettebbszóhosszúságvilágrekorddöntéskényszerneurózistünetegyüttesmegnyilvánulásfejleszthetőségvizsgálataitokról (119 letters), which means: "About your investigations of the upgradeability of the manifestation of the syndrome of the neurosis about the need to decide which is the world record of the most complex longest word."

The longest dictionary form word is the word in use (although it is constructed from the word: szent meaning: "saint"), megszentségteleníthetetlen, with 25 characters, and means "something that cannot be desecrated".

Another word that conforms to Hungarian orthography: legeslegtöredezettségmentesíthetetlenebbeskedéseitekért (67 letters) can be translated to something like "because of your highest unfragmentationability factor".

Icelandic

The longest word in Icelandic is Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringafingrafar.[17] It has 72 letters and means "The fingerprint on a ring on a key chain for the main door of a tool storage shed used by road workers on (the hill) Vaðlaheiði".

Analysis of a corpus of contemporary Icelandic texts by Uwe Quasthoff, Sabine Fiedler and Erla Hallsteinsdóttir identified Alþjóðaflutningaverkamannasambandsins ("of the International Transport Workers' Federation"; 37 letters) and Norðvestur-Atlantshafsfiskveiðistofnunarinnar ("of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries' Organization"; 45 letters) as the longest unhyphenated and hyphenated words.[18]

Indonesian

The longest word in Indonesian is ketidakbertanggungjawabannyalah, means "it is his/her irresponsibility that (does something)", in the order form. It is composed of 31 letters.

Irish

The longest word in common use in Irish is leas-phríomhfheidhmeannaigh, meaning "deputy chief executives." It has 26 letters.

Italian

The longest word in Italian is traditionally precipitevolissimevolmente, which is a 26-letter-long adverb.[19] 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 that 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

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:

The longest accepted neologism is psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia (30 letters)..

Other long words are:

Japanese

グレートブリテンおよび北アイルランド連合王国 has 22 "letters" when kana and kanji are counted as letters. It is pronounced Gurēto Buriten Oyobi Kita-Airurando Rengou Ōkoku (ぐれーとぶりてんおよびきたあいるらんどれんごうおうこく) which is 27 morae. It is a noun meaning "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

Kazakh

The longest Kazakh word is қанағаттандырылмағандықтарыңыздан (qanağattandırılmağandıqtarıñızdan), meaning "because of your dissatisfaction". It is 33 letters long.

Korean

There is some disagreement about what is the longest word in the Korean language. The longest word appearing in the Standard Korean Dictionary published by the National Institute of the Korean Language is 청자양인각연당초상감모란문은구대접 (靑瓷陽印刻蓮唐草象嵌牡丹文銀釦대접); Revised Romanization: cheongjayang-in-gakyeondangchosang-gammoranmuneun-gudaejeop), which is a kind of ceramic bowl from the Goryeo dynasty; that word is 17 syllable blocks long, and contains a total of 46 hangul letters.[21][22] The term 니코틴아마이드 아데닌 다이뉴클레오타이드 (nikotin-amaideu adenin dainyukeulle-otaideu), a phonetic transcription of "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide", has a larger number of syllable blocks (19) but a smaller number of letters (41), and also might not qualify as a single word due to the spaces.

In proper nouns, many Korean monarchs have long posthumous names built from many different Sino-Korean nouns describing their positive characteristics, for example Sunjo of Joseon, whose full posthumous name is the 77-syllable-block 순조선각연덕현도경인순희체성응명흠광석경계천배극융원돈휴의행소윤희화준렬대중지정홍훈철모건시태형창운홍기고명박후강건수정계통수력공유범문안무정영경성효대왕 (sunjoseongag-yeondeoghyeondogyeong-insunhuicheseong-eungmyeongheumgwangseoggyeong-gyecheonbaegeug-yung-wondonhyuuihaengsoyunhuihwajunlyeoldaejungjijeonghonghuncheolmogeonsitaehyeongchang-unhong-gigomyeongbaghugang-geonsujeong-gyetongsulyeoggong-yubeommun-anmujeong-yeong-gyeongseonghyodaewang).

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".

Lithuanian

The longest Lithuanian word is 40 letters long:

One other longest Lithuanian words are 39 letters long:

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".

