10 Long Words

Try and pronounce or use these words in conversation.

1. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: (45) This is the longest word you’ll find in a major dictionary. This is the full scientific name for a disease that causes inflammation in the lungs owing to the inhalation of very fine silica dust.
2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: (36) Fear of long words.
3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: (34) Perhaps the best word of all! Made popular by the film Mary Poppins, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is something to say when you have nothing to say.
4. Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism: (30) A thyroid disorder is the longest non-coined word to appear in a major dictionary.
5. Floccinaucinihilipilification: (29) This is the longest non-technical English word. A mash-up of five Latin roots, it refers to the act of describing something as having little or no value.
6. Antidisestablishmentarianism: (28) Opposed or hostile to the social, economic, and political principles of a ruling class (as of a nation).
7. Honorificabilitudinitatibus: (27) The longest word in Shakespeare’s works. It is the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.
8. Thyroparathyroidectomized: (25) A medical term that defines the excision of both the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
9. Incomprehensibilities: (21) Impossible to comprehend. In the 1990’s, this word set the record as the longest word “in common usage.”
10. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia: (21) The fear of the number 666.

Nancy Roe
Author