This article lists some of the longest words in the French language.
As in many languages, chemical nomenclature may be used to construct indefinitely long chemical names (if referring to fictional molecules), and therefore is not on this list. The chemical name of titin could be translated, and therefore would be the longest technical word in the French language.
The longest word listed below, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie (36 letters) is, ironically, the fear (or phobia) of long words. The word is formed from the Latin word sesquipedalia (singular sesquipedalis ), which the Ancient Roman poet Horace used in Ars Poetica to describe excessively long words; literally, it means "a foot-and-a-half long".
Like the other phobias in the list, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie can be pluralised by adding the letter s to the end. The adjective interdépartemental (18 letters), which also appears in the list, can be made longer by appending the letters es, which gives its plural, grammatically gendered form.
| Word | Letters | Syllables | Part of speech | Translation | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie | 36 | 14 | Noun | hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia | [1] |
| dichlorodiphényltrichloroéthane | 31 | 11 | Noun | dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane | |
| hexakosioihexekontahexaphobie | 29 | 13 | Noun | hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia | [2] [1] |
| intergouvernementalisation | 26 | 10 | Noun | intergovernmentalisation | [1] |
| anticonstitutionnellement | 25 | 9 | Adverb | anticonstitutionally | [1] |
| apopathodiaphulatophobie | 24 | 10 | Noun | apopathodiaphulatophobia | [3] [4] [5] |
| désinstitutionnalisation | 24 | 9 | Noun | deinstitutionalization | |
| autocheirothanatophobie | 23 | 9 | Noun | autocheirothanatophobia | [6] |
| paraskevidékatriaphobie | 23 | 10 | Noun | paraskavedekatriaphobia | [7] [1] |
| dyspondéromorphophobie | 22 | 8 | Noun | dysponderomorphophobia | [8] |
| magnétoplasmadynamique | 22 | 9 | Adjective | Magnetoplasmadynamic | |
| interdépartemental | 18 | 7 | Adjective | interdepartmental | [9] |
| triskaïdekaphobie | 17 | 6 | Noun | triskaidekaphobia |
The identity of the longest word in English depends on the definition of a word and of length.
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.
A thesaurus, sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings, sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists of synonyms and antonyms. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
...to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed
Quebec French, also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in education, the media, and government.
Alsatian is the group of Alemannic German dialects spoken in most of Alsace, a formerly disputed region in eastern France that has passed between French and German control five times since 1681.
Wolof is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, Mauritania, and the Gambia. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language.
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from c. the 5th century BCE. For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary Chinese, which was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century. When writing, each Chinese character generally corresponds to a word in the language, with words almost always being one syllable in length. As a result, the characteristic style of the language is comparatively terse.
Old French was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th and the mid-14th century. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligible yet diverse. These dialects came to be collectively known as the langues d'oïl, contrasting with the langues d'oc, the emerging Occitano-Romance languages of Occitania, now the south of France.
Haitian Creole, or simply Creole, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12 million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti, where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. Northern, Central, and Southern dialects are the three main dialects of Haitian Creole. The Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien, Central is spoken in Port-au-Prince, and Southern in the Cayes area.
Gallo is a regional language of eastern Brittany. It is one of the langues d'oïl, a Romance sub-family that includes French. Today it is spoken only by a minority of the population, as the standard form of French now predominates in this area.
Middle French is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th century. It is a period of transition during which:
The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification, or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a single-edged or double-edged knife.
Marie Champmeslé was a French stage actress.
The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.
French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language. It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100–1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Even in the late 17th century, with the publication of the first French dictionary by the Académie française, there were attempts to reform French orthography.
Paicî is the most widely spoken of the two dozen languages on the main island of New Caledonia. It is spoken in a band across the center of the island, in the communes of Poindimié, Ponérihouen, Koné and Poya.
A gougère, in French cuisine, is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler, but there are many variants using other cheeses or other ingredients.
This article describes some of the longest words in the Spanish language.
Malagasy is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French.
