Calling all folks with sesquipedalian tendencies (those who use overly long words) — this one’s for you. If you’ve ever wondered what the longest English word is, the answer is actually up for debate. Lexicographers (those who study words) consider a variety of parameters, and some disagree on which aspects are most important. Must the word be listed in the dictionary (and if so, which dictionary)? Does a technical or medical word count? Can it be the name of a place or a person, for that matter? These questions (and others) contribute to the lengthy discussion.

Some English words are still in use just because of their length — their original usages are long outdated. Consider, for example, the 28-letter word “antidisestablishmentarianism.” This noun originally meant “opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England,” but today, it’s almost exclusively used as an example of one of the longest English words.

Other such examples include the 29-letter “floccinaucinihilipilification” (the estimation of something as worthless) and the 27-letter “honorificabilitudinitatibus” (a sesquipedalian synonym of “honorableness”). But while they might take up more than one line of text on a phone screen, none of these terms is in the running for the longest English word. Here are some words that are.

(Note: We hope this list doesn’t inspire any hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. This 36-letter term denotes a phobia of long words, and while it’s a newly coined term, it refers to a real social phobia that can arise while trying to pronounce or use very long words, especially in front of others.)

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
This 45-letter noun is currently the longest entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s another word for silicosis, a lung disease caused by breathing in fine particles of silica, a mineral that is common in sand and concrete. The word was allegedly coined in jest in the 1930s by Everett M. Smith, president of the National Puzzlers’ League, as a jab at elaborate medical terms.

Methionylalanylthreonylserylarginylglycylalanylseryl…leucine
This word goes on and on, officially tallying up to 189,819 characters. Perhaps not surprisingly, it isn’t found in any common dictionaries — it would fill up 12 standard pages and it takes approximately three and a half hours to pronounce the entire term. It’s the technical title of a protein that contributes to the elasticity of our muscles, but the name can be neatly shortened to “titin,” derived from the word “Titan,” a reference to the enormous gods of Greek mythology. Why is the full name so long? Per international science-naming guidelines, every single amino acid found inside a protein must be listed in its moniker, and titin contains 34,350 amino acids, resulting in this monstrosity of a word.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
If we’re considering proper nouns in this competition, the 85-letter name of this New Zealand summit might win for the longest word in an English-speaking country. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill on North Island, is named after the local legend of Tamatea, a fabled warrior celebrated by the Māori. The name of the hill comes from a Māori expression that translates to “the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as ‘landeater,’ played his flute to his loved one.” While the full name is written out on the sign to mark the hill near Hawke’s Bay, locals tend to call it Taumata Hill.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Coming in at 34 letters long, “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” isn’t nearly the longest English word, but because it’s far more recognizable than most of its competition, it deserves a spot on the list. Sometimes cited as the longest nontechnical English word, this term was popularized by the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, in which a song helps clarify the bewildering pronunciation of the word. While it’s still considered a rare, fanciful term, it’s popular enough that it earned an entry in the dictionary as an adjective meaning “extraordinarily good” or “wonderful.”

Oxyphenbutazone
This word might seem miniscule compared to some of the others on the list, but for gamers, it’s just as important. A Scrabble board is 15 by 15 blocks, so the maximum length of a word is 15 letters. Technically, any 15-letter word could be the longest Scrabble word, but “oxyphenbutazone” is noteworthy because it is also the highest-scoring Scrabble word possible when played on three triple-word squares with just the right preexisting tiles. The 1,778-point word is the name of an anti-inflammatory medication used to treat arthritis. The stars must align to use this word — it’s never actually been played in an official Scrabble tournament.

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Samantha Abernethy

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Welcome to Boonville, California, a tiny hamlet in Northern California’s Mendocino County. Settled in the mid-1800s, the remote town is sandwiched between two mountain ranges, with an estimated population of just over 1,000. While isolated, this town has a unique claim to fame: Residents developed their own English dialect, Boontling.

The name “Boontling” derives from a combination of “Boonter,” an adjectival demonym (a word used to describe people from a certain place) for the town, and “lingo.” There are fewer than 100 speakers of Boontling today, but when it developed more than a century ago, reportedly among women and children working in the fields, it thrived among the locals. In fact, it turned into a town pastime to coin a new word in Boontling and see if other Boonters could figure out the meaning.

Though Boontling includes more than 1,000 words and phrases, its syntax and grammar are distinctly English, so it isn’t considered its own language. Instead, it’s more of a jargon, or a specialized dialect. It combines loanwords and eponyms (words that come from the names of actual people) from English, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic, and Pomoan (the language spoken by the Indigenous Northern California Pomo tribe). And perhaps unsurprisingly, a large portion of the words are of a racy variety. (One of the milder ones: A Boonter named Barney was known to greet everyone with a kiss, so a “kiss” is called a “barney.”)

Here are a few words to cover the Boontling basics — try to sprinkle a few of these into your conversations.

In Boontling, “almittey” is a noun. It refers to a belch, particularly a loud one, or a person who burps loudly or frequently. This eponym is in honor of a local woman who was reportedly known for her habitual belching.

A “beljeek” is a rabbit — specifically a black-tailed jackrabbit. This word is a combination of “Belgian” (as in Belgian hare) and “jackrabbit.”

This eponym is for a pay phone. While “buckey” is the Boontling word for “nickel,” the “Walter” part refers to Walter Levi, a local man who owned the first phone in the town. As such, “walter levi” is the Boontling term for “telephone.”

“Doolsey” refers to any kind of candy, sweet, or sugar. It’s borrowed from the Spanish dulce (“sugar”), which may have been indirectly borrowed from Pomoan before it made it to Boontling.

“Golden eagles” can be any kind of women’s clothing, but in particular undergarments. During the development of this jargon, Golden Eagle was a popular brand of flour. Locals frequently used the sacks to make clothing and underwear, and while other brand-name flour sacks also were used, apparently none of them had the same staying power.

A “hedge” is a haircut — as one would trim a hedge, so must one keep their hair tidy with regular haircuts. Many recognizably English words in Boontling operate in this pattern. Words with similar usages, but perhaps in different fields (as in haircutting and lawn care), are swapped.

Linguistic swapping is also common in other English dialects, such as Cockney rhyming slang. “Bread and honey” translates to “money,” for example.

To “kiloppety” means “to travel by horse-drawn vehicle, or on horseback.” It’s an onomatopoeia, meaning it comes from the sound of shod hooves clopping on the ground.

To “wess” is “to fib, or exaggerate the truth.” This eponym is styled after a local man named Wes who was known to stretch the truth.

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Jennifer A. Freeman

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Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.

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One of the most common culprits of mispronunciation must be brand names. When a brand is born outside of an English-speaking country, do we use the brand’s native language, an anglicized version, or something in between? Some brands anglicize their name right away to avoid any confusion, such as in the case of Italian chef Ettore Boiardi, who changed his name to Chef Boyardee so Americans would have an easier time with it phonetically. Of course, not every brand is that accommodating (nor should they have to be), so pronunciation pitfalls abound, from the aisles of the grocery store to fashion week runways and everywhere in between.

Nutella

This chocolatey hazelnut spread is beloved worldwide, and it has roots in multiple European countries, so the pronunciation is naturally debated. According to the Nutella brand, the pronunciation is something like “NOU-tella” with an emphasis on the “NOU” (which sounds like the vowel sound in “newt” in American English, using a hard “oo”). If you’ve been saying it incorrectly, don’t worry — in a recent poll conducted by the brand, 78% of British people were pronouncing it incorrectly as “NUT-ella.” Nutella was also adamant that it doesn’t care how consumers pronounce the product name, so long as they enjoy it.

