• Question: What is the longest scientific word, and which is your favorite long scientific word and what is the meaning of it

    Asked by OkayOkay to Rachel, Nicholas, David on 12 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Hello,

      The names of chemicals can be extremely long as you name each individual part of the molecule. This means that protein names are the longest, because they are made up of a lot off small parts. the longest chemical name of a protein has 189,819 letters and would take you over 3 hours to say! (So I can’t write it here)

      My favourite long word is: Spectroelectrochemistry. (spek-tro-e-lek-tro-kem-iss-tree). It’s the name of the technique that is used to see how the colour of something changes when you pass an electrical current over it.

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Hi,

      My favourite word is also the longest word in medicine = pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – don’t asking me how to pronounce it though! It’s also the longest word in the English dictionary!
      This is what it means “a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust”.

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