So I'm getting ready for a talk on science literacy and careers, etc, and was looking for material for some new slides. Anyway, I've always been a fan of delicious sounding science jargon, and have been on the hunt for an appropriate word I can use, possibly, as a thematic device in my talk.
So of course, I begin by googling the keywords, "word most syllables" and from that came across the following:
Which, depending on the source you read is either some wierd lung disease, or, as it turns out, a completely fabricated word propogated by the internet to claim the title of the "word with the most syllables."
Mind you, it's probably going to be a no brainer that chemistry will claim that title. I must admit that I laughed pretty hard when I saw the below whilst looking for long sounding science jargon words.
I'm guessing this is only something a science geek would find funny.
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...or a word geek like me :) <-- taxonomist here :)
Thanks for the chuckle, it was much welcomed this rainy monday!
Seriously, Tryptophanylthreonylphenylalanine. This is just a case of not being able to abbreviate. Of course, I may be a real science geek because I just translated that and did a BLAST search. It belongs to the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) coat protein superfamily.
The titin protein from muscle has over 33 000 amino acids. That's a really long word, if you care to spell it out
You missed out the last eight letters!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconio…
Can't say what the record is. I will note that the longest word I use regularly is acetylcholinesterase.
Somehow, I knew organic chem would win. Even better that it's a virus! (thanks ABradford)
How many syllables does 'palaeometeorological' have?
I think I recall (probably from World Wide Worlds) that it's "antidisestablishmentarianism". I mean, it's the longest word that's (or rather has been) actually used not because it's so long but because it means something.
If you're talking about science literacy it's really critical that you take more seriously how you are spelling words. That is to say, your post is rife with misspellings (and mis-uses--for example, "whilst" is an archaic use--why not simply use "while?")
Your presentation sounds interesting and worthwhile. But if you are positioning yourself as a literacy expert, take the extra effort to check yourself! It's unnecessary to perpetuate errors.
Hello Elisabeth,
To pass such a harsh judgement generally, and specifically on the use of the word "whilst" sounds remarkably intolerant. If I remember, views on the "whilst vs while" debate varies widely (and often with an American vs British divide). Your opinion seems to suggest that your view is the only correct one, subjective though it may be. Ironically, I can't help but think that yours is the same challenging attitude that many in science education work to fix.
Just a thought.
Yes Barry, not a truer word said. 'post is rife with misspellings', you can't even spell your own name love
As far as "real" words go, it's hard to beat antidisestablishmetarianism (12 syllables). How about angioreticuloendothelioma?
Every thought going to be just funny but if we concecrate then it is critical about syllable
This sucks that the internet would lie or mislead someone LOL:):):)