What's the Longest Word in the English Language?



Pictured above is the longest word in the English language. It's a slang term for a disease incurred by inhaling silicone dioxide. Sam Kean has a story at NPR's website describing the difficult task of defining a "word" so that one may determine which is the longest.

For example, do the names for chemical chains count? Does a word have to be published to qualify? Should words intentionally created to be the longest be considered real words? Kean lists the six words that qualify under various criteria. Which do you think is the best case for the longest word?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/21/133052745/whats-the-longest-word-in-the-english-language? via Kottke

Comments (10)

Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

This is an easy one...The longest word is "floccinaucinihilipilification" the act of teaching as worthless. It appears in a couple different forms in at least one Heinlein novel-"Time Enough for Love". I can thank my warped highschool English teacher Mr. Sheehy for this one. It's been stuck in my head for 25 years.
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The human thirst for knowledge only extends to a length inversely proportionate to his/her will to ignorance, which generally extends a lot further. The Will to Ignorance is more palatable than the Will to Knowledge because of it's social value.
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I somewhat agree Ryan, but I think it depends on whether or not a person places value on knowledge above other equally as valuable things, like love or money. I think his point was that if you're curious for knowledge, the best way to live and learn is to admit lack of knowledge. You approach changing truths and discover new knowledge more fervently than if you thought you "knew," particularly if you come from the viewpoint that science in its entirety is not proven and everything is completely theoretical, which might be where his commitments to "lack of purpose" and truth came from. Vaclav Havel said something relevant: "Keep the company of those who seek the truth--run from those who have found it." Therefore, to admit ignorance is knowledge. I think Feynman probably could care less about whether or not he was socially palatable, especially considering his public disdain for the social workings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sorry if I'm being a little abstract here. You brought up a good point to think about.
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I liked his line about one little aspect of God coming to Earth and look what it’s created…. Like our views of God are the surface views of the flower and to expand beyond that (the flower to all its aspects vs. the Earth compared to the complexity of the universe)

In one stroke he doubts God, but then expands the beauty of God to the universe… and states that our beliefs are as limiting to Gods true beauty as limiting our understanding of the flower to only its surface “one centimeter”

There’s a helluva lot in that one little video…
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