This article lists some of the

longest words 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. Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compound (linguistics), ...

in the

French language French ( or ) 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 Nor ...

. As in many languages,

chemical nomenclature A chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to generate systematic names for chemical compounds. The nomenclature used most frequently worldwide is the one created and developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The ...

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 A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avo ...

) of long words. The word is formed from the Latin word '' sesquipedalia'' (singular '' sesquipedalis''), which the

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

poet

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

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, 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 The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

, grammatically gendered form.

Long words

Notes

References

* {{cite book , title=Dictionnaire commenté des phobies , first=Camille , last=Case , year=2014 , publisher=

Lulu.com Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. Lu ...

, isbn=978-1-326-01419-3 , oclc=980437079 , language=French , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9trBwAAQBAJ , via=Google Books French words and phrases Word in French

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

External links

Longest words in French

Long words

See also

Notes

References

External links