Fact of the Day: 29/03/2021

What does pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis mean? Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the dictionary and when you break this mega word into bits, it helps reveal quite a bit about its definition. Let’s take a look: ‘pneumono’ is a prefix that means lung, ‘ultramicroscopic’ typically refers to something that is very small and hardly visible. ‘Silico’ is a variation of the periodic element silicon which can typically cause irritation of the eyes, skin, and lungs. ‘Volcano’ most probably refers to volcanoes or what comes out of one, and ‘coniosis’ is a suffix used to describe a disease caused by the inhalation of dust or other particles. Now that we know what each individual part means, we can put them together to derive the meaning of the word. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis means a lung disease caused by the inhalation of silicon dust. Not so intimidating now, is it?

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