Seminal Paper
MA English Language
Extreme Words
Sijeta Braha
2016

Extreme Words
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Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 3
What is a ‘dictionary’?.................................................................................................................... 3
Words.............................................................................................................................................. 4
The Shortest Word in the Dictionary .......................................................................................... 4
The Longest Word in the Dictionary........................................................................................... 4
The Longest One-syllable English Words .................................................................................. 5
Words that Contain the Most Vowels ......................................................................................... 6
Words that Contain the Longest String of Consonants............................................................... 6
The Longest Word without any Repeated Letter ........................................................................ 6
Words with the Same Letter Three Times in a Row................................................................... 7
Words with Three Consecutive Repeated Letters....................................................................... 7
Words with Two 'u's in a Row .................................................................................................... 7
Words that Contain ‘q’ Not Followed by ‘u’ .............................................................................. 8
The Word with the Most Meanings............................................................................................. 8
Summary......................................................................................................................................... 8
Works Cited .................................................................................................................................... 9

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Introduction
The aim of this paper is to provide information about dictionaries and words in general
and about some of the most extreme words in particular.
In the beginning, there will deal be a short introduction to dictionaries which aims in
defining what they are, in the meantime also showing the origin of the word itself. Secondly
there will be a short passage which will try to explain what words are. Lastly, there will be an
attempt to identify the most extreme words in the English dictionaries.
In order to compile this paper, different sources will be consulted, especially electronic
sources, including some of the most well-known dictionaries online, Oxford Dictionary,
Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Macmillan Dictionary and Longman
Dictionary.
What is a ‘dictionary’?
Some call it ‘a source’, some others ‘a book’ and still others ‘a list’ of words arranged
alphabetically that gives information about the words’ meanings, forms, pronunciations,
functions, etymologies, syntactical and idiomatic uses. However, some dictionaries may also
provide synonyms and antonyms. Some go even further by including a lot of examples about
how a particular word is used. Furthermore, there are also those that provide pictures of
particular words (body parts, animals). Basically, whatever they include it is fair to conclude that
‘a dictionary is a useful device for understanding an unknown word’.
The word dictionary dates back to 1520s. It is supposed to have come from Medieval
Latin dictionarium ‘of words and phrases’, which derived from Latin dictionarius ‘of words,
from Latin dictio ‘word’ (Harper, 2001-2016).
On the other hand, according to Oxford Dictionary (Oxford Dictionary Online, 2016), it
is a coined word from Latin dictionarium, used by an Englishman John of Garland in the 13th
century. He used the word as the title of a children’s book which was a guide to Latin
composition, thus giving it the meaning of ‘connected speech’ since his guide would enable the
learner to put words together.

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Words
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 2015) word is “a sound or
a combination of sounds that has a meaning and is spoken or written”. The term is supposed to
have derived from Proto-Germanic wurdan. Its cognates can be found in Old Saxon, Old Frisian
word, Dutch woord, Old High German, German wort, Old Norse orð, Gothic waurd. The PIE
form is considered to have were which probably meant speak, say (Harper, 2001-2016).
Words consist of letters / sounds which firstly form syllables. According to their length
words can be one-syllable, two-syllable or multi-syllable, though one must bear in mind that
there a limit in every language as to how many syllable a word can contain.
Words also tend to have different meanings without changing forms and, this is certainly
and especially true for English.
The Shortest Word in the Dictionary
There are two words that share the title of being the shortest words in the English
dictionary. The first one is the indefinite article ‘a’ while the other one is the personal pronoun
‘I’. Some lexicographers argue that ‘a’ is the shortest because it is not pronounced as high as ‘I’
while regarding ‘I’ as the thinnest (Brown, 2009).
The Longest Word in the Dictionary
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which refers to a supposed lung disease. It is
often abbreviated as P45 due to the number of the letters it contains. However, according to
Oxford Dictionary, this is not a word that can be encountered in genuine use and, it is thought
that, it has been coined only to take the title of the longest word in English. Etymological
(Harper, 2001-2016) dictionary also states the assumption that the origin of the word is supposed
to have been invented by seventh grade students in Norfolk, Virginia.

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There are other very long highly technical words found in the historical Oxford English
Dictionary1
, most of which are not found in any of the online dictionaries, let alone be used in
everyday language:
immunoelectrophoretically - By means of electrophoresis (25)
radioimmunoelectrophoresis - Immunoelectrophoresis carried out using radiolabelled antigen or
antibody, typically followed by autoradiography (26)
psychoneuroendocrinological - Main sense (27)
antidisestablishmentarianism - Opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England(28)
floccinaucinihilipilification - The action or habit of estimating something as worthless (29)
pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism - A genetic disorder (30)
However, there is an actual word that does exist, although not pronounced, in Wales. It is
the Welsh place name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is
usually abbreviated to Llanfair PG (Oxford Dictionary Online, 2016). The name was invented to
attract tourists and it means Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid
whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave (EngYes.com, 2014-2016).
The Longest One-syllable English Words
According to the Guinness World Records (Guinness World Records, 2016), two words
hold the record as the longest monosyllabic English words: scraunched and strengthed. The first
word does not exist in the dictionaries with such spelling. It may have been misspelled and may
be meant ‘scrunched’. The second word is considered to be archaic and may have been replaced
with ‘strengthen’ which actually contains two syllables.
There are some nine-letter monosyllabic words: scratched (supposed to have been coined
from Middle English scratten and crachen meaning ‘to scratch’, of uncertain origin), scrounged
(of uncertain origin), scrunched (introduced in the sense 'eat or bite noisily' in the late 18th
century), stretched (Old English streccan from Proto-Germanic strakjanan. Past tense; strehte,
past participle: streht), screeched (mid-13c alteration of scritch), straights (from Old English
streht as an adjectival use) and strengths (Old English strengϸu, strengð, from Proto-Germanic
strangitho, from PIE strenk).
1
These words are also considered to be the words with the most number of syllables

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Words that Contain the Most Vowels
Different websites claim that there is a word in English which is a six letters long word
made up of only vowels Euouae. However, no such word can be found in any of the most
reliable English dictionaries.
On the other hand, there are several words that contain all the vowels in the right order,
the most important ones being abstemious (careful not to have too much food, drink etc
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) from Latin abstemious - sober) and facetious
(trying to be funny in a way that is not suitable (Macmillan Dictionary, 2009–2016) from French
facétie – a joke or Latine facetiae - jests). However, there are also the words arsenious and
abstentious which are included in Oxford Dictionaries but are not found in the other well-known
dictionaries.
Furthermore, there are some words that contain all the vowels in reverse order, the most
common being uncomplimentary and subcontinental.
Words that Contain the Longest String of Consonants
There are quite some words that contain a string of five consonants: backsplash,
backstretch, backstroke, lengths, lightproof, matchstick, nightclothes, nightclub, nightdress,
postscript, strengths, thousandths, thumbscrew, twelfths, witchcraft, etc.
Six consecutive consonants can be found in catchphrase, watchstrap, Knightsbridge, and
some other words that can be found in different websites but not in the dictionaries:
archchronicler, eschscholtzia, hantzschia, postphthisic and weltschmerz.
There is an exclamation word which is made up of only consonants tsk tsk (1947, but as a
verb it was first recorded in 1967) used in writing to express disapproval or annoyance.
The Longest Word without any Repeated Letter
According to Oxford Dictionary2
there are two words that contain 15 unrepeated letters:
uncopyrightable (something for which it is not possible to secure copyright),
and dermatoglyphics (the study of skin markings). It must be noted here that the first word
2
Op. cit.

