You searched for: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis
This is one of the longest words in the English language and is divided into the following segments: pneu, mono, ultra, micro, scopic, silico, volcano, coni, osis; and together they mean, "miner's lung disease", or "a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate, or quartz dust, and occurring especially in the lungs of miners".
Word Entries at Get Words: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (s) (noun); pneumonoultramicroscopicsilikovolcanoconioses (pl)
A lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust: During the recovery efforts after the eruption of the volcano, the rescue worker was hospitalized with a diagnosis of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis and the doctors were uncertain as to how to treat it.

This is considered to be the longest word in any English dictionary; however, it was coined by Everett Smith, the President of The National Puzzlers' League, in 1935 purely for the purpose of inventing a new "longest word".

The Oxford English Dictionary described the word as factitious; however, it also appears in the Webster's, Random House, and Chambers dictionaries.

Much shorter words already existed to describe such conditions; for example, "pneumoconiosis" (noo" moh koh" nee OH sis), or "Miner's Lung", which is the term for a lung condition in which inhalation of dust leads to the formation of lumps of fibrous tissue in the lungs, and "silicosis", or "Grinder's Disease", that is the term for such a condition when caused by crystalline silica dust.

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group P (page 3)