List of the longest English words with one syllable
Template:Short description Template:EngvarB This is a list of candidates for the longest English word of one syllable, i.e. monosyllables with the most letters. A list of 9,123 English monosyllables published in 1957 includes three ten-letter words: scraunched, scroonched, and squirreled.<ref name="moser"> Template:Cite report; cited in Template:Cite journal </ref> Guinness World Records lists scraunched and strengthed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other sources include words as long or longer. Some candidates are questionable on grounds of spelling, pronunciation, or status as obsolete, nonstandard, proper noun, loanword, or nonce word. Thus, the definition of longest English word with one syllable is somewhat subjective, and there is no single unambiguously correct answer.
ListEdit
| word | pronunciation | letters | source | notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| broughammed | Template:IPAc-en | 11 | Sc.Am.<ref name="scam">
Template:Cite journal </ref> |
Meaning "travelled by brougham", by analogy with bussed, biked, carted etc. Rhymes with fumed, zoomed. Suggested by poet William Harmon in a competition to find the longest monosyllable. | ||
| squirrelled | Template:IPAc-en | 11 | LPD;<ref name="lpd">
Template:Cite book </ref> MWOD<ref name="mwsq"> Spelling: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
CitationClass=web
}} |
CitationClass=web
}} |
Compressed American pronunciation of a word which in British RP always has two syllables {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. The monosyllabic pronunciation rhymes with world, curled. In the United States, the given spelling is a variant of the more usual squirreled: see -led and -lled spellings. |
| broughamed | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | Shaw<ref>
Template:Cite book </ref> |
A variant of broughammed, used by George Bernard Shaw in a piece of journalism. | ||
| schmaltzed | Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPAc-en | 10 | OED<ref>
Template:Cite book </ref> |
Meaning "imparted a sentimental atmosphere to" e.g. of music; with a 1969 attestation for the past tense. | ||
| schnappsed | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | Sc.Am.<ref name="scam"/> | Meaning "drank schnapps"; proposed by poet George Starbuck in the same competition won by his friend William Harmon. | ||
| schwartzed | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | <ref>
Template:Cite book </ref> |
Meaning "responded 'Schwartz' to a player without making eye-contact" in the game Zoom Schwartz Profigliano. | ||
| scraunched | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | W3NID;<ref name="w3nid"/> Moser<ref name="moser"/> | A "chiefly dialect" word, meaning "crunched". | ||
| scroonched | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | W3NID;<ref name="w3nid">
Template:Cite book </ref> Moser<ref name="moser"/> |
A variant of scrunched, meaning "squeezed". | ||
| scrootched | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | AHD<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | A variant of scrooched, meaning "crouched". | ||
| squirreled | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | LPD;<ref name="lpd"/> MWOD;<ref name="mwsq"/> Moser<ref name="moser"/> | The more usual American spelling of squirrelled. | ||
| strengthed | Template:IPAc-en | 10 | OED<ref>
Template:Cite book </ref> |
An obsolete verb meaning "strengthen", "force", and "summon one's strength". The latest citation is 1614 (1479 for strengthed), at which time the Early Modern English pronunciation would have been disyllabic. |
Proper namesEdit
Some nine-letter proper names remain monosyllabic when adding a tenth letter and apostrophe to form the possessive:
- Laugharne's Template:IPAc-en <ref name="lpd"/>
- Scoughall's Template:IPAc-en <ref>
{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>
In his short story, "Strychnine in the Soup", P. G. Wodehouse had a character whose surname was "Mapledurham", pronounced "Mum". This is eleven letters, while "Mapledurham's" is twelve.
It is productive in English to convert a (proper) noun into an eponymous verb or adjective:
- A 2007–08 promotion in France used the slogan "Do you Schweppes?", implying a past tense Schweppesed (11 letters) for the putative verb.<ref>
{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>
- Schwartzed (10 letters) has been used to mean "(re)designed in the style of Martha Schwartz"<ref>
{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>
- Schwartzed has also been used to mean "crossed swords with Justice Alan R. Schwartz"<ref>
Template:Cite journal </ref>
- Schmertzed (10 letters) has been used to mean "received undue largesse from New York City through the intervention of negotiator Eric Schmertz"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Contrived endingsEdit
In a 1970 article in Word Ways, Ralph G. Beaman converts past participles ending -ed into nouns, allowing regular plurals with -s. He lists five verbs in Webster's Third International generating 10-letter monosyllables scratcheds, screecheds, scroungeds, squelcheds, stretcheds; from the verb strength in Webster's Second International, he forms the 11-letter strengtheds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The past tense ending -ed and the archaic second person singular ending -st can be combined into -edst; for example "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul" (Template:Bibleverse). While this ending is usually pronounced as a separate syllable from the verb stem, it may be abbreviated -'dst to indicate elision. Attested examples include scratch'dst<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and stretch'dst,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> each of which has one syllable spelled with ten letters plus apostrophe.