Longest Words - Norwegian

Norwegian

The longest word in Norwegian, that is a real word in ordinary use, is menneskerettighetsorganisasjonene (33 letters). The meaning is "the human rights organizations". Being used mostly in statistics, the term sannsynlighetstetthetsfunksjonene (meaning “the probability density functions”) is also 33 characters long. The physics term minoritetsladningsbærerdiffusjonskoeffisientmålingsapparatur has 60 characters, but is not a common word. Its meaning is "(a) device for measuring the distance between particles in a crystal".

In theory, though, it is possible in Norwegian to make words as long as one wants; for instance, menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretæren (the secretary of a human rights organization), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkurset (the course for secretaries working for human rights organizations), menneskerettighetsorganisasjonssekretærkursmateriellet (the material for a course for secretaries working for human rights organizations), and so on, are possible. The reason is that compounds are, unlike in English, mostly closed in Norwegian (skolebuss vs. school bus). Definite articles are also suffixed instead of being separate words (bussen vs. the bus), which may lengthen nouns by an additional two-three letters.