# Longest word as substring of another word **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 19, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228 "2022-11-19T23:57:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/1 "2022-11-19T23:57:18Z")
What’s the longest word that’s a substring of an unrelated other word? Recently I encountered the word _anorthosite_ which is a mineral that’s not very common on Earth, but common on the Moon. I noted that it has a substring that’s another word: a **north** osite. I’ve also been aware for some time of a six letter example: che **mother** apy. So anyone know of any longer ones? Note the requirement that the two words need to be unrelated. So the root word of a longer one with suffixes or prefixes is right out. Also out are the components of compound words. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/2 "2022-11-20T00:52:03Z")
You only care about the length of the substring word and not the enclosing word, right? I’m curious why you chose chemotherapy as an example when “smother” is a simpler example of a word containing “mother”. Do you have a criterion that makes chemotherapy preferable to smother? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/3 "2022-11-20T01:06:29Z")
Better still mothers is a subword in smothers. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/4 "2022-11-20T01:33:24Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I’m curious why you chose chemotherapy as an example when “smother” is a simpler example of a word containing “mother”. Do you have a criterion that makes chemotherapy preferable to smother? I’d spotted the chemotherapy example a while back and thought it might make a good cryptic crossword entry, were I ever to decide to compose one (very unlikely). Much like the famous city in Czech **oslo** vakia. Anyway, because of that, it was on my mind. > [@OldGuy](#): > > Better still mothers is a subword in smothers. Very good. And I’m certain there are more and longer ones where the first letter is removed, a process called a beheadment among word play enthusiasts. But I’d rather not turn this into finding the longest beheadment†, so let me add a couple more requirements: There must be at least one letter removed from both the beginning and ending of the long word to get the shorter word. Furthermore, if only a single letter is removed from the beginning, the letters removed from the end cannot be a suffix or inflection. †Nothing wrong with beheadments. It’s just a different form of word play. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/5 "2022-11-20T01:34:33Z")
Depending on exactly how you define two words to be “related”, some possibilities are presentational in representational vertibility in incontrovertibility termination in determination solvableness in irresolvableness lightfulness in delightfulness sumptuously in presumptuously nationalize in denominationalize autological in tautological thematical in mathematical terminable in indeterminable … Argh, just saw your new requirements. Ok, starting over. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/6 "2022-11-20T01:35:17Z")
So headmen related to beheadment, or not? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/7 "2022-11-20T01:39:53Z")
The _head_ in both those is the same root, so I’d say they are related. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/8 "2022-11-20T17:08:04Z")
It’s not very long, but my favorite is ho **meow** ner. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/9 "2022-11-20T17:20:39Z")
You can’t spell slaughter without laughter. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/10 "2022-11-20T17:36:27Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > It’s not very long, but my favorite is ho **meow** ner. Very nice. If anyone has any other good ones, even if not the longest, please contribute. > [@glowacks](#): > > You can’t spell slaughter without laughter. By itself, that’s violates my additional rules. But s **laugh** ter is the kiind of thing I’m looking for. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/11 "2022-11-20T19:22:28Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Recently I encountered the word _anorthosite_ which is a mineral that’s not very common on Earth, but common on the Moon Anorth_os_ite is a [rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorthosite), not a mineral, and it’s [not _that_ rare](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/World-map-showing-the-distribution-and-age-of-Archean-anorthosite-occurrences-modified_fig3_342921883). You’re thinking of [anorthite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorthite). I suspect you could find a lot more of these in mineral names - for instance, Akro **chord** ite, As **hover** ite, Bili **bins** kite, B **rock** ite, Ca **naves** ite, H **alloys** ite, Ja **meson** ite, Ki **dwell** ite, R **amber** gite, Sch **röcking** erite etc. I’m sure there are lots more words buried in there. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/12 "2022-11-20T19:35:50Z")
Since this is FQ and not TG, I’ll note that the OP’s question seems like something that could be done programatically, as long as one had a sufficient English word list. And, yes, my suggestion is that, if you want to make this into a game instead of just a Factual Question, it might work better in Thread Games. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/13 "2022-11-20T19:43:16Z")
tran **sport** ation in **strum** ent mi **crow** ave re **servo** ir ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/14 "2022-11-20T20:38:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Since this is FQ and not TG, I’ll note that the OP’s question seems like something that could be done programatically, as long as one had a sufficient English word list. True, it could be done by program. But it’s not a simple filter program. You’d have to read through the list hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of times. Maybe I’m underestimating the capabilities of modern computers, but that will take a long time. I’ve thought about how I would tackle it programatically and there’s ways to make it more efficient by making two lists, both of which are subsets of the usual difctionary lists. But it still seemed like a very long-running program. > [@](#): > > And, yes, my suggestion is that, if you want to make this into a game instead of just a Factual Question, it might work better in Thread Games. I’ll let the moderators move it if they see fit. I wasn’t sure what forum it should go under when I posted it. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/15 "2022-11-20T20:44:55Z")
symp **tomato** logy ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/16 "2022-11-21T10:46:43Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > True, it could be done by program. But it’s not a simple filter program. You’d have to read through the list hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of times. Maybe I’m underestimating the capabilities of modern computers, but that will take a long time. It doesn’t seem like it should take that long: take word a, iterate through the list and see if it’s in any other words. Take word B, do the same, and so on. Output all to a new list, sort by length. And you can optimize if length word(a) is bigger than word(b), skip that check. You can also only check words greater than n length, since we’re not interested in words with “a” and “on” and “she,” etc., in them. I’m sure there are other optimizations possible. I can’t see this taking long at all, even with a naive implementation. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/17 "2022-11-21T11:54:33Z")
OK, that’s better than the algorithm I had in mind, but probably only in its simplicity. It’s O(n^2) where n is the length of the list. Which I think is the same as my algorithm.† Probably the best optimization would be to make a temporary list with only words of whatever length is desired or longer, since that reduces n. † I had the idea of reading a word, generate its substrings of the minimum length or longer and check each to see if it’s in the list. There’s all kinds of optimizations that can be done with this algorithm, including, as I indicated above, generating two temporary subset lists. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/18 "2022-11-22T06:18:46Z")
eudemonistically contains “monistically” ---
**Author:** ![Danger\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Danger\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/19 "2022-11-22T11:02:53Z")
I am sure there are lots of optimizations I am not thinking about, but off the top of my head: - Index all the words by word length - Index the words by the how many of each letter it contains - If you are only looking for the longest word, you can cut all the smaller words left as you go - I am sure there is some kind of optimization that could be done by indexing smaller sequences of letters within words Then you would have to look through the list afterwards and decide if the words are related or not. ---
**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:** [November 22, 2022, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/20 "2022-11-22T22:31:36Z")
I’m not even sure that all that much optimization is needed. We’ve already found 7-letter examples, so all we need check is words of 8 letters or more for the inner words, and 10 letters or more for the outer words. It seems to me that that would pare down the size of our word list enough that O(n^2) wouldn’t be so bad. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228.md?page=2)