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« on: December 30, 2005, 01:47:07 PM » |
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The longest English word and other curious words
The longest English word: The question of determining the longest English word inevitably boils down to defining what is acceptable as a word, since prefixes/suffixes can be adjoined to words to make longer words and because medical/chemical terms can get arbitrarily long. Further, most contenders for the honor of being the longest word are likely to be very rare in actual usage - so rare, in fact that they could be considered nonce words. The most common candidates for the crown, in my opinion, are
antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters),
floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters) and
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis (45 letters).
The first is the only one of the three that was not specifically constructed for the purpose of being a very long word. It means opposition to the separation of church and state. The second, meaning the estimation of something as worthless, is the longest non-technical word in the OED. The latter, supposedly a lung disease, appears to be a semi-serious concoction.
Lexically interesting words. .
* Longest word without a vowel: symphysy. Runners-up: nymphly, rhythms, gypsyfy, gypsyry. Excluding 'y': crwths.
* Longest word with at most 1 vowel: glycyphyllin, psychorhythm.
* Word with most vowels: counterrevolutionaries (among others).
* Word with most consecutive vowels (5): cooeeing, miaoued, miaouing, queueing. (Euouae, consisting of nothing but 6 vowels, is of doubtful legitimacy.)
* Smallest word with all 5 vowels: eulogia, miaoued, sequoia.
* Longest word with only 3 distinct alphabets: seeresses.
* Longest word with only 4 distinct alphabets: senselessness.
* Longest word with no repeated letter: dermatoglyphics.
* Longest word with letters in alphabetical order: aegilops.
* Longest word with letters in reverse alphabetical order: trollied.
* Longest word that can be typed with the right hand alone (on a qwerty keyboard): phyllophyllin.
* Longest word that can be typed with the left hand alone (on a qwerty keyboard): devertebrated.
* Longest word that can be typed using the top row (of a qwerty keyboard): rupturewort. Runners-up: peppertree, pepperwort, perpetuity, proprietor, repertoire, tetterwort, typewriter.
* Interesting words with the substring 'uu': continuum, fatuus, menstruum, residiuum, vacuum.
* Word with the maximum number of distinct alphabets (16): blepharoconjunctivitis, formaldehydesulphoxylic, pneumoventriculography, pseudolamellibranchiate, superacknowledgment.
* Word with most a's (6): astragalocalcaneal, calcaneoastragalar, taramasalata.
* Word with most e's (7): electrotelethermometer.
* Word with most i's (6): impossibilification, indistinguishability, indivisibility, minimifidianism, pericardiomediastinitis.
* Word with most o's (6): choledochoduodenostomy, duodenocholedochotomy, monogonoporous, odontonosology, proctocolonoscopy, pseudomonocotyledonous, zoologicoarchaeologist.
* Word with most u's (5): untumultous.
* Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing consecutively:
o mnop: cremnophobia, gymnopaedic, gymnoplast, limnophile, somnopathy (and a few others).
o rstu: overstudy, overstuff, understudy, afterstudy, overstudious, superstuff, understuff (and a few others).
o Words with four consecutive letters of the alphabet appearing consecutively in reverse order:
+ ponm: tamponment, weaponmaker.
+ Words with 3 consecutive s's: bossship, headmistressship, patronessship.
+ The last word: zyzzyva.
YOU MAY KNOW THESE WORDS !
TYPEWRITER (10 letters) can be typed using only the top row of keys on a standard keyboard.
FICKLEHEADED and FIDDLEDEEDEE are the longest English words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet, each being 12 letters long.
PARADIGM was the word most frequently looked up in 1998 in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct spelling) according to a study of Usenet traffic some years ago were DUMBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI, PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and PRONUNCIATION.
HIRSCHSPRUNG'S (DISEASE) has seven consecutive consonants, as does SCHTSCHUROWSKIA.
Beijing and Fiji have three dotted letters in a row.
