Longest Word Record

Arwa Rekik

Shakespeare had a go at it with ‘honorificabilitudinitatibus’ which, depending on whom you ask, either means ‘the state of being loaded with honors’ or just a long boring word that you would not even bother to spell out or pronounce. But that word, a mere twenty seven letters, doesn’t stretch nearly long enough to count as the longest word in the English language.

Of course, determining the longest word is like trying to wade into a riptide. You’re likely to lose control quickly, since language is fluid, beautiful and like every beauty: is constantly changing.

If we search for the longest word to appear in the English language whose purpose was not to set the record for the longest word ever, then the word we’re after appeared in 1964, in Chemical Abstracts (a dictionary-like reference source for chemists). The word describes an important protein on what historians generally count as the first virus ever discovered, in 1892, the tobacco mosaic virus.

Take a breath and here we go, it’s only 1 word and 1205 letters:

Acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylseryl­glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylserylvalyl­tryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamylleucylleucyl­asparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylserylleucylglycyl­asparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutaminylthreonylglutaminyl­glutaminylalanylarginylthreonylthreonylglutaminylvalyl­glutaminylglutaminylphenylalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyl­lysylprolylphenylalanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalyl­arginylphenylalanylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyl­tyrosylarginyltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartyl­prolylleucylisoleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonyl­phenylalanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucyl­isoleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglutaminylglutaminyl­serylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreonylleucyl­aspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspartylaspartyl­alanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylserylalanylasparaginyl­isoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparaginylglutamylleucylvalyl­arginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyltyrosylasparaginylglutaminyl­asparaginylthreonylphenylalanylglutamylserylmethionylseryl­glycylleucylvalyltryptophylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanyl­serine

In fact, scientist nowadays can decode vastly longer molecules than ‘acetyl…serine’.

The current record is a gargantuan gigantic protein whose name, if spelled out, runs 189,819 letters. Ridiculous, right?