Porsche

Let the German car brand end the debate — “Porsche” is a two-syllable word. While plenty of Americans drop the “e” at the end, the correct German pronunciation is “PORE-shuh.” It comes from the brand’s founder, Ferdinand Porsche. The German language has far fewer silent letters than English, a difference that resulted in the incorrect anglicized version. In a recent poll on brand-name pronunciations, “Porsche” was the second-most-mispronounced name — around 65% of participants were incorrect.

Givenchy

Beating out Porsche in the pronunciation poll was Givenchy — more than 70% of participants got the name of this French luxury fashion and perfume house wrong, making it the most-mispronounced common brand name. The first syllable causes American English speakers the most grief: The “zh” or “sz” sound is pronounced like the “s” in the word “vision”; there is no American “g” sound in this word. The ending is also softer than an Americanized version would be, ending in “shee” rather than a hard “ch” sound.

La Croix

This one might be counterintuitive. “La Croix” looks like a French word, so it must be pronounced like a French word, right? Actually, it’s a Midwestern company, and the sparkling water brand stayed true to its roots when picking a name. It was first produced out of a brewery in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the 1980s, and the city name was combined with the name of the St. Croix River, resulting in a portmanteau of the two Midwestern locales: La Croix. The brand suggests remembering this by using a helpful saying: “La-CROY. It rhymes with ‘enjoy.’”

To add to the confusion, the French luxury fashion brand Christian Lacroix is pronounced “luh-KWAH.” It stays true to French phonetics, where “croi” produces a “kwa” sound, as heard in the word “croissant.”

IKEA

If you’ve been saying “Let’s go to eye-KEE-ah,” you’re not totally out of bounds. While the anglicized pronunciation of the furniture store’s name is technically OK to use — even American IKEA commercials use it — the traditional Swedish pronunciation features different vowel sounds. The first syllable is “ee,” as in “need”; the second is emphasized and pronounced as “KAY,” as in “OK”; and the third ends in an “uh” or “yuh” sound.

Ralph Lauren

This pronunciation mix-up comes from a classic case of trying to put a fancy spin on a word that doesn’t require it. Ralph Lauren is an American fashion brand, and as such, it uses the American pronunciation of the name “Lauren,” with an emphasis on the first syllable. Some people add a European-esque emphasis on the second syllable, but this is incorrect, as Ralph Lauren himself uses the American style of his name.

Fage

The Fage yogurt brand was founded in Athens, Greece, and its naming is twofold. First, the word “fage” (φαγε) is the verb for “to eat,” and second, the name “Fage” operates as an acronym. It stands for Filippou Adelphoi Galaktokomika Epicheiriseis (Filippou Brothers Dairy Company). With these Greek roots for the Greek yogurt brand, the pronunciation is “FAH-yeh.”

Moschino

Founded by Franco Moschino, this Italian fashion brand is on the long list of designer names that have been (incorrectly) Americanized. In English, we often naturally turn the “ch” grouping into a “shh” sound, but in Italian, it takes the form of a hard “c” or “k” sound, so the second syllable is pronounced “KEY” (not “SHEE”).

Hermès

“H” is a silent letter in French when it stands alone as a consonant, so for this French luxury brand, go ahead and drop the first letter altogether. Typically, the “s” at the end would also be silent in French pronunciation, but the accent mark on the second “e” (called an “accent grave”) changes the pronunciation of the “e,” and therefore the “s.” The accent calls for the “e” to be pronounced like the vowel sound in the English word “net.” Because of this, the “s” is also softly pronounced.

Sriracha

The trick to pronouncing this Thai chili sauce is to leave out the first “r.” As for the pronunciation of the first vowel, that’s up for debate. Some official sources, including Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Dictionary, say to pronounce the first syllable as the word “sir,” while in the Thai language, the first syllable is “see.” Both options seem to be acceptable for hot sauce fans, so long as that first “r” remains silent.

Versace

As confirmed by Donatella Versace herself, the correct pronunciation of this Italian fashion brand is “Ver-sach-EH,” with more of an “uh” or “eh” sound at the end (not an elongated “ee” as in “knee”). The fashion magnate explained the pronunciation of her family name in an interview with Vogue, putting an end to the discussion once and for all.

