How do you pronounce pneumonoultramicroscopic-silicovolcanoconiosis?

Answer 1

*The word will not display without the hyphen (which is not actually in the spelling.)

It should be pronounced as in the separate word forms

Pneu-mono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-co-niosis, i.e.

"new-moh-noh-uhl-truh-my-kroh-skah-pik-sill-ih-coh-voll-kay-noh-koh-nee-oh-sis"

(alternately "new-mah-noh...")

Answer 2

The correct spelling is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters). The word was coined in 1935 specifically to be the longest word in English. It refers to a disease known as silicosis.

The word is fairly easy to spell if you reduce it to sections:

pneumono (like pneumonia, causes fluid in the lungs)

ultramicroscopic (very small)

silico (caused by a silica compound)

volcanoconi (from a volcanic cone)

osis (a disease)

(see the related link)

Answer 3

pneumonoltsmivroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis