What does pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoconiosis mean?
(The entire word will not display in either the question box or
answer unless a hyphen is used.)
It is a lung disease, similar to 'black lung' usually acquired
by miners. It is caused by extremely microscopic silica
getting into the lungs. Literally the word means: 'a lung
disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust
usually found in volcanoes'.
The term (more simply called pneumoconiosis, related to
silicosis) is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico-volcanoconiosis (no
hyphen)
and was created in 1935 to be 'the world's longest English
word".
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