pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

It's technically the longest English word because it can be found in a dictionary. (Oxford, I think.)

JM notes that "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" occurs chiefly as an instance of a very long word.

Just learned this from Chris Cole's Wordplay, p. 106:

"...it turns that this word is a hoax perpetrated by the members of the National Puzzlers' League, the world's oldest wordplay association. The word is unknown to medical science. The League President (Everett M. Smith) coined the word at the 103rd meeting of the League, held on February 22, 1935 in New York City. It was picked up by a newspaper reporter for the Herald Tribune and printed the next day in the headline of an article on the League meeting. Frank Scully, author of a series of puzzle books and later one of the early UFO enthusiasts, read the newspaper article and repeated the word in Bedside Manna: The Third Fun in Bed Book (Simon and Schuster, 1936, p. 87). On the strength of this citation, League members (with a wink from the editors?) got the word into both the OED Supplement and Webster's Third. There it remains even to this day."

Actually, MDWriter... it DOES rhyme with those things. XD

That is my favourite long word. :)

I think it was originally the title of a song in "Mary Poppins" but was replaced because it didn't rhyme with "precocious" and "atrocious." Of course, I could be wrong about that.

Plus, it's easier to say "respiratory difficulties due to inhalation of volcano dust."

I learned to say it fast back in third grade, and thought I had "arrived" in the world of intelligence. After a while I realized that doing so is an impressive -- but hollow -- way to dork out, and serves little purpose beside that. It's also an extremely effective way to make your friends think you're a pretentious snot. :-P

Oh, now you're just showing off.

My 8th grade Social Studies teacher, Ms. Elliott, taught us this word. She died later that year in a car accident.

My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, taught us pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis as an exercise in memorization. She's also the one who taught me ghoti as a phonetic spelling for fish.

that's one helluva word.

Longest word in the OED. Meaning: respiratory difficulties due to inhalation of volcano dust.