Is it a German word? I can already hear you asking me the question. German is famous for its long words, but it is not the language with the longest word in the world. And, frankly, the longest word in the world is a bit controversial. If you are suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words), be strong because we are about to take a look at some of the longest words in the world.
Longest words in the world in different languages
German
German is a well-known language for having very lengthy words since it is an agglutinating language. That is, a language that puts short words together to create longer, more descriptive words. Finding the longest German word is difficult because, like in English, there is a lot of debate around what a word really is. The longest accepted German word is Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän which means “captain of the Danube steamboat company”. Cool job, cool word. It is made up of 42 letters. (I’m ready for the Germans among you to tell me what other long words you have. The real question is: have you ever really used them ?!)
Also Read: Top 10 most spoken languages in the world
Finnish
German is not the only agglutinating language; there are actually quite a number of them and Finnish is one of them. Their longest accepted word is a word 61 letters long! And, as in German, it is also a profession. Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas means mechanical non-commissioned officer specializing in aircraft jet engines. Imagine having to say what you do for a living with a title like this!
Korean lengthy word
The lengthy Korean word is 청자 양인 각연 당초 상감 모란문 은 구 대접 . It contains 17 characters that don’t look very long for those who don’t know Korean. However, it has 46 Hangeul letters so it’s rather long! The word describes a kind of ceramic bowl. Another very useful word in everyday life.
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Afrikaans
Tweedehandsemotorverkoopsmannevakbondstakingsvergaderingsameroeperstoespraakskrywerspersverklaringuitreikingsmediakonferensieaankondiging is the longest word in Afrikaans, with 136 letters! It means “announcement of a media conference at a press conference regarding the speech of the host of the meeting at a strike meeting of the union of a used car dealership”. Unfortunately, it’s a word that was coined to make it a long word so we’re not sure if it really matters. It’s also extremely specific and unlikely to be used much.
Lengthy Bulgarian Word
The longest Bulgarian word has 39 letters and is Непротивоконституционствувателствувайте . We would translate it into French as “Do not act against the constitution!”. I wonder if there are many Bulgarian rebels who need this word to express this idea.
Ojibwe
Ojibwe is an indigenous language spoken in Canada and the United States that contains 66 letters. Miinibaashkiminasiganibiitoosijiganibadagwiingweshiganibakwezhigan is a descriptive term for what you would call blueberry pie. I think that makes it my longest favorite word.
Longest English word
The longest word you will be able to find in the English dictionary has 45 letters and is the name of the silicosis disease: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis . Nice, no? There is controversy surrounding this word as it was created specifically to be the longest words in the English dictionary. And it’s not really useful for Mr. Everybody.
Antidisestablishmentarianism is often taught to English children as the longest word in English but as we just saw above, this is not true. Deinstitutionalization and counterrevolutionaries are the two longest words you will find in a general English text. So these are the ones you really need to learn. These two words have 22 letters.
Longest word in the world
The longest word in the world is English. It contains 189,819 letters and takes more than 3 hours to pronounce. It is the chemical name for the titin protein. Unfortunately, it’s not a very useful word since we wouldn’t really use it on a daily basis.
According to Guinness World Records, the longest word is a Sanskrit word that has 195 characters. Here it is :
निरन्तरान्धकारित-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-स्यन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-कुल-तल्प-कल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुवक- मिलदलघु-लघु-लय-कलित-रमणीय-पानीय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-कस्तूरिकातिसौरभ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शीतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदीय-विमल-विलोचन- मयूख-रेखापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान्.
Beautiful, isn’t it? It first appeared in literature and describes an area of Tamil Nadu in India. So, officially, it’s the longest word in the world.
And There you go ! Here are some of the longest words in the world. Which will you learn? If I had to choose, it would be the objibwe word for blueberry pie because it might come in handy someday!
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