Welcome to the Grammar Minute, where we’re saving the English language sixty seconds at a time! I’m Lauren Smyth, and what is the longest word in the English language?
There’s actually some debate about this, and it depends on whether you include technical words and words not always found in dictionaries. There’s a certain protein with a technical name that has nearly 200,000 letters, but you’re not going to crack open Merriam Webster and find this utterly unpronounceable and kind of useless word. The longest word typically entered in dictionaries is *gasp* Pneumo-no-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coni-osis, which is a lung disease caused by inhaling fine dust that apparently couldn’t be described in fewer than 45 letters. The longest nontechnical word is antidisestablishmentarianism, which is a lot easier to pronounce since it only has 28 letters.
This should be your reminder not to use weirdly long words in your writing when a short one will do. There’s no need to overcomplicate things.
That’s your Grammar Minute! Visit thegrammarminute.com for more tips and tricks.