# What is the longest one syllable word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916 "2009-03-26T21:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![duggie99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@duggie99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duggie99)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/1 "2009-03-26T21:12:27Z")
How many syllables in the word squirrelled? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/2 "2009-03-26T21:19:48Z")
I’ve thought it’s “strengths” but I could be wrong. I say “squirreled” as two syllables: skwuhr-uld. But I hear skwuh-ruld, too. Even skwi-ruld or skwir-uld. But I guess it might be slurred to skwurld or skwirld to sound like one syllable. But I’ve also heard some pretty fucked up ways of saying it where the kw sound is after the r sound. ---
**Author:** ![King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Solomon_Hill)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/3 "2009-03-26T21:31:56Z")
[Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/4 "2009-03-26T21:32:48Z")
Smiles. It’s two _s_s with a mile between them. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/5 "2009-03-26T21:34:27Z")
> [@King\_Solomon\_Hill](#): > > [Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s) I have to say [Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMA5_op9aOA) beats that. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/6 "2009-03-26T21:38:28Z")
[A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, Page 4](http://jeff560.tripod.com/words4.html) SCRAUNCHED (10 letters) and SCROONCHED (plus several others from the OED 2) Also MWCD10 shows a one-syllable pronunciation of squirrel which presumably would apply to the 11-letter squirrelled. MWCD10 = Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition OED2 = the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/7 "2009-03-26T22:08:13Z")
The French word for smurfs is schtroumpfs (11 letters). I wonder what is the longest one syllable word in any language. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/8 "2009-03-26T22:12:55Z")
Are we looking at how many letters it has or how long it takes to say? I don’t know the answer either way, but same letter length words can take longer to say than other words of the same length so it could lead to an entirely different answer (albeit a rather complicated one what with dialects and such). ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/9 "2009-03-26T22:30:57Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > SCRAUNCHED (10 letters) and SCROONCHED Both of which suffer from being well outside normal usage and thus appearing highly contrived. Neither “straights” nor “strengths” has this defect. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/10 "2009-03-27T00:09:27Z")
“Stretched” has the same length as “strengths”. Both are standard English. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/11 "2009-03-27T00:22:17Z")
[AskOxford](http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/onesyllable): > [@](#): > > The one most commonly cited is screeched (nine letters). However, one ought to mention also scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, and the plural nouns straights and strengths (all with nine letters). > > The complete Oxford English Dictionary also indicates the existence of scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, and thrutched. > > The OED also cites a single instance of the ten-letter word scraunched, from the 1620 English translation of Don Quixote. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/12 "2009-03-27T01:08:10Z")
Worchestershire. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/13 "2009-03-27T01:26:59Z")
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/14 "2009-03-27T01:33:37Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > The French word for smurfs is schtroumpfs (11 letters). > > I wonder what is the longest one syllable word in any language. French doesn’t count; they always stop pronouncing after the first 5 letters. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/15 "2009-03-27T02:54:43Z")
[This page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_English_words_with_one_syllable) suggests another borderline eleven-letter contender, _broughammed_ (transported by brougham, akin to “trucked”, “carted”, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/16 "2009-03-27T04:11:45Z")
“Time” goes on forever. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/17 "2009-03-27T04:55:05Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Smiles. > > It’s two _s_s with a mile between them. Taut An AU (Astronomical Unit =~ 93 million miles) between the Ts ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/18 "2009-03-27T08:50:55Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > [This page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_English_words_with_one_syllable) suggests another borderline eleven-letter contender, _broughammed_ (transported by brougham, akin to “trucked”, “carted”, etc.) This is my favorite - mostly because it _looks_ like it should be prononced with two or three syllables. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/19 "2009-03-27T13:29:22Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Taut > > An AU (Astronomical Unit =~ 93 million miles) between the Ts My hat’s off to you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916/20 "2009-03-27T19:14:06Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I have to say [Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMA5_op9aOA) beats that. What is that scene about? (I’ve never seen the movie.) Spoiler it if you must. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-one-syllable-word/490916.md?page=2)