Top Ten Longest Words in the Oxford English Dictionary



Top Ten Longest Words

in the Oxford English Dictionary


1. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis _____45

2. supercalifragilisticexpialidocious _______________34

3. pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism _____________30

4. floccinaucinihilipilification ___________________29

4. triethylsulphonemethylmethane ______________29

5. antidisestablishmentarianism _______________28

5. octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane _______________28

5. tetrachlorodibenzoparadioxin _______________28

6. hepaticocholangiogastronomy _______________27

7. radioimmunoelectrophoresis _______________26

7. radiommunoelectrophoretic _______________26


Words that are hyphenatned, including such compound words as "transformational-generative" and " tristhio-dimethyl-benzaldehyde", have not been included. Only one unhyphenated word did not make it into the Top 10, the 25-letter "psychophysicotherapeutics". After this, there is a surprisingly large number of words containing 20-24 letters (radioimmunoprecipitation, spectrophotofluorometric, thyroparathyroidectomize, hypergammaglobulinaemia, roentgenkymographically and immunosympathectomized, for example) -- few of which are ever used by anyone except scientists and crossword compilers.

- Bedre N. Manjunath M.A.,

Transmission Executive,

All India Radio F.M. CHITRADURGA - 577 501,

KARNATAKA Ph: 94485-89089

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ONE WORD SUBSTITUTION

Language Laboratory for learning Spoken and Written English