Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a 45-letter <a href="/facts/Word/sD4KyoLF">word</a> coined in 1935 by the then-president of the <a href="/facts/National_Puzzlers%2527_League/u0eXwaXs">National Puzzlers' League</a>, Everett M. Smith. It has sometimes been used as a <a href="/facts/Synonym/a3BgMcdu">synonym</a> for the occupational disease known as <a href="/facts/Silicosis/y4lIKbh2">silicosis</a>, but it should not be as most silicosis is not related to mining of volcanic dusts. It is the longest word in the <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English language</a> published in a popular dictionary, <a href="/facts/Oxford_Dictionaries_(website)/kfecTBwv">Oxford Dictionaries</a>, which defines it as "an artificial long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust".
Clinical and toxicological research conducted on volcanic crystalline silica has found little to no evidence of its ability to cause silicosis/pneumoconiosis-like diseases and geochemical analyses have shown that there are inherent factors in the crystalline structure which may render volcanic crystalline silica much less pathogenic than some other forms of crystalline silica.
Silicosis is a form of occupational <a href="/facts/Interstitial_lung_disease/0LQEwsGc">lung disease</a> caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of <a href="/facts/Pneumoconiosis/S2gcpA6z">pneumoconiosis</a>.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis open-in-new

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis