Longest word in French

This article lists some of the longest words in the French language.

As in many languages, chemical nomenclature may be used to construct indefinitely long chemical names (if referring to fictional molecules), and therefore is not on this list. The chemical name of titin could be translated, and therefore would be the longest technical word in the French language.

The longest word listed below, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie (36 letters) is, ironically, the fear (or phobia) of long words. The word is formed from the Latin word sesquipedalia (singular sesquipedalis), which the Ancient Roman poet Horace used in Ars Poetica to describe excessively long words; literally, it means "a foot-and-a-half long".

Like the other phobias in the list, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie can be pluralised by adding the letter s to the end. The adjective interdépartemental (18 letters), which also appears in the list, can be made longer by appending the letters es , which gives its plural, grammatically gendered form.

Long words
Word Letters Syllables Part of speech Translation Ref.
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie 3614Nounhippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia[1]
dichlorodiphényltrichloroéthane 30 11 Noun dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
hexakosioihexekontahexaphobie 2913Nounhexakosioihexekontahexaphobia[2][1]
intergouvernementalisation 2610Nounintergovernmentalisation[1]
anticonstitutionnellement 259Adverbanticonstitutionally[1]
apopathodiaphulatophobie 2410Nounapopathodiaphulatophobia[3][4][5]
désinstitutionnalisation 249Noundeinstitutionalization
autocheirothanatophobie 239Nounautocheirothanatophobia[6]
paraskevidékatriaphobie 2310Nounparaskavedekatriaphobia[7][1]
dyspondéromorphophobie 228Noundysponderomorphophobia [8]
magnétoplasmadynamique 229AdjectiveMagnetoplasmadynamic
interdépartemental 187Adjectiveinterdepartmental[9]
triskaïdekaphobie 176Nountriskaidekaphobia

See also

Notes
  1. Martin, Philippe (2018). "Groupes accentuels et phrasé". Intonation, structure prosodique et ondes cérébrales: introduction à l'analyse prosodique. Série Linguistique du langage oral (in French). London: ISTE Editions. ISBN 978-1-78405-370-3. OCLC 1033658031 – via Google Books.
  2. Case 2014, p. 86–87.
  3. Case 2014, pp. 27–28.
  4. George, Kenneth E. M. (1991). Néologismes du français contemporain. Datations et documents lexicographiques (in French). Klincksieck. p. 175. ISBN 978-2-252-02749-3. OCLC 256644341.
  5. Leconte, Bernard (2007). "Diafoirus en pleine forme". A la recherche du bon français (in French). Éditions Lanore. p. 57. ISBN 978-2-85157-301-8 – via Google Books.
  6. Case 2014, p. 34–35.
  7. Case 2014, p. 125.
  8. Case 2014, p. 65.
  9. "Interdépartemental". Le Dictionnaire. Retrieved 25 June 2018.

References

Longest words in French

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