The Longest Word in English

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Frank Brist from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

What’s your question, Frank?

Okay, me and some of the other students at school, we were having a discussion about the longest word in the English language, and somebody mentioned anti-disestablishmentarianism. And it’s a complicated word, and I really did not spell it or anything to actually look it up. And I know I’ve heard it somewhere. I think I heard it in high school somewhere. One of my teachers used it. But I don’t know what is the longest word. Is that word a word? Anti-disestablishmentarianism?

Yes.

Yes, that’s 28 letters long. Usually it’s one of those long stunt words, you know, sort of a Guinness Book of World Records word, sort of like how they get together and build the world’s longest submarine sandwich. But who cares? It’s not really that useful a word. What you’re saying is that this word is only generally used to talk about the word being really long, right? Outside of that conversation, it’s not much used at all.

Well, Frank, to answer your question, that it is actually a word more or less. There was a movement in the late 19th century to disestablish the Church of England as an organ of the state. There was definitely the word disestablishment floating around then, and people kind of played with it and added little parts onto it. And we ended up with anti-disestablishmentarianism. But as both of you have sort of suggested, it’s kind of one of those words that you learn in junior high or high school and then start using to show off. But it’s not the longest word in the English language, certainly not the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary.

I don’t know if in your medical studies, Frank, you’ve run into pseudo-pseudo-hypoparathyroidism.

Oh, yes.

You have?

Yes, I have. Now that you mention it, yeah, I can. I remember one of the doctors talking about it. Yeah, and I guess I take it, Frank, I mean, maybe you can tell us what pseudo-pseudo-hypo-parathyroidism is.

I cannot tell you. I think I was not paying attention that day. Now, I know when I worked at Oxford University Press, we got this question a lot, and I know that the Oxford dictionaries include a still longer word, and it’s 45 letters.

Oh, yeah.

This is also a medical one. It’s supposedly a lung disease, but again, it’s probably more of a stunt word than it is a word that you’re actually ever going to put to use. And it’s pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-valcanoconiosis, I believe that’s how you say it.

Vulcanoconiosis?

Pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-vulcanoconiosis.

Yeah, and that’s 45 letters.

45 letters, that’s right. And both of you, I mean, since we have a medical expert here, I mean, I gather it’s a kind of lung disease, right?

Yeah.

But the thing is, you know, I remember talking to my colleagues about this. It was a word created to be long. That’s why it was created, not because it was going to be put to use. But you know what defeats all of this? It’s the chemical formulas and the protein names. And those can be as long as a chemical formula. I mean, they’re very complex where each molecule could be named. Now, maybe they’re not technically words so much as they’re formulas, but there’s one protein name that has 180,000 characters in it.

You know, actually, Frank, what we should do is put some of these on our website, waywordradio.org, so that you can take a study break and go have a look at them.

Yep.

It’ll make you feel better about your neurology homework.

Oh, yeah.

All right. Thank you so much for your call, Frank.

Yep.

Thank you.

All right, Frank. Good luck with your studies.

I will.

Yeah.

All right.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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