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TOP TEN MOST DIFFICULT WORDS IN ENGLISH »
Top ten most difficult words in English rated by the LoveToKnow
editors.
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Top 10 List how we choose |
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Verisimilitude
The word is hard to pronounce and hard to spell. It means that something has
the appearance of truth. You can listen to an audio recording of the word as
well to help you learn how to pronounce it. Get examples of how the word is
used in sentences to help you apply the word to everyday speech or at least
occasionally so you can show off how your dialogue has verisimilitude. |
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Honorificabilitudinitatibus
This word is a whopping 27 letters long and is harder to pronounce than just
about any word in the English language. The word is from the Latin word
honorificabilitudinitas. It means being able to achieve honor. The word
appears in Shakespeare's play Love's Labour Lost in Act V, Scene 1.
You'll also find the word in the novel
Ulysses by James Joyce. |
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Floccinauccinihilipilification
Move over short words, this word is one of the longest in the English
language with 30 letters. The word means "an estimation of something as
worthless". The word made the Guinness Book of World Records (1992)
as the longest real word in the English language. Even though the letter "i"
appears throughout the word, there are no occurrences of the letter "e".
Just for fun, the site also has
anagrams and
oxymorons. |
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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
This word is well known because it is heard in a song in the movie Mary
Poppins. The word is fictitious, but has become such a part of the
modern English language that it has been included in dictionaries and is
used regularly. The word has so infiltrated modern culture that it has
appeared in movies like The Nanny Diaries and on television shows
like Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report. |
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Antidisestablishmentarianism
Oxford Dictionary lists this word as one of the longest in the English
language. The word means "opposition to the disestablishment of the Church
of England". Oxford explains how you're unlikely to see this word in common
use. It is usually a word that is only mentioned as one of the longest words
in the English language. |
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Onomatopoeia
Words that have more four or more vowels in a row can be hard to spell and
pronounce. This word means sounding like the animal sound it represents.
This site offers a complete list of animal sounds for the English language.
You can also compare the English version with other languages like Dutch,
Hebrew, Italian, Russian and Spanish. |
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Hippopotomonstrosequippeddaliophobia
Does the thought of trying to spell this word scare you? The word
hippopotomonstrosequippeddaliophobia means "the fear of long words". This
site also lists
other frighteningly long words like the 1,909-letter-long scientific
word that describes a protein from a DNA amino acid. You'll also find words
like antidisestablishmentarianism. |
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Phlegmatic
Not only is it hard to spell, the word just sounds gross. It is hard to
pronounce, especially for foreign speakers trying to learn the English
language. This site allows you to play an audio recording of how the word
should be pronounced and breaks down the parts of the word and their
meanings. The definition is "having solid temperament". Some synonyms of the
word are
undemonstrative and apathetic. |
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Hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies
This medical term is also one of the longest words in the language at 39
letters. It means to create a connection surgically from the gall bladder to
the hepatic duct and from the gall bladder to intestine. If you enjoy
learning new words and find the English language fascinating, this site
offers a lot of urban folklore information surrounding words and also
provides a
word of the day. You're more likely to find recent slang terms in this
dictionary. |
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Acharnement
This word has French origins, but means "bloodthirstiness." You'll also find
many other interesting words under the
Word of the Day category. Choose from words like burgoo, sudatory,
zayat, portamento, chiliastic and cyanotype. Under each word, you can get
information on the pronunciation, the origin of the word, the meaning of the
word and some sample sentences of how to use the word in everyday language. |
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