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
. Even non-agglutinative languages may allow word formation of theoretically limitless length in certain contexts. Words consisting of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of characters have been coined
with the goal of being ranked among the world's longest words; technical scientific terms can run to hundreds of thousands of characters in length. Place names may not be accepted on lists of longest words despite their length. Longest word candidates may be judged by their acceptance in major dictionaries
such as the Oxford English Dictionary
or in record-keeping publications like the Guinness World Records
, and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.
The longest word in Albanian is probably Kundërzhurmëkrijuesabërësave
, which is 27 letters long, and means "Against noise maker makers."
The longest word in Arabic mentioned in The Holy Qur'an is -فأسقيناكموه- or -فَأَسْقَيْنَاكُمُوهُ-, which is 11 letters, and means "and we give it to you to drink."
The longest word in Bulgarian is Непротивоконституционствувателствуванията (Neprotivokonstitutsionstvuvatelstvuvaniyata
), which is 41 letters, and means... Read More