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Jennifer A. Freeman

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Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.

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While American English and British English are very much the same language, the dialects differ in terms of vocabulary. The category with perhaps the most differences is food words — in particular, fruits and vegetables. This list is a sampling of different words in American English and British English for the exact same foods, and some possible linguistic explanations for them. Bon appétit!

The scientifically named Solanum melongena comes from the Indian subcontinent and first appeared in England by the end of the 16th century. The British (and Germans) borrowed the French word aubergine (which actually traces back to the Sanskrit vatinganah) to name the plant. The American word for it, “eggplant,” originated in English in the mid-18th century and is derived from the white and yellow versions of the vegetable, which apparently resemble goose eggs.

Both of these words come from the same place, and while they appear quite different, “arugula” and “rocket” follow the same linguistic path. Both names for the plant species Eruca sativa share the common Latin root eruca, meaning “a cabbage-like plant.” The native Mediterranean plant was originally called ruchetta by the ancient Romans, eventually becoming rucola in Italian. By the 16th century, fellow Romance language speakers in France called it roquette. When the leafy green made it to England, the British replaced the French-sounding “qu” with the more Anglican-sounding “ck” in “rocket.” Meanwhile, Italian immigrants brought what they called rucola to the United States, where it evolved in American English to “arugula.”

Coriander is the plant that produces the zesty green herb we know in North America as “cilantro,” but most Europeans call “coriander.” In the U.S., “cilantro” refers to the leafy part of the plant used as an herb or garnish, while “coriander” refers to the seeds that are ground into a cooking spice. In Europe, “coriander” refers to the leaves, seeds, and stem of the same plant. Interestingly, the linguistic root of “coriander” is the Greek koriannon, which botanists say is related to koris (“bedbug”), for the bad smell of unripe fruit. Folks who have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap can identify with this particular naming convention.

Much like the “aubergine”/”eggplant” and “arugula”/”rocket” dichotomies, the split between “courgette” and “zucchini” has a lot to do with geographical location and emigration. Both words refer to a type of green squash from the Cucurbita pepo family. The vegetable, native to Central and South America, was cultivated for thousands of years before it was adopted into European cuisine as a result of colonization. The French called it courgette, and the Italians called it zucchini. “Courgette” made it to British English by way of geographic proximity, while “zucchini” came into American English with the wave of Italian immigration to the United States from about 1880 to 1920.

In the U.S., a biscuit is a flaky, buttery pastry often served for breakfast. In England, a biscuit is what Americans call a “cookie” — a sweet, baked dessert ranging in texture and density. When Dutch settlers arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York City), they brought with them koekjes, what we now call “cookies.” The root is koek, the Dutch word for “cake,” with the suffix -je added to designate “little cakes.” Meanwhile, the British get “biscuit” from the French bescuit, meaning “twice cooked.” The Italian word biscotti also comes from the same Latin root.

Scientifically, shrimp and prawns are different species: Shrimp have one pair of legs with a claw at the end, whereas prawns have three pairs of legs with claws. However, in terms of language and cooking, Americans use the word “shrimp” as a blanket term for both species, while British English speakers say “prawns” for both.

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Mandy Brownholtz

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Mandy Brownholtz is a writer and editor based in Baltimore, MD. She is the Managing Editor of "CREEM Magazine," and her work has appeared in the "New York Times," "Insider," and elsewhere. She has also written a novel entitled "Rotten."

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Not everyone is blessed with an instantly recognizable name. Some of us have been correcting people’s pronunciation of our names since the first attendance roll call in kindergarten. And this list proves that no one is safe from having their name mispronounced — and that includes some of the most famous figures in history. Avoid these pronunciation blunders during your next trip to the museum.

(Note: The pronunciations provided below are given using phonetic spellings for English speakers, but dictionaries often use IPA pronunciations, which provide consistent guidance across languages and accents.)

