What is the biggest word you know?

“Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia,” which means “the fear of long words.”

It is not the longest word in the English language, however.

Antidisestablishmentarianism: opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, especially the Anglican Church in 19th-century England.

triskadekaphobia (fear of the number 13)

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (from Mary Poppins)

My grandson’s answer:

SMILES – there is a mile between the two ‘s’

I.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

To be honest, I didn’t remember the whole word, but I remember that it basically means “black lung disease”, which is sometimes contracted by coal miners.

@SavoirFaire LOL ok who the hell comes up with such long words? Especially for something called titin haha.

@Berserker At this point, people are just trying to outdo the previous title holder for longest word. It is a competition that will never end.

slightyears…groan. ;-p

The biggest word there is. Reality.

Bigly

Floccinaucinihilipilification, “the estimation of something as valueless”. My understanding is that it is the longest word that is not a disease.

Dichlorodifluoromethane.

Overinflated

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg – which is a lake in southern Massachusetts.

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamten­gesellschaft

It figures. Loli would have a word with schaft in it.

@Kardamom , Ever wonder why they didn’t just call it establishmentarianism? What is the need for having two negatives in the word?

@Patty_Melt
I love a good big shaft.

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch

Welsh train station, wear waterproofs & goggles if asking welsh people to quote.

@LostInParadise Because being for establishment and against disestablishment are not the same thing. Let’s look at the example that gave us the word “antidisestablishmentarianism” in the first place. In that context, establishmentarianism is the support of making/keeping the Church of England the official state church of England, Ireland, and Wales. Disestablishmentarianism is a movement to separate the church from the state on the grounds that no religion should have an official position in the government. Antidisestablishmentarianism is opposition to disestablishmentarianism, but could have a variety of rationales. Some might think that a different church (e.g., the Catholic Church) should be the one in power. Others might think that the church should be separated from the state for reasons other than the disestablishmentarians put forward. And still others might think that it’s just not an important issue or that the decision should be kicked down the road.

I’m stunned that I didn’t see supercalifragilisticexpialidocious more on this Q.

@SavoirFaire , Unless there was already a specific movement calling itself establishmentarianism, the word could take on a variety of meanings just as antidisestablishmentarianism could. It would not necessarily imply maintaining the status quo.

@LostInParadise ” Unless there was already a specific movement calling itself establishmentarianism”

There was (and still is—this is an ongoing dispute). That was the whole point of including the example: the three words refer to three distinct views.

That is unusual. Most disputes end up having two poles with everyone lying somewhere in between.

(Is this the most lurveless question in Fluther history? Loli had to say shaft twice to get ga’d at all. Sad..)

@LostInParadise It’s not actually all that unusual. When I teach intro to philosophy, every unit is organized around a trilemma (meaning each question we discuss involves three mainstream positions). Even modern politics is largely a quadrilemma that people continually mischaracterize as a dilemma (sometimes because they don’t know any better, other times because they’re being manipulative).