# longest common english word **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531 "2005-01-07T05:51:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/41 "2005-01-10T18:07:43Z")
How about “delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol”? That’s pretty common. Of course, you can say the much shorter “pot” instead. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/42 "2005-01-10T22:51:07Z")
This is _such_ a stretch, but how about the name “Clyde”? There’s a “ly” (light year) between the beginning and the end. Wow. That is far-fetched. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/43 "2005-01-11T11:21:31Z")
How about “googling”? That has a “google in” between the beginnign and the end, which is about 1.57828283 × 10^95 miles! ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/44 "2005-01-11T14:55:28Z")
> [@Sensualips](#): > > I’m sorry, I know this isn’t exactly common, but I absolutely had to add this one. My brother, my sisters and I used it all the time when we were kids to show how smart we were… > > antidisestablishmentarianism > > If anyone doubts the word…[Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidisestablishmentarianism) Well, I have had numerous conversations with my friends that involved the word pseudoantidisestablishmentarianism. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/45 "2005-01-11T20:24:15Z")
> [@Shade](#): > > How about “googling”? That has a “google in” between the beginnign and the end, which is about 1.57828283 × 10^95 miles! Really? What’s the formal definition of this unit? The only “google” [uncapitalized noun] I know is a unitless number name (10[sup]100[/sup]) 1.57828283 × 10^95 miles! would be a google of inches (or one google inches) and I can’t imagine anyone basing a legitimate unit of astronomical measure on inches. A googlemeter, I could believe, but “google-” isn’t a legitimate SI prefix and a googlemeter would be 39.37 times as big as you indicated: 6.2137 x 10[sup]96[/sup] miles Don’t make me escalate to [url=http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/math99/math99147.htm]googleplex (10[sup]google[/sup] or skews[/url [“a **skews** ” is allowed in the OED as “sidewise glances” [obs.]) On the cutesy front, we’ve thus far legitimately had (in order of increasing size) s **mile** s si **mile** s be **league** red T **AU** T works in all-caps, since AU (9.3 x10[sup]7[/sup] miles) must be capitalized [vs. Au (gold) or au (obs version of “owe”)] c **ly** de doesn’t have the caps limitation for ly [5.88 x 10[sup]12[/sup] miles] I guess it’s my turn to raise: “_mega **parsec** s_” (which I have actually seen and used myself) I doubt I’ve ever seen gigaparsecs used except to explain the limit of the theroretically observable universe (10 Gpc) But if you’re going to go that way, why be a piker? Go for the five-letter suffixes at the end of the SI definitions: zetta- (10[sup]21[/sup] or **yottaparsecs** [3.3 x 10[sup]24[/sup] ly or 1.9 x 10^37 miles) are each one letter longer than gigaparsecs. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/46 "2005-01-12T01:22:45Z")
I hasten to add that the search engine is not spelled in the same way as the number, the former being “google”, while the latter is “googol”. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531/47 "2005-01-12T11:02:44Z")
> [@KP](#): > > Really? What’s the formal definition of this unit? The only “google” [uncapitalized noun] I know is a unitless number name (10[sup]100[/sup]) 1.57828283 × 10^95 miles! would be a google of inches (or one google inches) and I can’t imagine anyone basing a legitimate unit of astronomical measure on inches. A googlemeter, I could believe, but “google-” isn’t a legitimate SI prefix and a googlemeter would be 39.37 times as big as you indicated: 6.2137 x 10[sup]96[/sup] miles I don’t see why it has to be a _unit_. A word with three miles between the ends would be long, because three miles is a long way. My word had a googol inches (“googl in”) between the ends. I freely admit I tortured the spelling in various ways to make the joke, but I thought I’d get away with that. Chronos: thanks for pointing that out. I did know, honest, but as I said above, thought it was close enough for humour. Googolplex? Yes, of course. But I couldn’t think of a word with ‘googolplex’ in it, let alone with a unit of measurement after. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-common-english-word/283531.md?page=2)