When I saw the headline I figured it was surely going to be some medical term.

I have read that our mouths have 101 muscles that control how we make sounds, speak and pronounce.

Even with your cold, I can confidently assure you that all 101 of your mouth muscles are working perfectly.

Your pronunciation of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis was perfect, but your pronunciation of the Welsh city of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was absolutely incredible.

If I didn't know better, I would say you must be from Wales.

I just wonder, "How could anyone think that such a long name for a city would be a good idea?"... :)

Thank you, Thank you, Miriam...

I stand corrected... :)

You have definitely discovered the longest word in the English language.

Very clever contribution to this discussion... thank you Max.

You're wrong, Richard. According to my audio course the longest word in English is 'smiles'. Because there's a mile between the two letters 's'. So they explain :)

You were right to guess that the long word might be a medical term.

Medical terms are quite often quite long... another language really.

Thank you for your comment.

CleverEmilyclever

You have a great imagination.

The pizza should arrive soon...:)

OK, I can understand why people choose to call the giant protein by it's simple Greek name "Titin" rather than the longer molecular name that contains 189,819 letters.

I look forward to hearing your recording of the pronunciation of the long version of the protein's name which you found at: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100114221953/http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminaryuprise/longest-word.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20100114221953/http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminaryuprise/longest-word.html</a>;

Com'on... tell us the truth. Your family name (surname) is not really Smith, it's really Wordsmith, isn't it?

You've made some rather convincing arguments in support of "the justification" of the existence and use of long words.

Interesting posts... thank you.

I would argue that <em>supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (</em>34 letters) is much more legitimate, as a "real word," any of the other famous long words.

Thanks to the song in the movie <em>Mary Poppins</em>, millions of kids not only know it, but really use it--in real life--to mean bodacious or fantabulous.

I thought the word had been invented by Disney's brilliant songwriters, Robert and Richard Sherman, who also deserve credit (or blame?) for the earworm "It's a Small World After All." (Language note: that song intentionally written with the idea of being as <em>translatable</em> as possible).

The word has always grated on me because it seems badly constructed. That "-istic" in the end is just wrong. The word ought to end there, forcing it to be a two-word phrase, like "supercalifragilistic expialidocicity." And it also bothers me because that "expial" bit make it sound like it has something to do with "expiate," and thus with sins.

However, I see that <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious</a> has an entry in Oxford Dictionaries online, where they say:

"Origin: 1940s, apparently a fanciful formation based on super, popularized by the 1964 film Mary Poppins."