Why The World's Longest Word Will Never Appear In Any Dictionary Or Record Book!

By - 299 words

Language

Reading Level

Listen to Article

The world's longest word has almost 190,000 letters (Credit: YouTube screen capture)

Search for the term 'world's longest word' and you probably find Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - the scientific name for a lung disease commonly referred to as silicosis. While this is technically true because it is the longest word you will ever see published in a dictionary or for that matter in most places, there are many words that believe it or not, are much longer than that.

While the reason they are not published or given any credence is because they are purportedly not 'real' words, it may also be because they are sooooo long that including them would require the creation of a stand-alone edition!

In fact, the real longest word is so lengthy that even we do not dare publish it in its full 189, 819 letters - The only thing we can tell you is that it starts with methionyl . . . and ends with . . . isoleucine. And incase you are wondering, it took the one person that did dare to say it aloud, a whopping 3.5 hours!

What is even more surprising is that this word is not just a gibberish concoction made up by some crazy person, but a giant protein appropriately dubbed Titin that is made up of 244 unique folded protein domains and also contains the largest number of exons (363) in any single gene. The protein that is used by the body for contraction of striated muscle tissues may not be the most crucial one that we need, but it is not totally worthless either! It is of course better known for its long convoluted scientific name! For those of you curious enough to hear the word aloud, below is the full 3.5 hour video version - test it out and see if you can get through even a tenth of it!

Resources: odditycentral.com,wikipedia.org

Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
840 Comments
  • :))over 5 years
    wow
    • gamegameover 5 years
      this is true look on odd squad
      • oofalmost 6 years
        thats not even a real word it dosnt have meaning
        • dnjlsboricnfjkdalmost 6 years
          WHAT. IS. THE. WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
          • theoddball
            theoddballalmost 6 years
            That pic of Bart is hi-lar-ious!!!
            • I'm a humanabout 6 years
              not helpful :(
              • Heart-girlabout 6 years
                anyone here from 2018!!!!!!
                • siennald
                  siennaldover 6 years
                  I can. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
                  • gamemaster2547
                    gamemaster2547over 6 years
                    Can anyone say or type up Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
                    • ket
                      ketabout 4 years
                      Can you say supercalifrasticespealodocious
                    • duckyjackson89over 6 years
                      i would really like to read that if i could