title: Electrical wiring

text: Wiring is subject to safety standards for design and installation. Allowable wire and cable types and sizes are specified according to the circuit operating voltage and electric current capability, with further restrictions on the environmental conditions, such as ambient temperature range, moisture levels, and exposure to sunlight and chemicals.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Associated circuit protection, control, and distribution devices within a building's wiring system are subject to voltage, current, and functional specifications. Wiring safety codes vary by locality, country, or region. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is attempting to harmonise wiring standards among member countries, but significant variations in design and installation requirements still exist.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Wiring installation codes and regulations are intended to protect people and property from electrical shock and fire hazards. They are usually based on a model code (with or without local amendments) produced by a national or international standards organisation, such as the IEC.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In Australia and New Zealand, the AS/NZS 3000 standard, commonly known as the "wiring rules", specifies requirements for the selection and installation of electrical equipment, and the design and testing of such installations. The standard is mandatory in both New Zealand and Australia; therefore, all electrical work covered by the standard must comply.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In European countries, an attempt has been made to harmonise national wiring standards in an IEC standard, IEC 60364 "Electrical Installations for Buildings". Hence national standards follow an identical system of sections and chapters. However, this standard is not written in such language that it can readily be adopted as a national wiring code. Neither is it designed for field use by electrical tradesmen and inspectors for testing compliance with national wiring standards. By contrast, national codes, such as the NEC or CSA C22.1, generally exemplify the common objectives of IEC 60364, but provide specific rules in a form that allows for guidance of those installing and inspecting electrical systems.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The German Commission for Electrotechnical, Electronic, and Information Technologies of DIN and VDE (DKE) (Deutsche Kommission Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik in DIN und VDE) is the organisation responsible for the promulgation of electrical standards and safety specifications. DIN VDE 0100 is the German wiring regulations document harmonised with IEC 60364.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In the United Kingdom, wiring installations are regulated by the Institution of Engineering and Technology "Requirements for Electrical Installations: IEE Wiring Regulations, BS 7671: 2008," which are harmonised with IEC 60364. The 17th edition (issued in January 2008) included new sections for microgeneration and solar photovoltaic systems. The first edition was published in 1882. In 2018, the 18th edition of the wiring regulations BS7671:2018 was released and came into force in January 2019 and BS7671:2018 Amendment 1 was issued February 2020. BS 7671 is the standard to which the UK electrical industry adheres, and compliance with BS 7671 is now required by law through the Electricity, Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The first electrical codes in the United States originated in New York in 1881 to regulate installations of electric lighting. Since 1897 the US National Fire Protection Association, a private non-profit association formed by insurance companies, has published the "National Electrical Code" (NEC). States, counties or cities often include the NEC in their local building codes by reference along with local differences. The NEC is modified every three years. It is a consensus code considering suggestions from interested parties. The proposals are studied by committees of engineers, tradesmen, manufacturer representatives, fire fighters, and other invitees.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Since 1927, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has produced the Canadian "Safety Standard for Electrical Installations", which is the basis for provincial electrical codes. The CSA also produces the Canadian Electrical Code, the 2006 edition of which references IEC 60364 ("Electrical Installations for Buildings") and states that the code addresses the fundamental principles of electrical protection in Section 131. The Canadian code reprints Chapter 13 of IEC 60364, but there are no numerical criteria listed in that chapter to assess the adequacy of any electrical installation.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Although the US and Canadian national standards deal with the same physical phenomena and broadly similar objectives, they differ occasionally in technical detail. As part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) program, US and Canadian standards are slowly converging toward each other, in a process known as harmonisation.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In a typical electrical code, some colour-coding of wires is mandatory. Many local rules and exceptions exist per country, state, or region. Older installations vary in colour codes, and colours may fade with insulation exposure to heat, light, and aging.