Malay

There are two 46-letter words that are cited to be the longest words in the Malay language. Both are technical terms:


While the longest non-technical word in the Malay language is the 23-letter word, ketidakbolehkuatkuasaan, which means "unenforceability". Also kumempertanggungjawabkannyalah (30 letters), which means "right when I gave the responsibility to him".

Māori

The 85-letter place name Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikomaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu was the longest place name in the Māori language.

Montenegrin

The longest word in Montenegrin, although not in common use, is prijestolonasljednikovićevica (30 letters), and that word is used to describe a female member of royal family.

Norwegian

The longest word in Norwegian, that is a real word in ordinary use, is menneskerettighetsorganisasjonene (33 letters). The meaning is "the human rights organizations". Being used mostly in statistics, the term sannsynlighetstetthetsfunksjonene (meaning "the probability density functions") is also 33 characters long. 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 a human rights organization), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkurset (the course for secretaries working for human rights organizations), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkursmateriellet (the material for a course for secretaries working for human rights organizations), and so on, are possible. The reason is that compounds are, unlike in English, mostly closed in Norwegian (skolebuss vs. school bus). Definite articles are also suffixed instead of being separate words (bussen vs. the bus), which may lengthen nouns by an additional two-three letters.

Polish

The longest Polish words can be created as adjectives from numerals and nouns.

Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego, 54 letters, is the genitive singular form of an adjective 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 is possible to make even longer words in this way, for example:

Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmiliardówdziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmilionówdziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćtysięcydziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcioletniego (176 letters, meaning "of 999,999,999,999 years old").

One of the longest common words is 31-letter dziewięćdziesięciokilkuletniemu – the dative singular form of "ninety-and-some years old one". Another common long word is pięćdziesięciogroszówka (23 letters), "a 50 groszy coin".

Portuguese

The 52-letter word pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconioticozinhos (plural diminutive of pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico) is the longest word . It is a plural noun referring to sufferers of the disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The 29-letter word anticonstitucionalissimamente (adverb, meaning "most anticonstitutionally") is recognized as being the longest non-technical word.

Romanian

The 44-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză is the longest word. It is a noun referring to the disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.[25]

Russian

Theoretically, it is possible to create Russian words of unlimited length, for example: прапрапра...дедушка (praprapra...dedushka, great great great...grandfather). Most likely one of the longest originally-Russian words is превысокомногорассмотрительствующий (prevysokomnogorassmotritelstvuyushchy) which contains 35 letters, in its dative singular form превысокомногорассмотрительствующему (prevysokomnogorassmotritelstvuyushchemu, with 36 letters), which can be an example of excessively official vocabulary of the 19th century. The longest numeral compounds can be longer, such as Тысячевосьмисотвосьмидесятидевятимикрометровый (Tysyachevosmisotvosmidesyatidevyatimikrometrovy), which is an adjective containing 46 letters, meaning "1889-micrometer".

Sanskrit

Sanskrit allows word compounding of arbitrary length. Nouns and verbs can be expressed in a sentence. The longest sentence ever used in Sanskrit literature is (in Devanagari):

निरन्तरान्धकारित-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-स्यन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-कुल-तल्प-कल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुवक-मिलदलघु-लघु-लय-कलित-रमणीय-पानीय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-कस्तूरिकातिसौरभ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शीतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदीय-विमल-विलोचन-मयूख-रेखापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान्

In IAST transliteration:

nirantarāndhakārita-digantara-kandaladamanda-sudhārasa-bindu-sāndratara-ghanāghana-vr̥nda-sandehakara-syandamāna-makaranda-bindu-bandhuratara-mākanda-taru-kula-talpa-kalpa-mr̥dula-sikatā-jāla-jaṭila-mūla-tala-maruvaka-miladalaghu-laghu-laya-kalita-ramaṇīya-pānīya-śālikā-bālikā-karāra-vinda-galantikā-galadelā-lavaṅga-pāṭala-ghanasāra-kastūrikātisaurabha-medura-laghutara-madhura-śītalatara-saliladhārā-nirākariṣṇu-tadīya-vimala-vilocana-mayūkha-rekhāpasārita-pipāsāyāsa-pathika-lokān

from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū by Tirumalāmbā,[26] in transliteration composed of 431 letters, thus making it the longest word ever to appear in worldwide literature.[27]

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 vetiver 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 longest word in the Serbian language, except the ones that describe a person's age, seems to be a 26-letter long word престолонаследниковићевица (prestolonaslednikovićevica), which means: Great granddaughter of the ruler (a ruler who sits on a throne). It can also be spelled пријестолонаслиједниковићевица (prijestolonaslijednikovićevica) (30), which means the same, but in ijekavian dialect. The second longest word is оториноларингологија (otorinolaringologija) (20), which means otorhinolaryngology. The longest word which describes a person's age is деведесетдеветогодишњакиња (devedesetdevetgodišnjakinja) (26), which means 99-year-old woman.

Slovak

Traditionally, the word najneobhospodarovateľnejšiemu is considered as the longest Slovak word, but there are 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).[28] [29]

Artificial words, lexically valid but never used in language

Numbers, can by considered as a single multicharacter word, but commonly written as separated numbers.

Slovenian

A 26-letter long word dialektičnomaterialističen is the longest word in Slovenian language. It means materialistic in a dialectic way.

Other long words are:

The longest Slovenian word without vowels is čmrlj which means bumblebee.

Spanish

The longest word in Spanish is the 54-letter pentakismyriahexakisquiliotetracosiohexacontapentágono ("56465-side polygon"). Other long words are "Pneumonoultramicroscopisilicovulcanoconiosis" (lung disease caused by silica poisoning), "hipopotomounstruosesquipedaliofobia" (fear of long words), "esternocleidomastoideitis" (inflammation of the sternocleidomastoid muscle) and "anticonstitucionalmente" ([proceeding in a manner that is] contrary to the constitution) and "electroencefalografistas" (specialists that do electrical scans on brains).

The word "anticonstitucionalmente" is usually considered the longest word in general use. This word can be made even longer by the addition of the absolute superlative suffix, rendering "anticonstitucionalísimamente" (i.e.: "very strongly against the constitution"). Some dictionaries (but not the RAE dictionary[30]) removed its root word ("anticonstitucional") in 2005, causing comments about it not "being a valid word anymore" and suggesting the use of "inconstitucional" as a replacement, but it doesn't have the same meaning, making this alleged removal an improper one.

The word "otorrinolaringología" is also considered the one of the longest words in general use in Spanish language.

Swedish

Realisationsvinstbeskattning (28 letters) is the longest word in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista. It means "capital gains taxation", and is usually shortened to Reavinstskatt (same meaning). However, Swedish grammar makes it possible to create arbitrarily long words. One such word is Spårvagnsaktiebolagsskensmutsskjutarefackföreningspersonalbeklädnadsmagasinsförrådsförvaltarens (94 letters) which means: "[belonging to] The manager of the depot for the supply of uniforms to the personnel of the track cleaners' union of the tramway company".[31]

Tagalog

The longest Filipino word in a dictionary is the 32-letter, 14-syllable Pinakanakapagpapabagabag-damdamin, which means "the most emotionally disturbing/upsetting thing", from the root bagabag which means "to upset".

Like all other Philippine languages, Tagalog is an agglutinative language, and because of this there are many opportunities in everyday speech to create long words (by English standards).

Examples of this include:

Turkish

Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, at 70 letters, has been cited as the longest Turkish word, though it is a compound word and Turkish, as an agglutinative language, carries the potential for words of arbitrary length.

1. Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, at 70 letters, means "As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones".

2. Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız means "I think you are one of those people whom we could not turn into a Czechoslovakian"

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

Word formation

Turkish English
MuvaffakSuccessful
MuvaffakiyetSuccess
MuvaffakiyetsizUnsuccessful ('without success')
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek)(To) become unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştir(-mek)(To) make one unsuccessful
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiriciMaker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileş(-mek)(To) become a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştir(-mek)(To) make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriver(-)(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
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecekOne who is not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerThose who are not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizThose whom we cannot make easily/quickly a maker unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenFrom 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
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizYou would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesineAs if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones

Ukrainian

Long words are not typical for Ukrainian so the majority of them in this language are of foreign descent and mostly related to science. Perhaps the longest word of the Ukrainian language in the Nominative case is дихлордифенілтрихлорметилметан (dyxlordyfeniltryxlormetylmetan, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane or DDT) which contains 30 letters. In the Instrumental case this word contains 32 letters. There may be longer chemical terms in Ukrainian, such as the 34-letter long Нікотинамідаденіндинуклеотидфосфат (Nikotynamidadenindynukleotydfosfat), which means nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate.

Theoretically, there can be words with unlimited length, for example: прапрапра...дідусь (praprapra...didusj, great great great...grandfather).