Pronunciation: lay-uh-NARD-oh duh-VIN-chee

Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci is best known for creating two of the most famous paintings of all time, the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.” So, how does one of the world’s most renowned artists get his name botched? It comes down to the difference in American English and Italian vowel pronunciations. In Italian, “e” is often pronounced as “eh” or “ay” (and “i” has more of an “ee” sound). This means that in Leonardo’s native language, the first syllable of his name is pronounced “lay,” not “lee” (as we say it in American English).

Pronunciation: VIN-suhnt van KHOKH

People all around the world pronounce the “Starry Night” painter’s name incorrectly. Americans say “Van Go,” the French say “Van Gog,” and the British say “Van Gof” — but in the Netherlands (where Van Gogh was from), they pronounce it as “Van Khokh.” The Dutch “g” is a guttural sound that is pronounced similarly to the “ch” in the Scottish word for “lake,” loch, which uses a sound made in the back of the throat. While this pronunciation is unfamiliar to most of the world, it is the traditional way according to Van Gogh experts.

Pronunciation: SOYS or SOICE

Perhaps author Theodor Seuss Geisel should have written a children’s book of rhymes to help pronounce his pen name (which was also his Bavarian mother’s maiden name). Readers almost always pronounce Dr. Seuss’ name as “Soos,” which rhymes with “goose,” but it should be pronounced as “Soys,” which rhymes with “voice.” This comes down to the origin of the name “Seuss,” which is German and should be pronounced using traditional German sounds. It seems that the author never corrected the masses, but people who were close to him knew the real pronunciation. A former college classmate wrote about the mix-up in Dartmouth’s alumni magazine: “You’re wrong as the deuce / And you shouldn’t rejoice / If you’re calling him Seuss. / He pronounces it Soice.”

Pronunciation: YOO-lee-oos KAI-sar

It’s perfectly acceptable to pronounce the name of this famed Roman general as “JOO-lee-uhs SEE-zr,” but when he was alive, the Roman (Classical Latin) pronunciation would have sounded very different. Old Latin slowly transformed into Classical Latin through the first century BCE (during the time of Julius Caesar’s reign in 46 BCE), causing “Caesar” to sound very different. In Classical Latin, the “c” would have taken on a hard “k” sound, and the diphthong “ae” sounded like “eye,” resulting in the pronunciation “KAI-sar” — a far cry from the modern “SEE-zar.” As for his first name, Classical Latin did not have a distinct “j” sound, so the letter typically took on a slight “y” sound, resulting in a name pronounced as “YOO-lee-oos.”

Pronunciation: ed-VARD MONK

This Norwegian painter, known for “The Scream,” has one of the most mispronounced names in English. It is not “Munch,” like taking a bite of an apple, but “Monk,” like someone who lives in a monastery. The faux pas is caused by Norwegian and English vowel pronunciation differences. In Norwegian, when a “u” comes before an “n,” it takes on a short sound, which in American English comes out closer to the “o” sound in the word “monk.” Additionally, “c” is not a true Norwegian letter (it is only part of their alphabet because of foreign loanwords), which results in the “k” sound at the end of “Munch,” as seen in the names “Christian” or “Chloe.”

Pronunciation: JO-sef PULL-itzer

The coveted Pulitzer Prize for achievements in journalism, literature, and music composition is named after Hungarian American publisher Joseph Pulitzer. But Pulitzer’s name has a different fate than others on this list: The most obvious pronunciation is actually the correct one. It is said just as it is spelled — “PULL-itzer” — but oftentimes, even historians and linguists get it wrong by using the incorrect “PEW-lit-zer.” Where this mispronunciation myth began is anyone’s guess, but just ahead of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize announcement, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, wife of the late Joseph Pulitzer Jr., set the record straight: “My husband said that his father told people to say ‘Pull it sir.’”

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Jennifer A. Freeman

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Jennifer A. Freeman is the Senior Editor of Word Smarts and Word Daily. When she's not searching for a perfect synonym or reaching "Genius" level on Spelling Bee, she's playing with her Welsh Terrier in Greenville, SC.

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