List of the longest English words with one syllable
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This is a list of candidates for the longest
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
word of one
syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
, i.e. monosyllables with the most letters. A list of 9,123 English monosyllables published in 1957 includes three ten-letter words: ''scraunched'', ''scroonched'', and ''squirreled''. ; cited in ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' lists ''scraunched'' and ''strengthed''. Other sources include words as long or longer. Some candidates are questionable on grounds of spelling, pronunciation, or status as
obsolete Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice is no longer maintained or required even though it may still be in good working order. It usually happens when something that is more efficient or less risky r ...
, nonstandard,
proper noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
,
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
, or
nonce word A nonce word (also called an occasionalism) is a lexeme created for a single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication.''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language''. Ed. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ...
. Thus, the definition of longest English word with one syllable is somewhat subjective, and there is no single unambiguously correct answer.


List


Proper names

Some nine-letter
proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
s remain monosyllabic when adding a tenth letter and apostrophe to form the possessive: *
Laugharne Laugharne ( cy, Talacharn) is a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tâf. The ancient borough of Laugharne Township ( cy, Treflan Lacharn) with its Corporation and Charter is a unique survival i ...
's *
Scoughall Auldhame and Scoughall are hamlets in East Lothian, Scotland. They are close to the town of North Berwick and the village of Whitekirk, and are approximately east of Edinburgh. Saint Baldred's legacy It is said that the 8th-century Christ ...
's Note that both use the
ough Ough may refer to: * Ough (orthography) ''Ough'' is a four-letter sequence, a tetragraph, used in English orthography and notorious for its unpredictable pronunciation.Adam Brown, ''Understanding and Teaching English Spelling: A Strategic Guide' ...
tetragraph A tetragraph (from the el, τετρα-, ''tetra-'', "four" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a sequence of four letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds, that do not necessarily correspond to the indi ...
, which can represent a wide variety of sounds in English. In his short story, " Strychnine in the Soup",
P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeev ...
had a character whose surname was "Mapledurham", pronounced "Mum". This is eleven letters, while "Mapledurham's" is twelve. It is
productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process ...
in English to
convert Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...
a (proper) noun into an
eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...
ous verb or adjective: * A 2007–08 promotion in France used the slogan "Do you
Schweppes Schweppes (, ) is a beverage brand that originated in the Republic of Geneva; it is made, bottled and distributed worldwide by multiple international conglomerates, depending on licensing and region, that manufacture and sell soft drinks. Schwep ...
?", implying a past tense ''Schweppesed'' (11 letters) for the putative verb. * ''Schwartzed'' (10 letters) has been used to mean "(re)designed in the style of
Martha Schwartz Martha Schwartz (born November 21, 1950) is an American landscape architect and educator. Schwartz is the founding principal of Martha Schwartz Partners, an architecture firm based in London, New York City, and Shanghai. She is also Professor in P ...
" * ''Schwartzed'' has also been used to mean "crossed swords with Justice Alan R. Schwartz" *''Schmertzed'' (10 letters) has been used to mean "received undue largesse from New York City through the intervention of negotiator
Eric Schmertz Eric Joseph Schmertz (December 24, 1925December 18, 2010) was an American lawyer who specialized in labor negotiation, helping reach agreements between workers and management in many strikes and other threatened union actions in New York City, inc ...
"


Contrived endings

In a 1970 article in ''
Word Ways ''Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics'' is a quarterly magazine on recreational linguistics, logology and word play. It was established by Dmitri Borgmann in 1968 at the behest of Martin Gardner. Howard Bergerson took over as edit ...
'', Ralph G. Beaman
converts Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
past participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s ending ''-ed'' into nouns, allowing regular plurals with ''-s''. He lists five verbs in ''Webster's Third International'' generating 10-letter monosyllables ''scratcheds'', ''screecheds'', ''scroungeds'', ''squelcheds'', ''stretcheds''; from the verb ''strength'' in ''Webster's Second International'' he forms the 11-letter ''strengtheds''. The past tense ending ''-ed'' and the archaic second person singular ending ''-st'' can be combined into ''-edst''; for example "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul" (). While this ending is usually pronounced as a separate syllable from the verb stem, it may be abbreviated ''-'dst'' to indicate elision. Attested examples include ''scratch'dst'' and ''stretch'dst'', each of which has one syllable spelled with ten letters plus
apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...
.


See also

*
Longest word in English The identity of the longest word in the English language depends upon the definition of what constitutes a word in the English language, as well as how length should be compared. Words may be derived naturally from the language's roots or forme ...


References


External links


askoxford.com: What is the longest one-syllable English word?rec-puzzles.org: What words have an exceptional number of letters per syllable?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longest English words with one, List of the One Syllable English orthography English phonology
English words English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
Phonotactics