Longest Word Video Is More Than Three Hours (Or 189,819 Letters) Long

The longest word in the English language is 189,819 letters long. The longest word video lasts a little longer than three-and-a-half hours.

According to io9, the longest word depicted in the video isn’t actually a word. Instead, it’s a verbal formula for the name of titin, a protein that is responsible for the elasticity in muscles.

So no, this word doesn’t get spoken too often. Mainly because it takes a little over 3 hours to say.

Here’s a portion of the word:

“Methionylalanylthreonylserylarginylglycylalanylserylarginylcysteinylproly.”

That’s only the very first segment of the word. You’d have to say that (or something similar) approximately 878 more times to completely say the longest word in the world. That’s a lot of work. Thankfully someone has posted a video of someone else saying the longest word.

The 189,819 letter word has never appeared, and for good reason, in the dictionary. According to Fun With Words, the longest word to appear in the Oxford English Dictionary is the 45-letter word Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It’s a fictional word that was coined by Everett Smith in 1935 to describe a peculiar long disease. Smith, who was the President of The National Puzzlers’ League, coined the word specifically to become the longest word in the dictionary.

But that word only takes a few seconds to say. The longest word video lasts for more than three hours.

(It’s pretty much the same thing over and over again. The one “exciting” part in the video occurs at the two hour and nine minute mark.)