title: Electrical wiring

text: As of March 2011, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) requires the use of green/yellow colour cables as protective conductors, blue as neutral conductors and brown as single-phase conductors.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In Sweden, IEC 60364 is implemented through the national standard SS-436 40 000. Notable is the exception for blue, where while the colour normally is used for neutral may be used as connecting wire between switches and between switch and fixture, as well as phase wire in a two-phase circuit , all under the condition that no neutral wire is used in the particular circuit.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The United Kingdom requires the use of wire covered with green/yellow striped insulation, for safety earthing (grounding) connections. This growing international standard was adopted for its distinctive appearance, to reduce the likelihood of dangerous confusion of safety earthing (grounding) wires with other electrical functions, especially by persons affected by red-green colour blindness.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In the UK, phases could be identified as being live by using coloured indicator lights: red, yellow, and blue. The new cable colours of brown, black, and grey do not lend themselves to coloured indicators. For this reason, three-phase control panels often use indicator lights of the old colours.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The United States National Electrical Code requires a bare copper, or green or green/yellow insulated protective conductor, a white or grey neutral, with any other colour used for single phase. The NEC also requires the high-leg conductor of a high-leg delta system to have orange insulation, or to be identified by other suitable means such as tagging. Prior to the adoption of orange as the suggested colour for the high-leg in the 1971 NEC, it was common practice in some areas to use red for this purpose.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The introduction of the NEC clearly states that it is not intended to be a design manual, and therefore creating a colour code for ungrounded or "hot" conductors falls outside the scope and purpose of the NEC. However, it is a common misconception that "hot" conductor colour-coding is required by the Code.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In the United States, colour-coding of three-phase system conductors follows a de facto standard, wherein black, red, and blue are used for three-phase 120/208-volt systems, and brown, orange or violet, and yellow are used in 277/480-volt systems. (Violet avoids conflict with the NEC's high-leg delta rule.) In buildings with multiple voltage systems, the grounded conductors (neutrals) of both systems are required to be separately identified and made distinguishable to avoid cross-system connections. Most often, 120/208-volt systems use white insulation, while 277/480-volt systems use grey insulation, although this particular colour code is not currently an explicit requirement of the NEC. Some local jurisdictions do specify required color coding in their local building codes, however.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Wiring systems in a single family home or duplex, for example, are simple, with relatively low power requirements, infrequent changes to the building structure and layout, usually with dry, moderate temperature and non-corrosive environmental conditions. In a light commercial environment, more frequent wiring changes can be expected, large apparatus may be installed and special conditions of heat or moisture may apply. Heavy industries have more demanding wiring requirements, such as very large currents and higher voltages, frequent changes of equipment layout, corrosive, or wet or explosive atmospheres. In facilities that handle flammable gases or liquids, special rules may govern the installation and wiring of electrical equipment in hazardous areas.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Wires and cables are rated by the circuit voltage, temperature rating and environmental conditions (moisture, sunlight, oil, chemicals) in which they can be used. A wire or cable has a voltage (to neutral) rating and a maximum conductor surface temperature rating. The amount of current a cable or wire can safely carry depends on the installation conditions.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The international standard wire sizes are given in the IEC 60228 standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission. In North America, the American Wire Gauge standard for wire sizes is used.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Modern non-metallic sheathed cables, such as (US and Canadian) Types NMB and NMC, consist of two to four wires covered with thermoplastic insulation, plus a wire for Protective Earthing/Grounding (bonding), surrounded by a flexible plastic jacket. In North America and the UK this conductor is usually bare wire but in the UK it is required that this bare Protective Earth (PE) conductor be sheathed in Green/Yellow insulating tubing where the Cable Sheathing has been removed. Most other jurisdictions now require the Protective Earth conductor to be insulated to the same standard as the current carrying conductors with Green/Yellow insulation.


title: Electrical wiring

text: With some cables the individual conductors are wrapped in paper before the plastic jacket is applied.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Special versions of non-metallic sheathed cables, such as US Type UF, are designed for direct underground burial (often with separate mechanical protection) or exterior use where exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) is a possibility. These cables differ in having a moisture-resistant construction, lacking paper or other absorbent fillers, and being formulated for UV resistance.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Rubber-like synthetic polymer insulation is used in industrial cables and power cables installed underground because of its superior moisture resistance.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Insulated cables are rated by their allowable operating voltage and their maximum operating temperature at the conductor surface. A cable may carry multiple usage ratings for applications, for example, one rating for dry installations and another when exposed to moisture or oil.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Generally, single conductor building wire in small sizes is solid wire, since the wiring is not required to be very flexible. Building wire conductors larger than 10 AWG (or about 5 mm) are stranded for flexibility during installation, but are not sufficiently pliable to use as appliance cord.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Cables for industrial, commercial and apartment buildings may contain many insulated conductors in an overall jacket, with helical tape steel or aluminium armour, or steel wire armour, and perhaps as well an overall PVC or lead jacket for protection from moisture and physical damage. Cables intended for very flexible service or in marine applications may be protected by woven bronze wires. Power or communications cables (e.g., computer networking) that are routed in or through air-handling spaces (plenums) of office buildings are required under the model building code to be either encased in metal conduit, or rated for low flame and smoke production.


