The Book of Word Records: A Look at Some of the Strangest, Shortest, Longest, and Overall Most Remarkable Words in the English Language

by Asher Cantrell

From antidisestablishmentarianism to zo, a unrivaled collection of today's greatest words!

Have you ever wondered what the longest word in the dictionary is? Or the origin of your go-to curse word?

With The Book of Word Records , you'll uncover hundreds of bizarre, ugly, gross, and otherwise extreme words that have what it takes to break some serious records. From the seven longest speeches ever given to twelve of the most popular passwords used today, each of these entries reveals the history behind the world's most noteworthy expressions and fascinating details on how they stack up against the competition. You'll also learn how to step up your vocabulary with pronunciations, definitions, and sample sentences for each award-winning word.

Whether you're a Scrabble champ looking to get a high score or just want to impress those around you, The Book of Word Records is sure to surprise even the most skilled wordsmith with its one-of-a-kind superlative lists.

Genres: Nonfiction

271 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2013

Reviews

[Aimee Massey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and enjoyable, but I can so do without the constant, desperate attempts to be geekily humorous. Quit trying to cram a geek-pop-culture joke into every. single. entry. Please.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny approach to various lists of books that are the "est" of their type: longest, shortest, most read, etc. Joyce is in there, of course, Willy Wigglestick, and that HP woman, and many of your expected authors. Only a couple of the books come from outside the English reading world. Couple Chinese books (two of which I've read), and some Persian/Arabian epics. Fun, fast read.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those books you can kind of read along at your own leisure, absorbing as you go so to speak. All sorts of interesting tidbits about words in this one sprinkled with a bit of humor. One of the more interesting tidbits I hit was the longest word in the English language that goes an amazing 189,819 letters! Pretty neat little book if you can find it. Give it a go and you may learn some new stuff too.

[Colin Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting, although some of the choices for Top Tens seemed a little arbitrary when not based on actual data!