AdSense

17 January 2014

Top 10 Longest Words in English Dictionaries!

These are some of the longest words that appeared in English dictionaries.


1st (45 letters) PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­CONIOSIS (also spelled PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­KONIOSIS)
Definition:  a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust.
* This is the longest word in any English dictionary.
 2nd (37 letters) HEPATICO­CHOLANGIO­CHOLECYST­ENTERO­STOMIES 
Definition: a surgical creation of a connection between the gall bladder and a hepatic duct and between the intestine and the gall bladder.
*This is the longest word in Gould's Medical Dictionary.
3rd (34 letters) SUPER­CALI­FRAGI­LISTIC­EXPI­ALI­DOCIOUS 
Definition: super- "above", cali- "beauty", fragilistic- "delicate", expiali- "to atone", and -docious "educable", with the sum of these parts signifying roughly "Atoning for educability through delicate beauty."
=a song title from the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins. According to the film, it is defined as "something to say when you have nothing to say".
* It is in the Oxford English Dictionary.
4th (30 letters) HIPPOPOTO­MONSTRO­SESQUIPED­AL­IAN 
Definition:  pertaining to a very long word.
* From Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.
5th (29 letters) FLOCCI­NAUCINI­HILIPIL­IFICATION 
Definition:  an estimation of something as worthless.
* This is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
6th (28 letters) ANTI­DIS­ESTABLISH­MENT­ARIAN­ISM

 Definition: the belief which opposes removing the tie between church and state.
* Probably the most popular of the "longest words" in recent decades.
7th (27 letters) HONORI­FICABILI­TUDINI­TATIBUS 
Definition:  honorableness.
* The word first appeared in English in 1599, and in 1721 was listed by Bailey's Dictionary as the longest word in English. It was used by Shakespeare in Love's Labor's Lost (Costard; Act V, Scene I):
8th (27 letters) ELECTRO­ENCEPHALO­GRAPHICALLY
Definition: It is an adverb rooted from the word electroencephalograph (an instrument for measuring and recording the electric activity of the brain.
* The longest unhyphenated word in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Ed.)
9th (27 letters) ANTI­TRANSUB­STAN­TIA­TION­ALIST 
Definition: one who doubts that consecrated bread and wine actually change into the body and blood of Christ.
10th (21 letters) DIS­PRO­PORTION­ABLE­NESS  (21) IN­COM­PREHEN­SIB­ILITIES
* These are described by the 1992 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest words in common usage.

Have you ever thought that the longest word is actually “smiles” because there is a ‘mile’ between the first and last letters?
                                         

Source: http://www.fun-with-words.com/word_longest.html      http://dictionary.reference.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment