Long Words

The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.

Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Words consisting of hundreds, or even thousands of characters have been coined. Even non-agglutinative languages may allow word formation of theoretically limitless length in certain contexts. An example common to many languages is the term for a very remote ancestor, "great-great-.....-grandfather", where the prefix "great-" may be repeated any number of times. The examples of "longest words" within the "Agglutinative languages" section may be nowhere near close to the longest possible word in said language, instead a popular example of a text-heavy word.

Systematic names of chemical compounds can run to hundreds of thousands of characters in length. The rules of creation of such names are commonly defined by international bodies, therefore they formally belong to many languages. The longest recognized systematic name is for the protein titin, at 189,819 letters. While lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as ''verbal formulae'' rather than words, for its sheer length the systematic name for titin is often included in longest-word lists.

Longest word candidates may be judged by their acceptance in major dictionaries such as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' or in record-keeping publications like ''Guinness World Records'', and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.

Agglutinative and polysynthetic languages

Azerbaijani

In Azerbaijani, which is an agglutinative language, there is theoretically no limit on word compounding.
An example is the 42-letter word ; , which translates to "As if you were from those ones we have electrified".

There is a shorter more well-known 32-long word, which is a tongue twister, too — ; meaning "Are you from the ones who are electrified?".

Word formation

Basque

The longest Basque toponym is (40) which means "The lower field of the sheepfold (located in) the hight of Azpilicueta".

Esperanto

Since Esperanto allows word compounding, there are no limits on how long a word can theoretically become. An example is the 39-letter word , meaning "Orange County gun control activist hater". Such clusters are not considered good style (the 8-word alternative is more standard), but they are permissible under the rules of Esperanto grammar. Hyphens are optional in Esperanto compounds, so is also technically a valid spelling.

Disregarding compounding, conjugation, and affixes, the longest Esperanto word formally recognized by the Akademio de Esperanto is the 15-letter proper noun (Constantinople). The next longest recognized words are the following 13-letter words:

* (administration),
* (autobiography),
* (discrimination),
* (conservatory),
* (palaeontology),
* (parallelogram), and
* (trigonometry).

The longest word found in the dictionary Plena Ilustrita Vortaro as of its 2020 edition is the 24-letter proper noun (the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), followed by the 21-letter word ( rations administration).

As of April 2024, the longest word found in the Tekstaro de Esperanto text corpus is the 66-letter word , meaning "first- volapukist-then-esperantist-then-idist-then-again-esperantist", which was used in a review published in Monato in 1997 to describe František Lorenz. However, this word does not follow normal Esperanto word formation rules. Other long words found in Tekstaro de Esperanto that follow regular word formation include:

* (consisting of 650 000 square kilometers), 33 letters, used in an Esperanto version of a 2011 article by Marc Lavergne in Le Monde diplomatique,
* (tragical-comical-historical-pastorals), 33 letters, used in L. L. Zamenhof's 1893 translation of Hamlet,
* (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 27 letters, more commonly translated with two words: .

Estonian

* meaning "afternoon untiredness of a birthday week graduation party" which is 43 letters.
* 31 lettered word of ːsɑːstaøːvastuvɤtuhomikuidylmeaning "morning idyll after the new year".
* There is also the 25 letter long word of which is "Ministry of Agriculture".
* The word meaning "the hatch a bullet flies out of when exiting a tunnel" is 24 letters long and a palindrome. It could be one of the longest palindromes.

Finnish

Examples of long words that have been in everyday use in the Finnish language are which means "three-phase kilowatt hour meter" (31 letters), ("mobilization inspection round", 33 letters), ("a public utility of a municipal federation for provision of basic services", 34 letters), and "airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student" (61 letters), an actual military term, although one which has been deprecated. The longest military term in current use is "counter-artillery targeting radar systems engineer specialist officer" with 71 characters, with 2 more if grammatically incorrect extra hyphens added for readability are counted. If conjugated forms are allowed, even longer real words can be made. Allowing derivatives and clitics allows the already lengthy word to grow even longer, although the usability of the word starts to degrade. Because Finnish uses free forming of composite words, new words can even be formed during a conversation. One can add nouns after each other without breaking grammar rules.

If one allows artificial constructs as well as using clitics and conjugated forms, one can create even longer words: such as (102 letters), which was created by Artturi Kannisto.

The longest non-compound (a single stem with prefixes and suffixes) Finnish word recognised by the Guinness Book of Records is (see also Agglutination#Extremes), based on the stem (reason, sanity), and it means: "I wonder if – even with his/her quality of not having been made unsystematized".

and a defunct bar named after it, , are the longest place names in use.

Greenlandic

The longest word in Greenlandic is , which has 156 letters. The rough translation of this word is: "There were reports that they apparently – God knows for how many times – once again had considered whatever I, my poor condition despite, still could be considered to be quite adept and resourceful as initiator to put a consortium together for the establishment of a range of tiny radio stations." The word is a tongue twister that forms an entire sentence, rather than being a word or phrase commonly heard in Greenland.

, consisting of 41 letters, is the longest singular word in the Greenlandic dictionary.

Hungarian

, with 44 letters, is the longest word in the Hungarian language, and approximately means "for your luralcontinued behaviour as if you could not be desecrated". It is already morphed, since Hungarian is an agglutinative language.

The Hungarian language has many causes for writing words together, but there are a few rules for avoiding undisciplined length, resulting in unreadability.

Words with less than six syllables can be written in one. Agglutinated words have to be separated by one dash, if they are more than six syllables altogether. If there are more than two words that are already written with a dash and more are needed, a new dash must be used to add it (like , meaning "Vitamin C rationing"). If there would be two long words to be written, they are advised to be used separately (possible: meaning "peace agreement plan elaboration", but advised rather meaning "the elaboration of the plan of the peace agreement").

The longest dictionary form word is the word , with 21 characters (although it ultimately derives from the word meaning: "saint" or "sacred"), and it means "desecrated" or "profaned".

Indonesian

Indonesian belongs to the Austronesian language family. According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, the longest word in the language is , which is 23 letters long, meaning "conducting transmigration within the boundaries of a single region or area" in English, as well as , a 30-letter-long word meaning "hexacosioihexecontahexaphobia" in English.

Korean

There is some disagreement about what is the longest word in the Korean language, which arises from a misunderstanding of the Korean language. All of these examples below contain spaces in Hangul and do not qualify as a single word.

The longest word appearing in the ''Standard Korean Dictionary'' published by the National Institute of the Korean Language is (); Revised Romanization: , which is a kind of ceramic bowl from the Goryeo dynasty; that word is 17 syllable blocks long, and contains a total of 46 hangul letters. However, to call this a word would be incorrect. It simply consists of many words that act as adjectives for the one word .

The word (), a phonetic transcription of "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide", has a larger number of syllable blocks (19) but a smaller number of letters (41). It does not qualify as a single word.

In proper nouns, many Korean monarchs have overly long posthumous names built from many different Sino-Korean nouns describing their positive characteristics, for example Sunjo of Joseon, whose full posthumous name is the 77-syllable-block (). This is simply writing the phrase in Hanja (Hanzi) , being transliterate in Hangul. It is not a single word and does not qualify as a lexical entry.

Malay

Malay, just like Indonesian, is an agglutinative language (at least in the formal language) and it belongs to the Austronesian language family. The longest word in Malay is , which is 22 letters long, meaning "take responsibility" in English.

Mongolian

A popular example of the longest suffixed word in Mongolian is "" () which is 26 letters long. Here is a table showing, with translations, which suffixes are added.

Ojibwe

The longest word in the Ojibwe language is (66 letters), meaning "blueberry pie". This literally translates to "blueberry cooked to jellied preserve that lies in layers in which the face is covered in bread".

Tagalog

Tagalog can make long words by adding on affixes, suffixes, and other root words with a connector.

The longest published word in the language is , with 59 letters. This compound word means "to keep making up a lie that causes the most extreme anger while pretending you are not."

Turkish

Turkish, an agglutinative language, carries the potential for words of arbitrary length.

, at 70 letters, has been cited as the longest Turkish word. It was used in a contrived story designed to use this word. The word means "As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones" and its usage was illustrated as follows:

We are in a teachers' training school that has evil purposes. The teachers who are being educated in that school are being taught how to make unsuccessful ones from students. So, one by one, teachers are being educated as makers of unsuccessful ones. However, one of those teachers refuses to be maker of unsuccessful ones, in other words, to be made a maker of unsuccessful ones; he talks about and criticizes the school's stand on the issue. The headmaster who thinks every teacher can be made easily/quickly into a maker of unsuccessful ones gets angry. He invites the teacher to his room and says "You are talking as if you were one of those we can not easily/quickly turn into a maker of unsuccessful ones, huh?"

Other well-known very long Turkish words are:
* means "As if you are one of those people whom we could not turn into a Czechoslovakian".
* means "As if you are one of the people that we made resemble from Afyonkarahisar". (Afyonkarahisar is a city in Turkey.)

Word formation

Fusional, analytic, and isolating languages

Afrikaans

Afrikaans, as it is a daughter language of the Dutch language, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length in the same way as in the Dutch language. According to the Total Book of South African Records, the longest word in the language is
(136 letters), which means "issuable media conference's announcement at a press release regarding the convener's speech at a secondhand car dealership union's strike meeting". This word, however, is contrived to be long and does not occur in everyday speech or writing.

Arabic

Currently, the longest word in Arabic is the 16-letter-long word . Which means "Did we ask you to let us drink them both?" However, according to some online sources the 20-letter-long word is the longest word in Arabic meaning "Are they forcing you to write both of them?". Regardless, official sources supporting such a stance cannot be found.

Bengali

Currently, the longest word in Bengali is the 33-letter-long আত্মশক্তিকরণেরসময়সীমাবদ্ধতার্থীয়তারপ্রতিবন্ধিতাক্ষরিতাবিশেষজ্ঞান, which translates to "The Boundary of Time for Self-Empowerment and Specialized Knowledge for its Corresponding Characters". Another long word often cited is the 11-letter-long অঘটনঘটনপটীয়সী, which means "one who is very skilled in doing unexpected things" or "skilled at unexpected incidents".

Bulgarian

The Bulgarian online etymological dictionary claims that longest word in Bulgarian to be the 39-letter-long (), introduced in the Constitution of Bulgaria of 1947 (Dimitrov Constitution). The word means "do not perform actions against the constitution" (addressed to more than one person).

Catalan

The longest word in Catalan is considered to be , an adverb meaning " one in a way that isagainst the constitution", however, the scientific word , related to endocrinology, has been proposed by the University of Barcelona to be the true longest word.

Croatian

The longest known word in Croatian is , meaning "to those who belong to the throne successor's little wife." The 30-letter word ("lj" is considered as one letter in Croatian) is the dative case of "the throne successor's little wife" which is the diminutive of "the throne successor's wife."

Czech

Traditionally, the word ("of the least cultivable", 28 letters) is considered as the longest Czech word, but there are some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like "-able").

* (47; Instrumental case of the ones least multipliable by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis)
* (Those who are the least multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
* (Those who are the most multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
* (Those who are more multiplable by a group ninety-nine on a regular basis)
* (Those who are multiplable by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis)
* (Alternative of "multiply out by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis")
* (Multiply out by a group of ninety-nine on a regular basis — continuous grammatical aspect)
* (Multiply by ninety-nine on a regular basis – continuous grammatical aspect)
* (Multiply by a group of ninety-nine once)
* (Multiply by a group of ninety-nine)
* (A group of ninety-nine)
* (Inverse of = ninety-nine)

Danish

Danish, like many Germanic languages, is capable of compounding words to create ''ad hoc'' compounds of potentially limitless length. Nevertheless, the constructed word – which means "a period of stabilising the planning of a specialist doctor's practice" – was cited in 1993 by the Danish version of the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest word in the Danish language at 51 letters long. It is however not possible (using Google) to find a text, which actually uses this word, except for in the context of discussing the longest Danish word.

Dutch

Dutch, like many Germanic languages, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length. The 49-letter word , meaning "preparation activities plan for a children's carnival procession", was cited by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Dutch word.

The longest word in the authoritative Van Dale Dutch dictionary (2009 edition) ''in plural form'' is ; 38 letters long, meaning "multiple personality disorders". The entry in the dictionary however is in the singular, counting 35 letters.

The free dictionary, which has been certified by the Dutch Language Union (the official Dutch language institute) and is included in many open-source applications, contains the following longest words, which are 40 letters long:
* , "carriers' liability insurance";
* , "drivers' liability insurance";
* , "conformity assessment procedures" (38 letters)

The word often said to be the longest in Dutch – probably because of its funny meaning and alliteration – which has also appeared in print, is ("construction ground for the Hottentot soldiers' tents exhibition"); counting 53 letters.

English

The 45-letter word is the longest English word that appears in a major dictionary. Originally coined to become a candidate for the longest word in English, the term eventually developed some independent use in medicine. It is referred to as "P45" by researchers.

The 30-letter word pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism refers to an inherited disorder, named for its similarity to pseudohypoparathyroidism in presentation, which is in turn named for its similarity to hypoparathyroidism. This is the longest word that was not contrived with the sole intention of becoming the longest word.

, at 29 letters and meaning the act of estimating something as being worth so little as to be practically valueless, or the habit of doing so, is the longest non-technical, coined word in Oxford Dictionaries of the English language.

, at 28 letters, is the longest non-coined, non-systematic English word in Oxford Dictionaries."What is the longest English word?"
(oxforddictionaries.com) It refers to a 19th-century political movement that opposed the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state church of England.

French

The longest word, '' hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie'' (36 letters) is the fear (or phobia) of long words. The word is formed from the Latin word '' sesquipedalia'' (singular '' sesquipedalis''), which the Ancient Roman poet Horace used in '' Ars Poetica'' to describe excessively long words; literally, it means "a foot-and-a-half long".

Like the other phobias in the list, can be pluralised by adding the letter ''s'' to the end. The adjective '' interdépartemental'' (18 letters), which also appears in the list, can be made longer by appending the letters ''es'', which gives its plural, grammatically gendered form.

German

In German, whole numbers (smaller than 1 million) can be expressed as single words, which makes (777,777) a 65 letter word. In combination with or, as an inflected noun, , all numbers can be written as one word. A 79 letter word, , was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1972 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible. The word was the name of a prewar Viennese club for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the electrical division of the company named the , "Danube steam boat operation company".

The longest word that is not created artificially as a longest-word record seems to be at 63 letters. The word means "law delegating beef label monitoring" but as of 2013, it was removed from the books because European Union regulations have changed and that particular law became obsolete, leading to news reports that Germany "had lost its longest word".

In December 2016 the 51-letter word ("deferral of the second iteration of the federal presidential run-off election") was elected the Austrian Word of the Year 2016.Austria chooses its Word of the Year
The Local, 9 Dec. 2016. The jury called it a "descriptive word" which "in terms of its content as well as its length, is a symbol and an ironic form of commentary for the political events of this year, characterized by the very long campaign for the presidential election, the challenges of the voting process, and its reiteration."

The tongue twister gave rise to the novelty song Barbara's Rhubarb Bar (''Barbaras Rhabarberbar''), which became a viral phenomenon in 2024. and The Longest Word 67 Letters Name Is Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung

Greek

In his comedy ''Assemblywomen'' (c. 392 BC), Aristophanes coined the 182-letter word (), a fictional food dish consisting of a combination of fish and other meat. The word is cited as the longest ancient Greek word ever written.
A modern Greek word of 22 letters is () (gen. (), 25 letters) meaning "electroencephalogram".

Hebrew

The longest Hebrew word is the 19-letter-long (including vowels) (), which means "And when to our encyclopedias..." The Hebrew word (encyclopedia) is of a European origin.

The longest word in Hebrew that doesn't originate from another language is , () which crudely means "And when, to our resentments/ grievances"

The 11-letter-long (including vowels) () is the longest word to appear in the Hebrew Bible

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