As the saying goes: German language, difficult language. But is there a longest German word? Find out in this blog.
Facts about the German language
Here are some facts about the German language:
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The most common letter is the e. The letter “e” can be found in German-language texts with a relative frequency of about 17.5 percent. It is included in almost every sentence.
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The German language uses the Latin alphabet. However, there is an additional consonant in Germany: the ß, called “eszett”. It represents a double s, follows a long vowel, and is never at the beginning of a word.
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The Grimm brothers, known for their collection of popular Hausmärchen, were also the first to compile a German dictionary. In 1838, in Berlin, they began compiling words and expressions for the dictionary. The first volume “A – Beer Whey” appeared in 1854.
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There are only five words that end in “nf”: Geneva, Mustard, Sernf, Hemp, Five.
Longest German word in the Duden corpus
According to the Duden, the longest German word with 79 letters is Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
In 1999, it was part of a bill with the full name Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (RkReÜAÜG). This law should regulate the transfer of monitoring tasks of beef labeling and cattle identification.
Longest German word: the top 5 of the last years
In addition to the word above, the Duden corpus has listed other long words. Here you can find the whole list.
1. land transfer permit jurisdiction transfer ordinance (67 letters).
This ordinance transfers the responsibilities of the Chief Finance President of the Berlin Chief Finance Office with regard to the Property Transactions Ordinance to the Federal Office for the Settlement of Unresolved Property Issues.
2. beef labeling monitoring task transfer act (63 letters).
The law, which was passed on December 15, 1999, and goes by the official short title of the Cattle Identification and Beef Labeling Surveillance Task Transfer Act, included the transfer of tasks for the surveillance of cattle identification and beef labeling. This law was repealed in 2013.
3. llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogoch (58 letters)
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a Welsh place that translates roughly as “St. Mary’s Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel near a Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Cave.”
Here you can see how casually a weather presenter pronounced this location during the broadcast:
4. road drainage investment cost debt service levy (58 letters).
Most of the words from this list come from legal and administrative language and are nouns composed of several elements. This word describes a specific apportionment.
5. consumer electronics telephone processing partner (50 letters)
As the individual words already described, this word is about a very special partner of processing.
Longest German word in Duden 2023
The Rechtschreibduden also has a list of the longest German words. As above, most words are used in the legal and administrative fields. https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/sprachratgeber/Die-langsten-Worter-im-Duden
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (44)
- Motor vehicle liability insurance (36)
- Danube Steam Navigation Company (34)
- Workers’ compensation insurance law (33)
- Federal Training Assistance Act (33)
- Rhine-Main-Danube Great Navigation (33)
- Financial services companies (32)
- Financial Market Stabilization Act (32)
- Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (32)
- Event information service (32)
Longest German word: Guinness Book of Records
The word
Danube Steamship Electricity Main Plant Construction Suboffice Company
with 79 letters was named the longest published word in the German language by the Guinness Book of Records in 1972. The word was the name of a pre-war Viennese association for subordinate officials of the headquarters of the electrical department of the company called “Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft”.
Writing long texts with neuroflash
Writing long words or texts is never as easy as you initially imagine. For one thing, there may be a lack of ideas, or there may be the world-famous writer’s block. Fortunately, there are useful tools on the web like neuroflash that can help you with these problems. For example, the AI text generator can help you find ideas for your blog.
At the same time, the app is also able to continue your started texts with the help of the magic pen.
If you are fed up with long words or sentences, the tool offers the text type to summarize longer texts.
Alternatively, you can also make use of the freestyle tool. With neuroflash you have the possibility of over 80 different text types that will be a great help to you during the writing process. Try it out right away.
Longest words in the whole world 2023
The world’s longest word is so long that it wouldn’t even fit in this blog, as it spans a whopping 189,819 letters. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl[…]isoleucine is the chemical name for the protein “titin”, which is also known as “connectin”. In this article you can read the whole word.
Do you now also wonder how long it takes to fully pronounce the complete word to Titin? That’s probably what this man thought and recorded himself reading it out. The result: the video is more than 3 hours long. Check it out here:
But in reality, the existence of this word was never really established, that is why it is not considered a real word by most.
According to Guinness World Records, the longest word in the world is written in Sanskrit and it is 195 characters long. This is how it reads:
निरन्तरान्धकारित-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-स्यन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-कुल-तल्प-कल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुवक-मिलदलघु-लघु-लय- कलित-रमणीय-पानीय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-कस्तूरिकातिसौरभ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शीतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदीय-विमल-विलोचन-मयूख-रेखापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान्
It first appeared in literature and describes a region in Tamil Nadu in India. This officially makes it the longest word in the world.
Longest words in different countries
Not only Germany have a reputation of unnecessary or long words that probably no one uses in their everyday language. Here is a list of countries that have equally long words in their dictionaries.
South Africa
Tweedehandsemotorverkoopsmannevakbondstakingsvergaderingsameroeperstoespra-akskrywerspersverklaringuitreikingsmediakonferensieaankondiging
Roughly translated, this means “a press conference on a speech by a union official at a used car dealership about a strike” and is actually the third longest word at 136.
Italy
precipitevolissimevolmente
It is a adverb that means “very fast” or “swiftly” in English and has 26 letters.
Turkey
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine
The word is 70 letters long and means “As if you were of those whom we cannot easily/quickly make unsuccessful”.
Bulgaria
непротивоконституционствувателствувайте
The word means “take no action against the Constitution” and is 39 letters long.
Useful tips for writing long words
- When you see a long word, remember to split it in half. This will help you read and understand it faster.
- When you see a long word in a sentence, try to connect it with other words in that sentence. This will help you understand the meaning of the sentence faster.
- If you see a long word you don’t know, try breaking it down into smaller parts. This will help you understand the word faster and remember it better.
Summary
This article was about “Longest German word”. Complicated words may seem confusing at first glance, but they often have an interesting history and meaning. The longest German word is a good example of this. Although it looks complicated, it has a deeper meaning. How to pronounce these words is perhaps best left to the experts.