title: Electrical wiring

text: For some industrial uses in steel mills and similar hot environments, no organic material gives satisfactory service. Cables insulated with compressed mica flakes are sometimes used. Another form of high-temperature cable is mineral-insulated cable, with individual conductors placed within a copper tube and the space filled with magnesium oxide powder. The whole assembly is drawn down to smaller sizes, thereby compressing the powder. Such cables have a certified fire resistance rating and are more costly than non-fire rated cable. They have little flexibility and behave more like rigid conduit rather than flexible cables.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The environment of the installed wires determine how much current a cable is permitted to carry. Because multiple conductors bundled in a cable cannot dissipate heat as easily as single insulated conductors, those circuits are always rated at a lower ampacity. Tables in electrical safety codes give the maximum allowable current based on size of conductor, voltage potential, insulation type and thickness, and the temperature rating of the cable itself. The allowable current will also be different for wet or dry locations, for hot (attic) or cool (underground) locations. In a run of cable through several areas, the part with the lowest rating becomes the rating of the overall run.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Cables usually are secured with special fittings where they enter electrical apparatus; this may be a simple screw clamp for jacketed cables in a dry location, or a polymer-gasketed cable connector that mechanically engages the armour of an armoured cable and provides a water-resistant connection. Special cable fittings may be applied to prevent explosive gases from flowing in the interior of jacketed cables, where the cable passes through areas where flammable gases are present. To prevent loosening of the connections of individual conductors of a cable, cables must be supported near their entrance to devices and at regular intervals along their runs. In tall buildings, special designs are required to support the conductors of vertical runs of cable. Generally, only one cable per fitting is permitted, unless the fitting is rated or listed for multiple cables.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Special cable constructions and termination techniques are required for cables installed in ships. Such assemblies are subjected to environmental and mechanical extremes. Therefore, in addition to electrical and fire safety concerns, such cables may also be required to be pressure-resistant where they penetrate a vessel's bulkheads. They must also resist corrosion caused by salt water or salt spray, which is accomplished through the use of thicker, specially constructed jackets, and by tinning the individual wire stands.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In North American practice, an overhead cable from a transformer on a power pole to a residential electrical service usually consists of three twisted (triplexed) conductors, with one being a bare neutral conductor, with the other two being the insulated conductors for both of the two 180-degree out of phase 120 V line voltages normally supplied. The neutral conductor is often a supporting "messenger" steel wire, which is used to support the insulated line conductors.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Electrical devices often use copper conductors because of their properties, including their high electrical conductivity, tensile strength, ductility, creep resistance, corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, solderability, resistance to electrical overloads, compatibility with electrical insulators, and ease of installation. Copper is used in many types of electrical wiring.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Aluminium wire was common in North American residential wiring from the late 1960s to mid-1970s due to the rising cost of copper. Because of its greater resistivity, aluminium wiring requires larger conductors than copper. For instance, instead of 14 AWG (American wire gauge) copper wire, aluminium wiring would need to be 12 AWG on a typical 15 ampere lighting circuit, though local building codes vary.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Solid aluminium conductors were originally made in the 1960s from a utility-grade aluminium alloy that had undesirable properties for a building wire, and were used with wiring devices intended for copper conductors. These practices were found to cause defective connections and potential fire hazards. In the early 1970s new aluminium wire made from one of several special alloys was introduced, and all devices – breakers, switches, receptacles, splice connectors, wire nuts, etc. — were specially designed for the purpose. These newer aluminium wires and special designs address problems with junctions between dissimilar metals, oxidation on metal surfaces, and mechanical effects that occur as different metals expand at different rates with increases in temperature.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Unlike copper, aluminium has a tendency to creep or cold-flow under pressure, so older plain steel screw clamped connections could become loose over time. Newer electrical devices designed for aluminium conductors have features intended to compensate for this effect. Unlike copper, aluminium forms an insulating oxide layer on the surface. This is sometimes addressed by coating aluminium conductors with an antioxidant paste (containing zinc dust in a low-residue polybutene base) at joints, or by applying a mechanical termination designed to break through the oxide layer during installation.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Some terminations on wiring devices designed only for copper wire would overheat under heavy current load and cause fires when used with aluminium conductors. Revised standards for wire materials and wiring devices (such as the CO/ALR "copper-aluminium-revised" designation) were developed to reduce these problems. While larger sizes are still used to feed power to electrical panels and large devices, aluminium wiring for residential use has acquired a poor reputation and has fallen out of favour.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Aluminium conductors are still heavily used for bulk power transmission, power distribution, and large feeder circuits with heavy current loads, due to the various advantages they offer over copper wiring. Aluminium conductors both cost and weigh less than copper conductors, so a much larger cross sectional area can be used for the same weight and price. This can compensate for the higher resistance and lower mechanical strength of aluminium, meaning the larger cross sectional area is needed to achieve comparable current capacity and other features. Aluminium conductors must be installed with compatible connectors and special care must be taken to ensure the contact surface does not oxidise.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Insulated wires may be run in one of several forms between electrical devices. This may be a specialised bendable pipe, called a conduit, or one of several varieties of metal (rigid steel or aluminium) or non-metallic (PVC or HDPE) tubing. Rectangular cross-section metal or PVC wire troughs (North America) or trunking (UK) may be used if many circuits are required. Wires run underground may be run in plastic tubing encased in concrete, but metal elbows may be used in severe pulls. Wiring in exposed areas, for example factory floors, may be run in cable trays or rectangular raceways having lids.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Where wiring, or raceways that hold the wiring, must traverse fire-resistance rated walls and floors, the openings are required by local building codes to be firestopped. In cases where safety-critical wiring must be kept operational during an accidental fire, fireproofing must be applied to maintain circuit integrity in a manner to comply with a product's certification listing. The nature and thickness of any passive fire protection materials used in conjunction with wiring and raceways has a quantifiable impact upon the ampacity derating, because the thermal insulation properties needed for fire resistance also inhibit air cooling of power conductors.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Cable trays are used in industrial areas where many insulated cables are run together. Individual cables can exit the tray at any point, simplifying the wiring installation and reducing the labour cost for installing new cables. Power cables may have fittings in the tray to maintain clearance between the conductors, but small control wiring is often installed without any intentional spacing between cables.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Local electrical regulations may restrict or place special requirements on mixing of voltage levels within one cable tray. Good design practices may segregate, for example, low level measurement or signal cables from trays carrying high power branch circuits, to prevent induction of noise into sensitive circuits.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Since wires run in conduits or underground cannot dissipate heat as easily as in open air, and since adjacent circuits contribute induced currents, wiring regulations give rules to establish the current capacity (ampacity).


title: Electrical wiring

text: For very high currents in electrical apparatus, and for high currents distributed through a building, bus bars can be used. (The term "bus" is a contraction of the Latin "omnibus" – meaning "for all".) Each live conductor of such a system is a rigid piece of copper or aluminium, usually in flat bars (but sometimes as tubing or other shapes). Open bus bars are never used in publicly accessible areas, although they are used in manufacturing plants and power company switch yards to gain the benefit of air cooling. A variation is to use heavy cables, especially where it is desirable to transpose or "roll" phases.


title: Electrical wiring

text: In industrial applications, conductor bars are often pre-assembled with insulators in grounded enclosures. This assembly, known as bus duct or busway, can be used for connections to large switchgear or for bringing the main power feed into a building. A form of bus duct known as "plug-in bus" is used to distribute power down the length of a building; it is constructed to allow tap-off switches or motor controllers to be installed at designated places along the bus. The big advantage of this scheme is the ability to remove or add a branch circuit without removing voltage from the whole duct.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Bus ducts may have all phase conductors in the same enclosure (non-isolated bus), or may have each conductor separated by a grounded barrier from the adjacent phases (segregated bus). For conducting large currents between devices, a cable bus is used.


title: Electrical wiring

text: For very large currents in generating stations or substations, where it is difficult to provide circuit protection, an isolated-phase bus is used. Each phase of the circuit is run in a separate grounded metal enclosure. The only fault possible is a phase-to-ground fault, since the enclosures are separated. This type of bus can be rated up to 50,000 amperes and up to hundreds of kilovolts (during normal service, not just for faults), but is not used for building wiring in the conventional sense.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Electrical panels are easily accessible junction boxes used to reroute and switch electrical services. The term is often used to refer to circuit breaker panels or fuseboxes. Local codes can specify physical clearance around the panels.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Squirrels, rats, and other rodents may gnaw on unprotected wiring, causing fire and shock hazards. This is especially true of PVC-insulated telephone and computer network cables. Several techniques have been developed to deter these pests, including insulation loaded with pepper dust.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The first interior power wiring systems used conductors that were bare or covered with cloth, which were secured by staples to the framing of the building or on running boards. Where conductors went through walls, they were protected with cloth tape. Splices were done similarly to telegraph connections, and soldered for security. Underground conductors were insulated with wrappings of cloth tape soaked in pitch, and laid in wooden troughs which were then buried. Such wiring systems were unsatisfactory because of the danger of electrocution and fire, plus the high labour cost for such installations.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The first electrical codes arose in the 1880s with the commercial introduction of electrical power; however, many conflicting standards existed for the selection of wire sizes and other design rules for electrical installations, and a need was seen to introduce uniformity on the grounds of safety.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The earliest standardized method of wiring in buildings, in common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1930s, was "knob and tube" (K&T) wiring: single conductors were run through cavities between the structural members in walls and ceilings, with ceramic tubes forming protective channels through joists and ceramic knobs attached to the structural members to provide air between the wire and the lumber and to support the wires. Since air was free to circulate over the wires, smaller conductors could be used than required in cables. By arranging wires on opposite sides of building structural members, some protection was afforded against short-circuits that can be caused by driving a nail into both conductors simultaneously.


