I started my PhD back in September and have noticed that the more I read into my research, the longer the words become. I have recently come across this 27 letter word: '15-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HpETEs).'

Can anybody beat this? No hyphenated words please.

I heard that the longest word in the English dictionary is floccinoccinihilipiliphication (probably not spelt like at all). Two people have told me this, but I've never once found it in an English dictionary so I think they were lying. Except they were two people who dont know each other

Back in high school we found the longest word possible which was ca. 35 letters and refered to some lung complaint/disease. I forget the word now (like many things from high school) but would be interested if anyone else knew of the word.

the lung disease is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis....

but there are chemicals names which are descriptive of chemical structure and can run well over a page of A4.

It's floccinauhinihilipilification. I think it means the act of valuing something as worthless. But seriously, what's the point?

ACETYL­SERYL­TYROSYL­SERYL­ISO­LEUCYL­THREONYL­SERYL­PROLYL­SERYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­VALYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­LEUCYL­SERYL­SERYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­ALANYL­ASPARTYL­PROLYL­ISOLEUCYL­GLUTAMYL­LEUCYL­LEUCYL­ASPARAGINYL­VALYL­CYSTEINYL­THREONYL­SERYL­SERYL­LEUCYL­GLYCYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMINYL­THREONYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­ALANYL­ARGINYL­THREONYL­THREONYL­GLUTAMINYL­VALYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­SERYL­GLUTAMINYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­LYSYL­PROLYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­GLUTAMINYL­SERYL­THREONYL­VALYL­ARGINYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­GLYCYL­ASPARTYL­VALYL­TYROSYL­LYSYL­VALYL­TYROSYL­ARGINYL­TYROSYL­ASPARAGINYL­ALANYL­VALYL­LEUCYL­ASPARTYL­PROLYL­LEUCYL­ISOLEUCYL­THREONYL­ALANYL­LEUCYL­LEUCYL­GLYCYL­THREONYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­ASPARTYL­THREONYL­ARGINYL­ASPARAGINYL­ARGINYL­ISOLEUCYL­ISOLEUCYL­GLUTAMYL­VALYL­GLUTAMYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL­SERYL­PROLYL­THREONYL­THREONYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMYL­THREONYL­LEUCYL­ASPARTYL­ALANYL­THREONYL­ARGINYL­ARGINYL­VALYL­ASPARTYL­ASPARTYL­ALANYL­THREONYL­VALYL­ALANYL­ISOLEUCYL­ARGINYL­SERYL­ALANYL­ASPARAGINYL­ISOLEUCYL­ASPARAGINYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­ARGINYL­GLYCYL­THREONYL­GLYCYL­LEUCYL­TYROSYL­ASPARAGINYL­GLUTAMINYL­ASPARAGINYL­THREONYL­PHENYL­ALANYL­GLUTAMYL­SERYL­METHIONYL­SERYL­GLYCYL­LEUCYL­VALYL­TRYPTOPHYL­THREONYL­SERYL­ALANYL­PROLYL­ALANYL­SERINE is longest word according to one or two websites i visited. just complicated name for tobacco

I don't think compound names should count as 'words' - unless they're in standard dictionaries. I always thought the longest word was antidisestablishmentarianism (28) but Matthew82's word beats that by one letter...

Ur correct Mia (gud old soton students!)
http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/l/longestword.html

OK, thank you to everyone for all the input, but my point was to actually stumble upon such words in the natural course of your research progress. For example, I doubt very much that Mia's PhD is concerned with: 'The scriptual challenges affecting nineteenth century famillial screenplay comedies: Van-Dickeism as an influencial role-model in lengthy wordism,' is it?

Sorry, I meant van-Dykeism.