Word formation Word formation In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in a single word's meaning. The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to define: a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form. See 'conversion'. There are a number of methods of word formation. A blend is a word formed by joining parts of two words after clipping. An example is "smog", which comes from
Longest word in English major English language dictionaries is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis", a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis. The word was deliberately coined to be the longest word in English, and has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim. The "Oxford English Dictionary" contains "pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism" (30 letters). "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary" does not contain "antidisestablishmentarianism" (28 letters), as the editors found no widespread, sustained usage of the word in its