title: Electrical wiring

text: By the 1940s, the labor cost of installing two conductors rather than one cable resulted in a decline in new knob-and-tube installations. However, the US code still allows new K&T wiring installations in special situations (some rural and industrial applications).


title: Electrical wiring

text: In the United Kingdom, an early form of insulated cable, introduced in 1896, consisted of two impregnated-paper-insulated conductors in an overall lead sheath. Joints were soldered, and special fittings were used for lamp holders and switches. These cables were similar to underground telegraph and telephone cables of the time. Paper-insulated cables proved unsuitable for interior wiring installations because very careful workmanship was required on the lead sheaths to ensure moisture did not affect the insulation.


title: Electrical wiring

text: A system later invented in the UK in 1908 employed vulcanised-rubber insulated wire enclosed in a strip metal sheath. The metal sheath was bonded to each metal wiring device to ensure earthing continuity.


title: Electrical wiring

text: A system developed in Germany called "Kuhlo wire" used one, two, or three rubber-insulated wires in a brass or lead-coated iron sheet tube, with a crimped seam. The enclosure could also be used as a return conductor. Kuhlo wire could be run exposed on surfaces and painted, or embedded in plaster. Special outlet and junction boxes were made for lamps and switches, made either of porcelain or sheet steel. The crimped seam was not considered as watertight as the "Stannos" wire used in England, which had a soldered sheath.


title: Electrical wiring

text: A somewhat similar system called "concentric wiring" was introduced in the United States around 1905. In this system, an insulated electrical wire was wrapped with copper tape which was then soldered, forming the grounded (return) conductor of the wiring system. The bare metal sheath, at earth potential, was considered safe to touch. While companies such as General Electric manufactured fittings for the system and a few buildings were wired with it, it was never adopted into the US National Electrical Code. Drawbacks of the system were that special fittings were required, and that any defect in the connection of the sheath would result in the sheath becoming energised.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Armored cables with two rubber-insulated conductors in a flexible metal sheath were used as early as 1906, and were considered at the time a better method than open knob-and-tube wiring, although much more expensive.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The first rubber-insulated cables for US building wiring were introduced in 1922 with . These were two or more solid copper electrical wires with rubber insulation, plus woven cotton cloth over each conductor for protection of the insulation, with an overall woven jacket, usually impregnated with tar as a protection from moisture. Waxed paper was used as a filler and separator.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Over time, rubber-insulated cables become brittle because of exposure to atmospheric oxygen, so they must be handled with care and are usually replaced during renovations. When switches, socket outlets or light fixtures are replaced, the mere act of tightening connections may cause hardened insulation to flake off the conductors. Rubber insulation further inside the cable often is in better condition than the insulation exposed at connections, due to reduced exposure to oxygen.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The sulfur in vulcanized rubber insulation attacked bare copper wire so the conductors were tinned to prevent this. The conductors reverted to being bare when rubber ceased to be used.


title: Electrical wiring

text: About 1950, PVC insulation and jackets were introduced, especially for residential wiring. About the same time, single conductors with a thinner PVC insulation and a thin nylon jacket (e.g. US Type THN, THHN, etc.) became common.


title: Electrical wiring

text: The simplest form of cable has two insulated conductors twisted together to form a unit. Such non-jacketed cables with two (or more) conductors are used only for extra-low voltage signal and control applications such as doorbell wiring.