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cannot be found in the other dictionaries, though it is mentioned in various websites. On the
other hand, the second word can be found also in Macmillan Dictionary3
and Merriam-Webster
Dictionary4
but not the other ones.
Words with the Same Letter Three Times in a Row
Some may wonder and also suppose that there are words in English that contain the same
letter three times in a row. Although there are some words that do actually, in a way, belong to
this category, it must be noticed that they are compounds divided by hyphens: bee-eater, bell-
like, cross-section, cross-subsidize, joss-stick, and shell-less. This is because English language
does not allow three same letters in a row.
The -er suffix added to verbs to make them person nouns is also dropped when such rule
comes into conflict with the above rule: a person who flees is a fleer, not a fleeer, and someone
who sees is a seer, not a seeer.
However, when noises are represented in written they often contain triple
letters, brrr, shhh, and zzz.
Words with Three Consecutive Repeated Letters
The only compound noun that can be merged and not divided by a hyphen thus
containing three consecutive repeated letters is bookkeeper (1550). However, if the hyphens are
used and the rule is applied, then there would be some room for some other words as well, such
as: hoof-footed, sweet-toothed, etc.
Words with Two 'u's in a Row
Having two ‘u’s in a row is a feature of some Latin borrowings, such as: vacuum (a space
entirely devoid of matter), continuum (a continuous sequence), residuum (a chemical residue),
triduum (a three-day period of religious observance in the Catholic Church), duumvir (each of a
pair of magistrates holding joint office in ancient Rome), duumvirate (a coalition of two people
having joint authority) (Oxford Dictionary Online, 2016).
3
Op. cit.
4
Op. cit.

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Besides the first two words, the other words are very rare. In fact, they cannot even be
found in any of the other consulted dictionaries.
Words that Contain ‘q’ Not Followed by ‘u’
It may not be a strict spelling rule but in the spelling of all Standard English words, the
letter ‘q’ is followed by ‘u’. However, one cannot overlook some of the borrowings that have
already found their ways into the English dictionaries: niqab (a veil worn by some Muslim
women), qanat (Middle East - an irrigation channel), qawwali (Muslim devotional music),
qibla (the direction towards Mecca), qigong (a Chinese system of physical exercises), qintar (a
monetary unit of Albania), tariqa (the Sufi method of spiritual learning).
There is also one word that was invented to denote the standard layout on English-
language typewriters and keyboards QWERTY formed with the string of letters on the left top of
the keyboard (German: QWERTZ, Italian: QZERTY)
The Word with the Most Meanings
Guinness World Records (Guinness World Records, 2016) sets the verb ‘set’ as the word
with the most meanings in English, according to which it has 430 senses which commands the
longest entry in the dictionary (60000 words / 326000 characters)5
.
Summary
The paper tried to provide some information on dictionaries and words that have found
their ways into the dictionaries. However, considering the large number of words in the English
Language, only extreme words were chosen to be described. Thus we saw which were the
shortest / longest words, the longest monosyllable words, the words that contain most vowels and
those that contain the longest string of consonants, the longest words without any repeated letter
and the ones with the same letter three times in a row or the ones with three consecutive repeated
letters, words that contain two ‘u’s in a row and those that do not contain ‘u’ although they have
‘q’ and finally we mentioned the word with the most meanings.
5
They base their records on the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989

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Works Cited
Brown, C. (2009, October 02). The shortest word in English? Depends on how you measure it.
Retrieved January 27, 2016, from Associated Newspapers Ltd:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-1217251/The-shortest-word-English-Depends-
measure-it.html
Guinness World Records. (2016). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from © Guinness World Records
2016, Officially Amazing: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-
monosyllabic-english-words/
Harper, D. (2001-2016). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from Online Etymology Dictionary:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=dictionary
Lehmann, C. (2013, September 11). Functions and types of dictionaries. Retrieved January 27,
2016, from
http://www.christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling_description/lexicography/index.html?http://
www.christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling_description/lexicography/functions_and_kinds.ht
ml
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:
http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/abstemious
Macmillan Dictionary. (2009–2016). Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from ©
Macmillan Publishers Limited: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/facetious
Mastin, L. (2011). Early Modern English (c. 1500 - c. 1800). Retrieved January 26, 2016, from
© The History of English:
http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html#Dictionaries
Merriam-Webster. (2015). word. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from © Merriam-Webster,
Incorporated: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/word
Oxford Dictionary Online. (2016). Why are dictionaries called dictionaries? Retrieved January
26, 2016, from Oxford Dictionaries Language Matters:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/why-are-dictionaries-called-dictionaries
Simpson, J. (2013). The first dictionaries of English. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from ©Oxford
English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language: http://public.oed.com/aspects-
of-english/english-in-time/the-first-dictionaries-of-english/