# Another longest word question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 9, 1999, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227 "1999-12-09T16:25:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SuperNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SuperNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNerd)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/1 "1999-12-09T16:25:00Z")

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This question occurred to me a few years ago at work and pretty much shut down our entire department for a couple weeks while everyone became obsessed with it. If you’re using the normal rules of touch typing, each hand can only type certain letters. The left hand can only use abcdefgqrstvwxz; the right hand gets hijklmnopuy.

Question: what’s the longest dictionary word you can type with only one hand (while touch typing, of course)?

One of that company’s brightest and best came up with a twelve letter uncommon but in the dictionary word - can anyone here do better?

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**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/2 "1999-12-09T16:40:00Z")

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I read somewhere the longest word you could type with only one hand (the left one) was:

stewardesses

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**Author:** ![Keeves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f05b48/32.png) [@Keeves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeves)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/3 "1999-12-09T16:55:00Z")

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I read somewhere that:

> [@](#):
>
> Stewardesses and reverberated are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left hand. The longest word that can be typed using only the right hand is lollipop. Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 1999, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/4 "1999-12-09T17:50:00Z")

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left-hand only:  
AFTERCATARACTS (plural for a condition that sometimes follows cataract surgery) TESSERADECADES

right-hand only:  
JOHNNY-JUMP-UP (a fast-growing flower or a brand name for a type of toy)

Once again, I will recommend

[A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia](http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html)

* * *

Quand les talons claquent, l’esprit se vide.  
Maréchal Lyautey

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**Author:** ![SuperNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SuperNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNerd)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 1999, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/5 "1999-12-10T06:30:00Z")

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Good heavens! Every time I think I’ve come up with something unique I find out it’s been done (and done well) by someone else.

For the record, the word we came up with for the right hand was hypolymnion - this is boundry in a lake between warmer bottom and cooler top water. - it’s an unstable configuration and eventually the lake turns over.

Thanks for the link, Arnold.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 1999, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-longest-word-question/5227/6 "1999-12-10T00:23:00Z")

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Its in the Genuiss Book of World Records, go get it at your library, 98 or 99 edition whatever.