The Longest Words in the Dictionary, and How Many There Are of Each Length

Updated November 11, 2026 · 3 min read

How long can an English word get? The ENABLE list used by WordJumbler runs from two-letter words all the way up to a single 28-letter word. This guide shows how the dictionary breaks down by length and lists its longest words.

How many words of each length?

Eight-letter words are the most common, with 28,420 in the list. After that the numbers fall steadily.

The longest word you can play

A Scrabble board is 15 squares wide, so the longest word you can ever play is 15 letters. The list contains 3,192 fifteen-letter words. Playing one means filling an entire row or column, and you would need to hook onto tiles already on the board, so it almost never happens in a real game.

A more realistic goal is a seven-letter word from your rack, which earns the 50-point bonus for using all seven tiles. Our guide to bingo stems shows how to find them.

The longest words in the dictionary

There are 57 words of 22 letters or more. The winner, at 28 letters, is ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES, the plural of a chemical term. Here are all of them:

CARBOXYMETHYLCELLULOSE CARBOXYMETHYLCELLULOSES CONSTITUTIONALIZATIONS COUNTERCOUNTERMEASURES COUNTERINTERPRETATIONS COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION DEINSTITUTIONALIZATIONS DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANES DISESTABLISHMENTARIANS ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHICALLY ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHER ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHERS ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHICALLY ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIES ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHS ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICALLY ENCEPHALOMYOCARDITISES ESTABLISHMENTARIANISMS ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATE ETHYLENEDIAMINETETRAACETATES HEXAMETHYLENETETRAMINE HEXAMETHYLENETETRAMINES IMMUNOELECTROPHORETICALLY IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRIES INCOMPREHENSIBLENESSES INDISTINGUISHABILITIES INDISTINGUISHABLENESSES INTERCOMPREHENSIBILITIES INTERCOMPREHENSIBILITY INTERSUBSTITUTABILITIES KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIDES KERATOCONJUNCTIVITISES MICROELECTROPHORETICALLY MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETER MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETERS MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETRIC MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETRIES MICROSPECTROPHOTOMETRY NONREPRESENTATIONALISM NONREPRESENTATIONALISMS OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICAL OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGISTS OVERCOMMERCIALIZATIONS OVERINTELLECTUALIZATION OVERINTELLECTUALIZATIONS PHILOPROGENITIVENESSES PHOSPHATIDYLETHANOLAMINE PHOSPHATIDYLETHANOLAMINES PHOSPHOGLYCERALDEHYDES REINSTITUTIONALIZATION REINSTITUTIONALIZATIONS SPECTROPHOTOMETRICALLY UNREPRESENTATIVENESSES

Why are the longest words so technical?

Very long words are almost always built by stacking prefixes and endings onto a root. Chemistry and medicine do this constantly (electroencephalograph, microspectrophotometer), and so do abstract nouns built from -ness or -ization (incomprehensiblenesses). You will rarely play them, but spotting the pattern helps with shorter words too: look for a familiar ending and work backwards.

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