Frequently Asked Questions

Words

I have read that the longest word in the English language is 1,909 letters long and it refers to a distinct part of DNA. Is this true?

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A 'word' of 1,909 letters cannot be a genuine word but must be a chemical name for the whole of a human chromosome which would run to many thousands of letters, but we would not consider it a word in the sense of an item of English vocabulary. See our FAQ on the longest words in English

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