title: Electrical wiring

text: Metal moulding systems, with a flattened oval section consisting of a base strip and a snap-on cap channel, were more costly than open wiring or wooden moulding, but could be easily run on wall surfaces. Similar surface mounted raceway wiring systems are still available today.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 American epic satirical crime film written, directed, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub, and James Gandolfini. The film is set in 1949 and tells the story of Ed Crane, a withdrawn barber who leads an ordinary life in a small California town with his wife, who he suspects is having an affair with her boss. Crane's situation changes when a stranger comes to the barbershop and offers him the opportunity to join him as a partner in a promising new business, in exchange for an investment of ten thousand dollars. Drawn to the idea, Crane plans to blackmail his wife's lover for the money.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The film is in black-and-white and employs voiceover narration, honoring classic film noir. It differs by including classical music, setting the plot in a small town, and featuring a protagonist from outside the criminal underworld. The Coens began developing the idea from a 1940s haircut poster they saw while filming "The Hudsucker Proxy". The plot was influenced by James M. Cain's crime novels, primarily "Double Indemnity", "The Postman Always Rings Twice", and "Mildred Pierce". Aesthetically, "The Man Who Wasn't There" was inspired by films from the 1940s and 1950s—including "Shadow of a Doubt"—along with science fiction films and documentaries of the period.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Filming took place on location in California. It was shot in color, later converted to black and white. The film premiered and participated in the official selection at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the award for best director. Its theatrical response was lukewarm. However, it was well-received by film critics, who praised Roger Deakins' cinematography and the performances, especially Thornton's character. Media critics in "The Guardian", the BBC, and "The Austin Chronicle" referred to it as one of the best films of the year. The National Board of Review included it among its and awarded Thornton best actor. Deakins received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the film achieved multiple nominations and awards from other organizations.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The film is set in 1949 in the town of Santa Rosa, California. Ed Crane is married to Doris, a bookkeeper with a drinking problem, and works in a barbershop that is owned by his brother-in-law, Frank. A customer named Creighton Tolliver tells Ed that he is a businessman looking for investors to invest $10,000 in a new technology called dry cleaning. Ed decides to collect money by anonymously blackmailing Doris's boss, "Big Dave" Brewster, whom he suspects is having an affair with her. Brewster embezzles money from his department store to pay the blackmail. However, Brewster soon pieces together the scheme and beats Tolliver to death after he implicates Ed. Brewster confronts Ed at the store and attempts to kill him, but Ed fatally stabs Brewster with a cigar knife in self-defense.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: After irregularities in the store's books are found, the police arrest Doris on the assumption that she embezzled the money and murdered Brewster. Ed is persuaded to hire Freddy Riedenschneider, a defense attorney from Sacramento, who arrives and takes up residence in the most expensive hotel in town. He proceeds to live lavishly on Doris's defense fund, which Frank obtained by mortgaging the barbershop. It is all for nothing because on the morning of the trial Doris hangs herself in her cell. It is later revealed that she was pregnant when she hanged herself but had not had sex with Ed for years. Riedenschneider leaves town while Frank, deeply in debt, drinks heavily. Ed regularly visits Rachel "Birdy" Abundas, a friend's teenage daughter, to hear her play the piano. Tormented by loneliness, he imagines helping her start a musical career and becoming her manager. The fantasy is crushed when a music teacher tells him that Abundas has no talent. On the way back from visiting the teacher, Abundas makes a pass at Ed and attempts to perform oral sex on him, causing Ed to lose control of the car and crash.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Ed wakes up in a hospital bed where the police arrest him for murder. Tolliver's beaten body has been found with Ed's investment contract. The police speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and killed Tolliver when he found out. Ed mortgages his house and hires Riedenschneider for his defense. During Riedenschneider's opening statement, Frank attacks Ed, and a mistrial is declared. With no means left for his defense, Ed throws himself at the mercy of the court. The tactic fails, and the judge sentences him to death. While waiting on death row, Ed writes his story to sell to a pulp magazine. Shortly before his execution, Ed sees a UFO outside the jailhouse. As Ed is electrocuted, he reflects on his fate, regretting none of his decisions and hoping to see Doris in the afterlife, both of them free of the mortal world's imperfections.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The idea of writing a film starring a barber was inspired by a poster that the Coen brothers saw while filming "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994). "We filmed a scene in a barbershop, and there was a poster on the wall showing all the different 1940s-style haircuts," recalled Joel Coen. "It was a fixture on the set, and we were always looking at it. So we started thinking about the guy who actually did the haircuts, and the story began to take shape. It really evolved from that haircut poster." The directors took the title of the film from the 1899 poem written by William Hughes Mearns entitled "Antigonish" and they chose it in reference to the character of the barber, to reflect his emotional emptiness.