The Longest Word In The English Language?

Is this the longest word in the English language?

acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylseryl- glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylseryl- valyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamyl- leucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylseryl- leucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutami- nylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreo- nylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylpheny- lalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenyla- lanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylala- nylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylargin- yltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucyli- soleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenyla- lanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucyli- soleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglu- taminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreo- nylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspar- tylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylsery- lalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparagi- nylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyl- tyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenyla- lanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltrypto- phylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine

At 1,185 letter long, Sam Kean, the author of "The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements" says it very well may be the longest word found in an English-language document not written for the specific purpose of setting the record.

The word, according to NPR, comes from virus-hunting scientists, and was published in the 1964 resource for chemists, "Chemical Abstracts." Specifically, it refers to a protein found in the tobacco mosaic virus (represented by C:785, H:1220, N:212, O:248S2).

However, this still isn't necessarily the longest word in the English language. Kean also says that he also found a tryptophan protein that runs 1,913 letters. However, that word was not published (many long molecules are simply written out by their chemical formulas), likely giving the tobacco protein the crown, as it snuck into print before scientists began adopting the shorter form, according to NPR.

While the definition of a word reamins a point of contention (some argue that a long word created for the sole purpose of setting a record is still a word), the tobacco protein is still a tremendous feat for print, according to NPR. According to Kean, scientists abandoned printing the technical names of molecules like this, because of the amount of paper used.

Comments

[english courses]

07:41 PM on 02/08/2011

OK what we will benefit when we know it. lol
http://www.notcourses.com/ need to make all Egyptians that it will help them to go through the recent crises by providing 25 free English courses each month till make Egyptians speak English fluently. this company consider this effort as self investment to Egyptians to promote their selves in all careers inside Egypt. because it think that all fields now are in English. i think all the companies should have to make that in these days.

[rlcapps]

05:57 AM on 01/29/2011

No

[Jared Krichevsky]

09:07 PM on 01/28/2011

looks like someone at merrium-webster fell asleep on their keyboard and when they woke up they said "f - it, lets run with it"

[hwjone]

12:11 PM on 01/27/2011

Obviously not, perhaps this is: acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylseryl- glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylseryl- valyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamyl- leucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylseryl- leucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutami- nylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreo- nylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylpheny- lalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenyla- lanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylala- nylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylargin- yltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucyli- soleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenyla- lanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucyli- soleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglu- taminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreo- nylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspar- tylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylsery- lalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparagi- nylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyl- tyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenyla- lanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltrypto- phylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserines

[naschkatze]

10:52 PM on 01/26/2011

I think one of George Orwell's rules for good writing was never to use a big word when you could use a simple one.

[InfinteShibumi]

12:02 AM on 01/26/2011

"Keep it simple, stupid."
Anonymous

[camanokat]

08:10 PM on 01/25/2011

Harumph! That's nothing. Welsh towns have more letters.

[joeblow]

06:48 PM on 01/25/2011

The problem with learning words like this is using them incorrectly or in an inappropriate situation. For example, I recently tried using this word when talking to a very pretty woman at a social function. Within a second of it coming from my lips, she was slapping me. Turns out it means 'I want to touch your buttocks with rubber mittens.' But that was not the reason she did what she did. The other meaning of the word---literally translated--- is: "I'm so glad your mother recently died a painful death from cancer."
Words can be such funny things, eh?

[Carissa Weibley]

06:13 PM on 01/25/2011

I would hate to have to study for that test.

[LMPE]

03:48 PM on 01/25/2011

The next trick would be to try and spell the rants from "The Great Dictator".

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

03:45 PM on 01/25/2011

"The word, according to NPR, comes from virus-hunting scientists, and was published in the 1964 resource for chemists, "Chemical Abstracts." Specifically, it refers to a protein found in the tobacco mosaic virus".

Wouldn't it just have been easier to call it Ted?

[jimpayne1984]

12:33 PM on 01/25/2011

Everybody in England knows that the longest word in the english language is "smiles" - because there is a mile between the first letter and the last.

[Steven Synan]

03:22 PM on 01/25/2011

boo!

[FearlessFreep]

12:23 PM on 01/25/2011

The Oxford English Dictionary's longest word is "floccinaucinihilipilificate" (which means "to estimate as worthless"). The longest conventional word may be "anti-disestablishmentarianism" (the creed of Englishmen who disapproved of ending the Anglican Church's "established" status as England's official church).

And "smiles" has a mile between the first letter and the last. (Tee-hee!)

[deepintheheartoftejas]

07:14 PM on 01/26/2011

I found a longer word: skosh! There's a kos in the middle, an ancient Indian unit equal to 2.25 miles. A skosh is US dialect for a "small amount," ironically (the first OED cite is from 1955).

Aligned is the shortest! There's only a ligne between the first and last letter (a watchmakers term equal to 2.2mm).
Spicas is pretty short... with a 6th of an inch (pica, a typographic term) (that's a flower spike according to the OED).
My favorite, though, is upsilons. A psilon is defined as 44 manly strides or, less precisely, 0.025 miles.

I cheated here. I took the list of words from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Units_of_length, and made a quick little unix script to compare them against the list of all words in the OED.

for word in [list of units of distance]; do
grep "^.$word.$" filenameofwords.txt | sed "s/^/$word: /"
done

Adding a | head -n 1 after the sed, here's the list of long or short words:
ald: balds
alen: galena
arpent: parpents
ell: belle
ell: belle
em: bema
gaz: agaze
hand: nhandu
kos: skosh
li: alif
ligne: aligned
line: alined
link: blinks
mile: smiled
mile: smiled
nail: snails
pace: spaced
pica: apical
pous: spouse
psilon: epsilons
rod: brods
rood: broods
rope: groped
unglie: junglier
wa: away

Thanks for suggesting that! I'd never heard that joke before. Challenge: try doing the same on windows, without installing Cygwin.

[carolr51]

11:34 AM on 01/25/2011

I really would not consider that a word. As a name for some tobacco protein, it seems really overdone! Is that really necessary?

[Rand Johnson]

05:03 PM on 01/25/2011

If you think science is necessary... Oh, wait... It is.

[zelduh]

06:22 PM on 01/25/2011

But the length of that word is NOT necessary. And st up id. And a TOTAL waste of time.

[Northern Observer]

11:31 AM on 01/25/2011

So if I were in school and needed to write a 10 page paper on some sort of science subject, I could just do this and use this word maybe 10 or 15 times in the course of the essay and it would be done in no time.
Acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylseryl- glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylseryl- valyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamyl- leucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylseryl- leucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutami- nylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreo- nylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylpheny- lalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenyla- lanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylala- nylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylargin- yltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucyli- soleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenyla- lanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucyli- soleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglu- taminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreo- nylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspar- tylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylsery- lalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparagi- nylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyl- tyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenyla- lanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltrypto- phylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine
is interesting because...

[Aelfgifu]

03:12 PM on 01/25/2011

I suppose that only works if you don't care about passing the assignment. ;)

[Rand Johnson]

05:04 PM on 01/25/2011

Unless the assignment is to write a 1000 word paper. Use that one enough and you're effed.