Google Assistant Takes On the English Language's Longest Words

First name: Antidisestablishmentarianism. Last name: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Those incredibly lengthy words were what Google Assitant owner Paul Spoon used to try and trip up his Google Assistant while playing the Name Game. 

For those attempting to count the letters, that's 28 letters in "Antidisestablishmentarianism" and another 45 letters in "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis". That's a whopping 73 letters that the Google Assistant had to chew through in order to play a simple name game. 

Rather than choke on the challenge, the Google Assistant almost seemed ready for it. Sure, it was considerably longer than other names used in the iconic name game. However, after 45 seconds of chewing through the words, the Google Assistant nails the ending. It even included a drumroll to build up the suspense. 

What do those lengthy words even mean? Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis refers to simple silica dust inhalation. It's the longest word on record in a standard English dictionary. Many medical professionals describe the word as superfluous; a more common word for the issue is silicosis. And antidisestablishmentarianism was a withdrawal of state support from an established church. It's most commonly used when talking about the Anglican Church in 1800's England.

For years, antidisestablishmentarianism was heralded and understood to be the longest word in the dictionary. However, it's not even the second longest word. There are actually six words in major official English language dictionaries that surpass antidisestablishmentarianism in length.