When and Where I Found It: One of my students came up to me today and asked me what the longest English word was. I had no idea and told her that I would look it up for her and let her know tomorrow. When I searched it on google.com this word came up. I can't believe that it has 45 letters in it!
What It Means: According to dictionay.com Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is: "an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language."
Level Of Familiarity: Prior to looking up this word I had never heard of this word and will be suprised if I ever hear it again. I even tried pronouncing it a few times and I can't even do that!
Should I Know This Word Well? I definately don't think it's a word that I need to know although it would be cool if I could learn to say it...It may come up in a trivia question some day!
Should Others Know This Word? Who and Why? The only people I can think of that could possibly need to know this word is perhaps a pulminary specialist. I absolutely do not think that the average person needs to know this word by any means!
What a riot! I love that you shared with us a word that your student shared with you! I hope you told your student you posted it on your vocabulary blog.
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