The alphabetical sequence -RSTU- is contained in OVERSTUFF, OVERSTUDIOUS, OVERSTUNK, UNDERSTUFF, UNDERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUD, OVERSTUMBLE, SUPERSTUFF, UNDERSTUDY, and BIERSTUBE.
The only other four-letter alphabetical sequence found in English is -MNOP-, which is found, for example, in these words: CREMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPAEDIC, GYMNOPHOBIA, GYMNOPLAST, LIMNOPHILE, LIMNOPHORA, LIMNOPHORID, LIMNOPLANKTON, SEMNOPITHECINE, SOMNOPATHY, and THAMNOPHILE.
If the alphabet is treated as a continuous loop, however, there is also -YZAB- in ANALYZABLE.
Here are some examples words containing double letters, for each letter of the alphabet: AARDVARK, ABBOT, ACCENT, ADD, FEED, OFF, EGG, WITHHOLD, SKIING, AVIJJA, BOOKKEEPER, ILL, IMMUNE, ANNOY, HOOP, APPLE, HUQQA, ARRAY, KISS, LITTLE, VACUUM, SAVVY, SLOWWORM, WAXXENN, CUBBYYEW, and DAZZLE.
HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS is the longest word consisting entirely of alternating vowels and consonants.
The longest common word without any of the five vowels is RHYTHMS.
The shortest word containing all five vowels exactly once is the six-letter EUNOIA, meaning alertness of mind an will (and also the title of a book by Canadian poet Christian Bok).
The shortest word with the five vowels occurring in alphabetical order is AERIOUS (airy), which has seven letters. The longest such word is PHRAGELLIORHYNCHUS (a protozoan) with 18 letters.
ULTRAREVOLUTIONARIES has each vowel exactly twice. The shortest such word is CUBOIDEONAVICULARE, and the longest, USSOLZEWIECHINOGAMMARUS (a small crustacean).
Some English words..................
Floccinaucinihilipilification
It means "the estimation of something as worthless."
Examples:
I loved him for nothing so much as his floccinaucinihilipilification of money.
--William Shenstone, Letters
Some more english words:
They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccinaucinihilipilification of all that can gratify the outward man.
--Sir Walter Scott, Journal
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which has 45 letters. It's a disease that miners in Africa came down with from getting silicon slivers in their lungs.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a village in Wales. This name is given in full on the railway station. The local people do not bother to say the name in full. They refer to it as Lannfair PG.
However, there is a place with an even longer name in New Zealand. It is the name of a hill. Here it is: This is not in English though but in Maori
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiw en uaitnatahu.
But if you just want long words, the usual response is antidisestablishmentarianism, and this can be found in most dictionaries.
The longest word in the dictionary containing no letter more than once is "smiley." (There is a mile between the first and last letter.)
Chemical name for the "Tryptophan Synthetase" protein is however, the longest official word ever (1,913 letters) with the formula C1289H2051N343O375S8
And it is spelled:
methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalany
lalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalany
lphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanylvalylthreonylleucylglycylaspa
rtylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylserylleucyllysylisoleu
cylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamylalanylglycylalanylaspar
tylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylalanylser
ylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonyliso
leucylglutaminylaspfraginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylpheny
lalanylalanylalanylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcyste
inylphenylalanylglutamylmethionylleucylalanylleucylisoleucylargin
ylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleucylgl
ycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylvalylpheny
lalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutamylphenylalany
ltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalylglycylva
lylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglu
taminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphenylalanylarginylglutaminylalan
ylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylalanylprolylisoleucy
lphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylaspartyl
aspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryl
tyrosylglycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylseryl
arginylalanylglycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparag
inylarginylalanylalanylleucylprolylleucylasparaginylhistidylleucy
lvalylalanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparaginylalanylalany
lprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylser
ylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylas
partylalanylglycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylser
ylalanylisoleucylvalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhi
stidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylmethio
nylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalylglutaminylp
rolylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine.
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