What’s the longest word in English? It’s the word “smiles,” because there’s a “mile” between the s’s (ha!). No, really, the longest word in the English dictionary is “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” The word has 45 letters, and it is what happens to you if you breathe the dust from a volcano. Luckily that doesn’t happen often, because it would take us forever to answer the question “How are you doing?”
Wee ones: How many letters does your name have? Spell your name and count!
Little kids: How many letters are in the word “volcano?” Bonus: This longest English word has 1 e, 9 o’s, 6 i’s, 2 u’s, and 2 a’s. How many vowels are there?
Big kids: Once you say “pneumonoult,” you’ve knocked off 11 of the 45 letters. How many letters do you have left? Bonus: If you could string together 4 45-letter words to make an even longer one, would that new word reach 200 letters?
Answers:
Wee ones: Different for everyone…say the letters in your name and count them!
Little kids: 7 letters. Bonus: 20 vowels.
Big kids: 34 more letters. Bonus: Not quite…it would give you only 180 letters.
