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.
1-English
The longest scientific term in English is the full chemical name of the world's largest known protein, titin. Beginning with Methionyl... and ending with ...isoleucine, the word contains 189,819 letters.
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.
“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.
“Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia” – fear of long words, at 35 letters could also be considered the longest non-coined, non-technical word. Although it is a "phobia" so is often seen as "technical". Hippopoto- "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, "hippopotamine" has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear".
2- Bulgarian
The longest word in Bulgarian is Непротивоконституционствувателствувайте (Ne protivokonstitutsionstvuvatelstvuvate), which are 39 letters and means "Do not act against the Constitution."
3-Czech
Traditionally, the word nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu 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).
· nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu = cca "to the least farmable one", 30 letters
· nejzdevětadevadesáteroroznásobitelnějšími = "by the most possible to be 99-tuplable out", 41 letters
· nejnerestrukturalizovávatelnějšímu = cca "to the least restructurable one", 34 letters
· nejneznesrozumitelňovávatelnějšímu = cca "to the least able to be making less understandable", 34 letters
· nejnevykrystalizovávatelnějšímu = "to the least out-crystallizable one", 31 letters
4-Danish
Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode, which is 51 letters, is the longest Danish word that has been used in an official context. It means "Period of stability planning for specialist doctor practice," and was used during negotiations with the local government.
5-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, the term means "cease-fire negotiations".
The free Open Taal 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, that means "carriers' liabilityinsurance";
· bestuurdersaansprakelijkheidsverzekering, that means "drivers' liability insurance";
· overeenstemmingsbeoordelingsprocedures, that means "conformity assessment procedures".
6-Esperanto
The longest official Esperanto roots are the 12-letter administracio (administration), aŭtobiografio (autobiography), demonstrativo (demonstrative pronoun), diskriminacii (to discriminate), konservatorio (conservatory), paleontologio (paleontology), paralelogramo (parallelogram), spiritualismo (spiritualism), spiritualisto (spiritualist) and trigonometrio (trigonometry).However, since Esperanto allows word compounding, there are no limits on how long a word can theoretically become.
7-French
The longest word in French, having 25 letters, is anticonstitutionnellement, which is an adverb and means "unconstitutionally".
8-German
In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) are expressed as single words such as neunhundertneunundneunzig (999 - literally: nine hundred, nine and ninety) and therefore, by continually adding digits that cannot result in a rounded figure, a word of infinite length is theoretically 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
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
The longest known word that is not a compound word seems to be Unkameradschaftlichkeit". It uses only derivations.
9-Greek
In his comedy Assemblywomen (c. 392 BC) Aristophanes coined the 183-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 considered the longest word ever to appear in literature.
10-Hebrew
The longest Hebrew word is 19 letters long: וכשלאנציקלופדיותינו - ukhshele-entziclopedioteinu, which means: "and when to our encyclopedias".
11-Hungarian
Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért, with 44 letters is officially the longest word in the Hungarian language which is actually in use, means something like "for your [plural] keeping behaving as if you could not be profaned". It is already morphed, since Hungarian is an agglutinative language. For this reason, it is possible to create words like összetettszóhosszúságvilágrekorddöntéskényszerneurózistünetegyüttes-megnyilvánulásfejleszthetőségvizsgálatszervezésellenőrzésiügyosztály-létszámleépítésellenesakciócsoporttagságiigazolványmegújításikérelem-elutasítóhatározatgyűjteményértékesítőnagyvállalatátalakításutó-finanszírozáspályázatelbírálóalapítványkuratóriumelnökhelyettesellenes-merényletkivizsgálóbizottságiüléselnapolásiindítványbenyújtásiforma-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.
The longest dictionary form word is the non-morphed form of the longest word in use, megszentségteleníthetetlen, with only 25 characters, and means "stain-proof".
12-Icelandic
Hæstaréttarmálaflutningsmaður, with 29 letters is according to the Icelandic dictionary the longest used word in the Icelandic language and means "Supreme Court barrister".Longer Icelandic words exist, such as
Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur, with 65 letters. It roughly translates to "The keyring of the outdoor of the tool shed of the highway construction on a place in Iceland called Vaðlaheiði". Such words mainly exist for the purpose of creating a "longest word" in Icelandic, rather than daily use.
13-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 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
It is to be noted that the word technically violates Italian grammar rules, the correct form being precipitevolissimamente, which is 3 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).
14-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.
15-Lithuanian
The longest Lithuanian word is 32 letters long: "nebeprisikiškiakopūsteliaudavome", which is a grammatical form of "kiškiakopūsteliauti", meaning "to pick wood-sorrels" (edible forest plant with sour taste). The word is commonly attributed to famous Lithuanian language teacher Jonas Kvederaitis, who actually used shorter version "nebeprisikiškiakopūstaudavome" (29 letters). Another word worth mentioning is "keturiasdešimtaštuoniašonis" "(object) with forty-eight sides", found in book by Viktoras Ruokis; plural locative case of the word is "keturiasdešimtaštuoniašoniuose" (30 letters).
16-Māori
The 85-letter place name “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu” was the longest place name in the Māori language, and for that matter the longest place name in an English-speaking country.
17-Norwegian
The longest word in the Norwegian dictionary is the 60-letter word fylkestrafikksikkerhetsutvalgssekretariatslederfunksjonene, which means "the traffic security team secretarian leader functions of a county".
18-Polish
Longest Polish words are adjectives created from numerals and nouns.
dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego, 54 letters, is inclined Genitive form of word, meaning roughly "of nine-hundred-ninety-nine nationalities".
Please note that similar words are rather artificial compounds, constructed within allowed grammar rules, but are seldom used in spoken language—although they're not nonsense words.
One of longest common words is 31-letter dziewięćdziesięciokilkoletniemu - a form of "ninety-and-some years old one".
19-Portuguese
The 46 letter word pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconióticos (plural of pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico) is the longest word. It is the carrier of the disease Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
The 29 letter word anticonstitucionalissimamente is recognized as being the longest non-technical word.
20-Russian
The 40 letter word никотинамидадениндинуклеотидфосфатгидрин (nikotinamidadenindinukleotidfosfatgidrin), also НАДФ (NADF) - nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate is the longest word.
21-Slovak
The longest Slovak word is Znajneprekryštalizovávateľnejšievajúcimi (40 letters), which means with 'most anti crystallizing ' in plural.
22-Spanish
The 24 letter word electroencefalografistas, referring to people who practice electroencephalography, has been cited as the longest Spanish word in actual use.
23-Swedish
The longest word in the Swedish language is according to Guinness World Records Nordöstersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmaterielunderhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten (130 letters). It means something like "Coast artillery flight searching simulator area material maintaining follow-up system discussion post preparation tasks of the Northern Baltic Sea". Since two words are written together to form new words, multiple words can be put together to make even longer word. Hyperneuroakustiskadiafragmakontravibrationer (45 letters) is the official name for hiccups in Sweden, even though hicka is used when speaking of it instead. It also describes what hiccups are.
24-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.
25-Vietnamese
nghiêng, with 7 letters meaning inclined , is the longest word in the single syllable Vietnamese.
26-Welsh
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