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Study Break:
They
Don't Get Any Longer Than This - The Thirteen Longest English Words
According to
The Book of Lists:
#13--Honorificabilitudinitatibus
(27 letters) This is the longest word used by William Shakespeare.
It occurs in the play Love's Labours Lost and means "with honorableness."
#12--Antidisestablishmentarianism
(28 letters) Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English
Language says this word means, "a doctrine of opposition to disestablishment
(withdrawal of state patronage, support or exclusive recognition
of the church)."
#11--Floccinaucinihilipipification
(29 letters) This is the longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary
where it is defined as "the action or habit of estimating something
as worthless."
#10-Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
(34 letters) The word was coined in the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins.
It is the long way of saying "good."
#9-Praetertranssubstantiationalistically
(37 letters) The word was used in the 1963 novel Untimely Ripped
by Mark McShane. It means surpassing the Roman Catholic ritual of
turning the holy communion bread and wine into the body and blood
of Christ.
#8-Hepaticocholecystostcholecystenterostomy
(40 letters) The is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary
where it is defined as "the surgical formation of a passage between
the gall bladder and hepatic duct, on the one hand, and between
the intestine and the gall bladder, on the other." Oh, that hepaticocholecystostcholecystenterostomy!
#7-Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
(45 letters) This is the longest word in Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary, 8th edition where it is defined as "a pneumoconiosis
caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust."
No need to worry. It usually only afflicts miners.
#6-Antipericatametaanaparcircumvolutiorectumgustpoops
of the Coprofied (50 letters) Believe it or not, this is the title
of a book on a shelf in Francois Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.
#5-Osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilagininervomedullary
(51 letters) This term describing the structure of the human body
occurs in Thomas Love Peacock's 1816 novel Headlong Hall.
#4-Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic
(52 letters) The late 17th early 18th century British medical writer
Dr. Edward Strother created this word to describe the composition
of Bristol spa waters.
#3-- Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntr-ovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk
(100 letters) According to The Book of Lists, "This word is on the
first page of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce and is a symbolic thunderclap
representing the fall of Adam and Eve (other 100-letter words appear
throughout the book)." Makes you want to run right out and read
it, doesn't it?
#2-Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiopa-
raomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonopteke-
phalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon (182 letters)
This English transliteration of a Greek word from Aristophanes'
comic play The Ecclesiazusae roughly means a stew made up of all
the leftovers from the last two days. Ask your mom if you can have
it for dinner, that is, if you can pronounce it.
#1-(3,600 letters)
Bovine NADP-specific glutanate dehydrogenase contains five hundred
amino acids. Its complete chemical name contains 3,600 letters.
The Book of Lists didn't print the word.
Attend-Listen-Learn-Study-Practice-Perform!
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