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Set in 1949, the plot—according to Joel Coen—"is heavily influenced" by the work of writer James M. Cain, in particular, the novels "Double Indemnity", "The Postman Always Rings Twice", and "Mildred Pierce". story, The Coens replaced the underworld setting with a typical American town with ordinary people. "The criminal element here is sort of inadvertent. The hero sort of stumbles into it," Ethan Coen explained. This storytelling device was an homage to Cain's literary, whose stories usually featured characters with conventional jobs who, motivated by need or greed, ended up involved in a crime. Other conventions were present in "The Man Who Wasn't There", such as the plan to get money quickly, sexual misadventures, and coincidences of fate. The failure of a "perfect plan" to raise money appears in "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice", both novels narrated by down-and-out working-class men during the Great Depression.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The Coens named "Shadow of a Doubt" as a reference to the film and had in mind the science fiction genre of the 1950s. The film's aesthetics were influenced by science fiction cinema and "cheap documentaries of the '50s". Cinematographer Roger Deakins drew inspiration for his work from the 1940s and 1950s films such as "This Gun for Hire", "The Blue Dahlia", "Kiss Me Deadly", and "Touch of Evil". Likewise, "The Atlantic" Christopher Orr compared the voiceover and Crane's reserved character with the character of Robert Mitchum in the film "Out of the Past" (1947). The Coens referred to other works through characer names, as in the department store Nirdlinger or Dietrichson —surnames used in "Double Indemnity"—Riedenschneider —the surname of a character from "The Asphalt Jungle" — or the name of Tolliver's hotel, "The Hobart Arms", an homage to the novel "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: In addition to Cain's novels and film noir, the story borrowed ideas from existentialist literature, such as Albert Camus's "The Stranger". In addition to noting the similarities in both works, authors and critics compared the disconnection with reality and Ed's attitude with that of the protagonist of Camus's novel. Through his main character, "The Man Who Wasn't There" explores the existentialist view of despair, a theme reminiscent of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Authors Jean-Pierre Boulé and Enda McCaffrey compared Crane's attempt to escape from his routine life with Jean-Paul Sartre's idea of a "search for transcendence". The film represented the protagonist's relationship with the dry cleaning business, Abundas, and UFOs. Although "The Man Who Wasn't There", cataloged as postmodern, inherited film noir thematic and narrative elements, at the same time it explored concepts of the post World War II period, portraying America's early postwar years. The story was contextualized by events such as UFOs, references to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Werner Heisenberg's reflections on humanity, and the idea of succeeding in an age of opportunity. The plot alludes to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle through the character of defense attorney Riedenschneider, who refers to principle more than once.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The Coen brothers began writing the script in the mid-1990s, after filming "The Big Lebowski". The brothers moved to Ireland — where Frances McDormand was working—to continue writing. The Coens sent the script to producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan of Working Title; they intended to start production in 1999, but taking advantage of the availability of George Clooney, they dedicated themselves to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Thereafter they continued with "The Man Who Wasn't There". The project was financed independently by Working Title, who raised an approximate budget of $20 million.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The Coens wrote the characters of Doris and Frank for McDormand and Michael Badalucco, respectively. The directors grabbed Thornton, an actor with whom they had not worked before, for the title role. He accepted the role before reading the script: "I knew that it would be good. There are certain people you know you can't go wrong with." The Coens convinced Gandolfini to be the boss. Jon Polito and Tony Shalhoub, two other actors already known to the Coens, joined the cast, followed by Adam Alexi-Malle, Katherine Borowitz, Richard Jenkins, and Johansson. Jenkins initially declined the opportunity to star because he had been rejected from three previous productions of the Coens. However, the directors eventually chose him for the role. Bill Murray was considered for the role that would ultimately be Thornton's.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Filming began on June 26, 2000, in California and ended on September 1, after ten weeks. Deakins' cinematography was simple and traditional. Most of the shots were taken with the camera at eye level, with normal lenses and a long depth of field. Compared to older American film noir, Deakins used a wide range of grays and attempted to create low contrast without many strong shadows, using fewer and larger lights. He used contemporary technologies and wanted the film to reflect the era in which it was made: "we're not trying to make an old movie", said Deakins. It was filmed in 35 mm format in color and converted to black and white during post-production. This procedure was due, in part, to technical reasons since in recent decades the availability of black and white film rolls had become scarce. However, due to contractual and marketing requirements, it was released in color in some countries. "The film wasn't made to be seen in color", stated Joel Coen, mentioning that in color it would look "horribly out of place" due to grayscale neutralizing colors outside the time frame of the plot.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The set and costume design by Dennis Gassner and Mary Zophres, respectively, had to adapt to the absence of color, avoiding distracting high contrasts. Black and white also affected the actors, intensifying some elements: "Just a close-up is very striking because of the shadows and the sense of depth," said McDormand. However, the team did not lose sight of the color version and designed the locations avoiding bright colors and preferring browns and grays. Ed Crane's clothing consisted of sports jackets, gabardine and rayon shirts. Typical of those years, her stockings had no elastic at the top, and — like the extras — she used garters to hold them up. Women's clothing included seamed stockings, girdles, and pointy bras. Defense attorney Freddy Riedenschneider's peaked lapel double-breasted suit was inspired by Salvador Dalí, according to costume designer Mary Zophres: "It's a bit unusual for the time and suggests opulence."


