Today is officially the longest day of the year. We thought it might be good to commemorate this day by finding language’s longest word. On or around June 21st every year, the rays of the sun will be perpendicular to the Tropic of Cancer at 23°30′ North latitude. In the Northern Hemisphere, this day is called summer solstice, and cities above the equator will experience the longest day of the year. To celebrate, we decided to find out what the longest word is in some of the world’s most popular languages. In English, as in most languages, it isn’t possible to choose a single word that is the longest as there are many different ways of defining what a word is, and new words are created all the time by coinage and construction. Word Letters Characteristics Dispute Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl...isoleucine 189,819 Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein Technical; not in dictionary; disputed whether it is a word Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamyl…serine 1,909 Longest published word[1] Technical Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsano...pterygon 183 Longest word coined by a major author,[2] the longest word ever to appear in literature.[3] Coined; not in dictionary; Ancient Greek transliteration Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis 45 Longest word in a major dictionary[4] Technical; coined to be the longest word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 34 Famous for being created for the Mary Poppins film and musical Coined Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism 30 Longest non-coined word in a major dictionary[5] Technical Floccinaucinihilipilification 29 Longest unchallenged nontechnical word Coined Antidisestablishmentarianism 28 Longest non-coined and nontechnical word[citation needed] Honorificabilitudinitatibus 27 Longest word in Shakespeare‘s works; longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.[6] Latin In French, anticonstitutionnellement is thought to be the longest word, and it means ‘unconstitutionally’ which is 7 letters shorter. However, the longest German word beats them all. Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which has an amazing 63 characters, officially translates as Rind (cattle) – Fleisch (meat) – Etikettierung(s) (labelling) – Überwachung(s) (supervision) – Aufgaben (duties) – Übertragung(s) (assignment) – Gesetz (law), or in other words, “Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law”. You can find a full list of the longest words in most world languages here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_words What are the longest words in your language? Let us know in the comments below. Image credit: Lilachd
