# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/21 "2022-11-22T22:40:27Z")
> [@Tabco](#): > > in **strum** ent That’s a good one - related, but not etymologically ! (afaik) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/22 "2022-11-23T02:03:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > We’ve already found 7-letter examples We have? I must have missed that, although I’ve looked over the thread a couple times. @Q.Q.Switcheroo did provide another 6-letter one: symp **tomato** logy, which is a very nice example. I don’t think there are any longer ones that satisfy my additional rules. ---
**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 23, 2022, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/23 "2022-11-23T04:30:12Z")
Nice! It satisfies the OP’s original post - eudemon and monism being unrelated - but does violate the OP’s revised condition that there must be letters removed on both ends. But even just eude **monistical** ly is a winner at 10 out of 16, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/24 "2022-11-23T06:08:57Z")
I wrote a Python script that looks for shorter words of a set length that exist inside longer words, filtering out pairs that start the same or end the same. Then I went through the output manually, looking at the shorter words for ones that don’t usually exist as elements in longer words. I ran it on the Moby Pronunciator word list (which doesn’t include inflected forms). When I limited the shorter words to exactly eight letters, nothing jumped out at me; I may have missed some. I haven’t tried looking for words longer than eight letters. For seven letters, I found more than I expected: amphora inside camphorate (to treat with camphor) another inside both organotherapy (treatment with extracts of animal glands) and galvanothermy (heat produced by electric currents) chipper inside schipperke (Dutch dog breed) dertrum (tip of a bird’s upper bill) inside undertrump (as in card games) ovarian inside covariant percale (a kind of fabric) inside supercalender (machine for treating paper) rachial (relating to the spinal column) inside brachialgia (arm pain) rummage inside brummagem (meaning “spurious”, derived from “Birmingham”) rundlet (small barrel) inside trundletail (dog with a curved tail) stamina inside histaminase (an enzyme) venturi inside adventurism winglet inside swingletree (alternate form of singletree, as of a wagon) Doubtful cases: ortolan (a kind of bird) inside portolano (alternate spelling of portolan=“navigation chart”). Depends on whether -o counts as a suffix. hoeshin (supposedly a Scottish term for gaiters or leggings) inside shoeshine. Depends on whether hoeshin is a real word. I didn’t find it in the dictionaries I checked but there are some references to the word online and on Google Books. pistole (old Spanish coin) inside epistoler (writer of epistles). Depends on whether -r counts a suffix (I guess it would if the word were epistler). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/25 "2022-11-23T06:40:59Z")
Most excellent results @bibliophage. As far as the doubtful cases, I think I’d be inclined to accept p **ortolan** o but reject e **pistole** r. As for s **hoeshin** e, reject that too unless someone can find _hoeshin_ in an English-language dictionary. It’s not in Web3, but I don’t have Web2 handy. > [@MrDibble](#): > > But even just eude **monistical** ly is a winner at 10 out of 16, I’d say. Yes, this one is good. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/26 "2022-11-23T06:41:52Z")
This is a bit of a cheat, but I believe it fits the rules as specified: **ecologist** within **gynecologists** ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/27 "2022-11-23T06:46:56Z")
Also: **sumptuous** in **presumptuousness**. The “pre” is not a prefix here; it comes from the difference between praesumere and sumptus in Latin. ---
**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 23, 2022, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/28 "2022-11-23T06:48:06Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > venturi inside adventurism Or we can take it back to the OP’s mineralogical example and get it in [a **venturi** ne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventurine) ---
**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 23, 2022, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/29 "2022-11-23T07:58:59Z")
It may fit the rules, but I think the most interesting ones are where no parts of the overlapping words mean the same. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/30 "2022-11-23T08:04:41Z")
Agreed, but I wasn’t able to do better than 7 letters without a shared suffix. If nothing else, it’ll force the OP to modify the rules again 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/31 "2022-11-23T09:21:04Z")
> [@Danger\_Man](#): > > It may fit the rules, but I think the most interesting ones are where no parts of the overlapping words mean the same. Exactly. How about reject any where suffixes and prefixes are shared between the two words, as well as root words. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > If nothing else, it’ll force the OP to modify the rules again I couldn’t think of a way to do it to get only the interesting ones. But perhaps the above modification will do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228/32 "2022-11-23T20:08:51Z")
Another cheaty one: l **imitation** s. No computers used, mind. j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-word-as-substring-of-another-word/975228.md?page=1)