What is the longest word in Spanish?
If you have been wondering what the longest word in the Spanish dictionary is, we are here to settle the debate once and for all.
People have often cited superextraordinarísimo (or superextraordinary) as the longest Spanish word at 22 letters, but it probably isn’t. After all, it’s not really seen in common usage.
The longest Spanish word is…
Well, if you’re willing to include nonsense, the longest Spanish word is probably supercalifragilisticoexpialidoso. That is the Spanish transliteration (or type of language conversion that simply swaps letters in predictable ways) of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. You know, from the Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins? But, since this 32-letter is mostly nonsense, here is the real longest word in Spanish:
The real longest Spanish word is…
If you’re willing to include cognates, the longest including listed in an accepted English dictionary is supposedly “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis,” a kind of lung disease. We can come up with the Spanish equivalent “neumonoultramicroscopicosiliciovolcanconiosis” simply by substituting in the known cognates for all of the roots. Personally, I don’t think this one counts. It’s not in the dictionary, seriously, look it up.
But, if you take out muscles, body parts, and other medical terms, the longest word in Spanish that’s actually getting regular use is probably either
anticonstitucionalmente (“unconstitutionally”) or electroencefalografista (“electroencephalograph technician”) – yes, it’s really found in the Spanish Royal Academy’s dictionary, encylocopedias and even many phonebooks. When you’re done pronouncing that, why not head on over to our list of the 50 best Spanish tongue twisters?
More extremely long Spanish words
Longest Spanish words
| Spanish Word | # of letters | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Anticonstitucionalmente | 23 | Anticonstitutionally |
| Arquitectónicamente | 19 | Architecturally |
| Desacostumbradamente | 20 | Unaccustomed |
| Desafortunadamente | 18 | Unfortunately |
| Desinteresadamente | 18 | Uninterestedly |
| Desvanecimiento | 15 | Fading |
| Electrodoméstico | 16 | Household Appliance |
| Esternocleidomastoideo | 22 | Sternocleidomastoid |
| Independientemente | 18 | Independently |
| Laparosalpingooforotomía | 24 | Laparosalpingooforotomy |
| Politraumatismo | 15 | Polytraumatism |
| Vertiginosamente | 16 | Dizzily |
What is the longest word in all languages?
If this has got you wondering what the longest word in languages besides Spanish is…
Some people will again reference medical terminology, such as the English words pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis or pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. There is even a technical name for the protein titin that supposedly takes three and a half hours to say completely (189,819 letters long!)
But these are rarely used in speech, so in our opinion, they don’t really count. Truthfully, the longest English word with practical usage is most likely “incomprehensibilities”.
There is a special name for languages that regularly create extremely long compound words by cramming other words together. They are referred to as agglutinative languages, and they include German, Japanese, Turkish, Korean, Hungarian, and others. Here are some examples of the longest words in some of these languages:
German: “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” (63 letters, law pertaining to the regulation of beef)
Dutch: “Meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornissen” (38 letters, split personality disorder)
Get more vocabulary words (most likely much shorter ones) delivered daily to your inbox with our free Spanish Word-A-Day email.
You may also enjoy this list of the 50 most difficult to pronounce Spanish words.
Up next:
How do you say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in Spanish? And is that really the longest Spanish word?
