• Methylchloroizothiazolinone (27 letters) - Nante Galamgam
• Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane or DDT (31 letters) - Eleuterio Paje, Harbor City, California
• Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoconiosis (45 letters, a factitious word alleged to mean a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust) - Francis Sales, UP Diliman, QC; also Jan Andrew Zubiri, Ronald Gabriel, and Ron Gonzales
• Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters) - Exequiel Alikpala
• Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters, appears in the Oxford English Dictionary), Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery-chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 letters, a village in Wales), or perhaps "smiles," after all, there is a mile between the first letter and the last. - Dr. Bopeep Ladrido UP Visayas, Iloilo City
• Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoconiosis, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery-chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, antidisestablishmentarianism, floccinaucinihilipilification (the estimation of something as worthless), honorificabili-tudinitatibus (appears in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost) - Gerald Chua
• We should exclude scientific words in the longest word category because they’re just concatenations of prefixes and suffixes. I still believe the longest word is what follows "a word from our sponsor." - Jesse Lao, Seattle, Washington
As of popular usage, Antidisestablish-mentarianism (a movement opposed to the separation of church and state) at 28 letters is often accepted as the best-known "longest word."
As a coined term, the word pneumonoul-tramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters is certainly the longest word ever to appear in a non-technical dictionary of English (Source: OED). The actual name of the disease is pneumoconiosis.
There is a 207,000+ letter word cited by the Guinness Book of Records which allegedly represents the name for human mitochondrial DNA. It’s too long to print here.
The longest word which appears in William Shakespeare’s works is the 27-letter honorificabilitudinitatibus, appearing in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
The song-title from the movie Mary Poppins "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with 34 letters appears in several dictionaries but as a proper noun in reference to the song title. Hence it may well be dismissed as not a "real" word.
The Guinness Book of Records in 1992 (and subsequent editions) declares the "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.
Scientific naming schemes generate arbitrarily long words. According to the Guinness Book of Records, 18th edition, the scientific name for tryptophan synthetase is the longest chemical word for C1289H2051N343O375S8:
me_thionyl_glutaminyl_arginyl_tyrosylgluta-mylserylleucylphenyl_alanyl_alanyl_g-lutaminyl_leucyllysylglutamylarginyl_lysylglutam-ylglycylalanyl_phenyl_alanyl_valylprolylphen-yl_alanyl_valylthreonyl_leucylglycylaspartylp-rolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglutaminyl_serylleu-cyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonyl_leucylisoleucylgluta-mylalanyl_glycylalanyl_aspartylalanyl_leucylgluta-mylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenyl_alanyl_sery-laspartylprolylleucylalanyl_aspartylglycylprolylthreon-yl_isoleucylglutaminyl_asparaginyl_alan-yl_threonyl_leucylarginyl_alanyl_phenyl_ala-nyl_alanyl_alanyl_glycylvalylthreonyl_prolylalany-l_glutaminyl_cysteinyl_phenyl_alanyl_gluta-mylme_thionyl_leucylalanyl_leucylisoleucylargin-yl_glutaminyl_lysylhistidylprolylthreonyl_isoleucylp-rolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylme_thionyl_tyrosylalan-yl_asparaginyl_leucylvalylphenyl_alan-yl_asparaginyl_lysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutam-ylphenyl_alanyl_tyrosylalanyl_glutamin-yl_cysteinyl_glutamyllysylvalylglycy-lvalylaspartylserylvalylleucylvalylalanyl_aspartylvalylp-rolylvalylglutaminyl_glutamylserylalany-l_prolylphenyl_alan-yl_arginyl_glutaminy-l_alanyl_alanyl_leucylarg-inyl_histidylasparagin-yl_valylalanyl_p-rolylisoleucylphen-yl_alanyl_isoleuc-ylcysteinyl_p-rolylprolylaspartylalan-yl_aspartylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginyl_gluta-minyl_isoleucylalanyl_seryltyrosylglycylarginyl_glycylty-rosylthreonyl_tyrosylleucylleucylserylargin-yl_alanyl_glycylvalylthreonyl_glycylalan-yl_glutamylasparaginyl_arginyl_alanyl_alanyl_leucylprolylle-ucylasparaginyl_histidylleucylvalylalanyl_lysylleucyllysylgluta-myltyrosylasparaginyl_alanyl_alanyl_pro-lylprolylleucylglutaminyl_glycylphenyl_ala- nyl_glycylisoleucylserylalanyl_prolylaspartylglutaminyl_- valyllysylalanyl_alanyl_isoleucylaspartylalanyl_-glycylalany_alanyl_glycylalanyl_isoleucylserylglycyls-erylalanyl_isoleucylvalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylglutamy-lglutaminyl_histidylasparaginyl_is- oleucylglutamylprolylglutamyllysylme_th-ionyl_leucylalanyl_alanyl_leucyllysylvalylphe-nyl_alanyl_valylglutaminyl_prolylme_t- hionyl_lysylalanyl_alanyl_threonyl_arginyl_serine
The longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country is Taumatawhakatang_ihangakoauauot_amateaturipuk-aka_pikimaunga_horonuku_pokaiwhenuak_itanatahu (85 letters), a hill in New Zealand.
A popular joke answer to the "longest word" question is the word smiles, credited as the longest word because there is a mile between each S.
According to some, the longest word is the word after the sentence "And now, a word from our sponsors".
What I should have added as a rule is that the longest word entry should be found in an average home dictionary. We will be more specific next time!
Currently, there are two major schools of thought regarding what to do during a tremblor. The "drop, cover and hold on" procedure which the American Red Cross and other American disaster agencies recommend, and finding a "triangle of safety" which disaster expert Douglas F. Copp upholds. Copp claims that those who take cover (under a table, a desk or a car) always get squashed by the object.
Tammy Licauco from Sydney Australia and Susan S. Lara, called our attention to an entry from the Urban Legends reference page at http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/triangle.asp questioning the credibility of Copp, the author of the "triangle of life" concept. Eugene Sunio, a geologist and geochemist, sent in the Red Cross stand on Copp’s "triangle of life".
Rocky Lopes, PhD, Manager, Community Disaster Education, says: "The Red Cross is not saying that identifying potential voids is wrong or inappropriate. What we are saying is that ‘Drop, Cover, and Hold On!’ is not wrong in the United States (where the building codes are stricter). The American Red Cross, being a U.S.-based organization, does not extend its recommendations to apply in other countries. What works here may not work elsewhere, so there is no dispute that the ‘void identification method’ or the ‘Triangle of Life’ may indeed be the best thing to teach in other countries where the risk of building collapse, even in moderate earthquakes, is great."
I personally believe that there is some merit to the concept of Copp because it makes scientific sense. More studies should be made on it by the proper authorities. In the meantime, it is best to read up on the safety information prepared by established earthquake safety experts such as the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"I would like to tell you that I love reading your column. More power. Mabuhay!" – Cecile Schulz, Wiesbaden, Germany