Urdu

The longest word in Urdu is قصطنطنیه 'Qustuntuniya' , the old name of Istanbul city.

Vietnamese

Nghiêng, with 7 letters, meaning "inclined, lean", is the longest morpheme in the mostly disyllabic Vietnamese language.[32] It is unclear as to what the longest actual word is but they can go to 5 syllables or beyond. Examples include:

Sự-phản-ứng-trung-hòa (Neutralization).

Sự-phản-đối-việc-tách-nhà-thờ-ra-khỏi-nhà-nước (Antidisestablishmentarianism).

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 digraphs ll and ch are each collated as single letters) 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.

Long words are comparatively rare in Welsh. Candidates for long words other than proper nouns include the following (the digraph dd is also treated as a single letter, as is ng in many instances including in the last word below):

See also

References

  1. ↑ Rosenthal, Eric (1982). Total Book of South African records. Delta Books. p. 61. ISBN 0-908387-19-9.
  2. ↑ "European Longest Words". 14 September 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  3. ↑ (Basque) Iñaki Arranz, Hitza azti, Alberdania, 2006, 283 pages. (Zein da euskal hitzik luzeena?)
  4. ↑ "непротивоконституционствувателствувайте". rechnik.info. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  5. ↑ "A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia". francesfarmersrevenge.com. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  6. ↑ "Wat is het langste woord in het Nederlands". levenslangleren.be.
  7. ↑ "Welkom bij OpenTaal". opentaal.org.
  8. ↑ "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis definition". reference.com. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  9. ↑ "PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS". pathology.med.ohio-state.edu. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  10. ↑ "BBC – h2g2 – Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – The Longest Word". BBC. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
  11. ↑ "Akademia Vortaro". Akademio de Esperanto. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  12. ↑ "Suupohjan peruspalveluliikelaitoskuntayhtymä – LLKY". llky.fi.
  13. ↑ Karilas, Yrjö: Antero Vipunen, arvoitusten ja ongelmien, leikkien ja pelien sekä eri harrastelualojen pikkujättiläinen, p. 226, 20th edition. WSOY 2003. ISBN 9510121770
  14. ↑ French wikipédia : fr:Mots les plus longs en français
  15. ↑ Associated Press. "Law change spells end for Germany's longest word". salon.com.
  16. ↑ De Luca, Kenneth M. (2005). Aristophanes’ male and female revolutions : a reading of Aristophanes’ Knights and Assemblywomen. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-7391-0833-8.
  17. ↑ Helgason, Haukur Már. "Hvernig hljóðar lengsta orð í heimi á íslensku?". Vísindavefurinn. University of Iceland. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  18. ↑ Quasthoff, Uwe; Fiedler, Sabine; Hallsteinsdóttir, Erla, eds. (2012-05-14). Frequency Dictionary Icelandic / Íslensk tíðniorðabók. Leipziger Universitätsverlag. ISBN 978-3-86583-656-4. OCLC 808247819.
  19. ↑ "Dizionario della lingua italiana ...". google.com.
  20. ↑ "Dante: De Vulgari Eloquentia II". Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  21. ↑ "청자양인각연당초상감모란문은구대접". Naver Dictionary. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  22. ↑ "독일에서 가장 긴 단어 사라진다" [Longest word in Germany disappears]. JoongAng Ilbo. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  23. ↑ http://jeff560.tripod.com/words11.html[]
  24. ↑ http://www.teoti.com/geek/10217-loooooooong-words.html[]
  25. ↑ "Limba romana. Stiati ca…?". Stiati ca…?. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  26. ↑ "Ἡλληνιστεύκοντος". hellenisteukontos.blogspot.in.
  27. ↑ "Guinness Book of World Records, 1991". google.gr.
  28. ↑ "Aké je najdlhšie slovo v slovenčine?". sme.sk.
  29. ↑ http://www.juls.savba.sk/ediela/ks/2012/4/ks2012-4.pdf
  30. ↑ http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=anticonstitucional
  31. ↑ The Guinness Book of Records 1985. Guinness Books. p. 89. ISBN 0-85112-419-4.
  32. ↑ ""Lộ" sai sót mới tại CK Đường lên đỉnh Olympia 2012?". http://dantri.com.vn. Retrieved 18 October 2013. External link in |work= (help)
  33. ↑ "LISTSERV 15.5 – WELSH-L Archives". heanet.ie.
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