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: To compose his character's look, Thornton looked at images of figures from that decade and borrowed some elements from Raymond Burr and Frank Sinatra. The actor commented, "once you get the right look, everything in your attitude changes". When Ed appears on screen, he is almost always seen smoking a Chesterfield. Professional barbers trained Thornton and Badalucco.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Filming began in the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail in Los Angeles to set a Santa Rosa city jail cell. Later, the team moved to East Los Angeles and then to the Musso & Frank Grill restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard, where Ed Crane meets his attorney for the first time. Filming continued in Thousand Oaks for two days to shoot the country wedding scenes. Before his scenes, Michael Badalucco had to practice on pigs for the scene where he rides one. The production then returned to Los Angeles to film in a Presbyterian church on Wilshire Boulevard and in Downtown Los Angeles, where it was filmed in an apartment complex that was used to make the hotel lobby scenes. An abandoned Bank of America located also in the center was used for the scenes where Ed goes to the bank. The Nirdlingers building, where Doris works as an accountant, was created from an abandoned furniture store located in Glendale, production designer Dennis Gassner recalled:


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: A significant portion of the filming took place over a day in the city of Orange, which was used to represent the exteriors of the town of Santa Rosa, where the majority of the film is set. Although only one day was shot in Orange, the team worked for more than two weeks setting the streets according to the year 1949: traffic signs were replaced, facades were modified and minor street repairs were made. The exterior scenes of Ed Crane's house were filmed in the Pasadena neighborhood of Bungalow Heaven, a popular and affordable location in the mid-twentieth century. The Coens chose the house with the lower ceiling to achieve the impression of a smaller space and thus represent the economic situation of the barber. The scenes in the piano teacher's room were also shot in Pasadena, exactly in the Green Hotel building complex. Locations were used to film almost the entire film except for a few scenes, such as the barbershop scenes—the last ones before the end of filming—on a set built by Gassner at Paramount Studios.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The film's soundtrack consists of classical music, primarily piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, interspersed with seven new compositions by Carter Burwell. In addition to Beethoven, the soundtrack included a Mozart composition, "Sull'aria ... che soave zeffiretto". The inclusion of classical music is a resource that distinguishes the film from others in the noir genre. Music editor Todd Kasow was tasked with selecting suitable sonatas for the soundtrack while Burwell began work on a "pianocentric" composition. Some of the compositions feature "cyclical" structures that symbolize the situation the protagonist finds himself in and his difficulty in freeing himself from it, but at the same time, the Coens felt it was essential to the character that the music suggests "a vague longing". Journalist Dan Goldwasser described Burwell's work as "dark and solemn" and wrote that the main composition, "The Trial of Ed Crane", has "a kind of romanticism with just a hint of hope". "The Man Who Wasn't There" was the ninth film on which Burwell collaborated with the Coen brothers. The Decca Records label released the soundtrack album on October 30, 2001.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2001. After Cannes, the film reached other European film festivals that year such as Edinburgh, Flanders, Warsaw, and Vienna. The distributor USA Films was in charge of its release in the United States, although its screening was limited to select theaters. On October 31, 2001, it premiered in Los Angeles and New York. It was the first Coen film to be released in black and white, something the directors had tried unsuccessfully with "Blood Simple" (1984) and "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994) in the face of the advantages of color distribution.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The first home edition was available on DVD released by USA Home Entertainment in 2002. DVD extras included commentary by the Coen brothers and Thornton, a sixteen-minute making-of, an interview with Deakins, five deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and promotional videos. The Coens and Thornton share behind-the-scenes anecdotes, including the story about the haircut poster that inspired the idea for the film. In an in-depth interview with Deakins, the cinematographer discusses the pros and cons of shooting in black and white, his aesthetic influences, and his experience working with the Coens. Reviewing the DVD, the site DVD Talk wrote that the black-and-white photography "is brilliantly captured, evoking film-noir history while remaining immaculately clean. The blacks are deep and solid, giving the image an enchanted look." In September 2002, a three-disc DVD edition was released in France: the first with the film in black and white, the second with the color version, and the last with the extras, which as a novelty included a documentary of almost fifty minutes entitled "The Film Noir Universe". In 2015 Universal Home Video released a regular version on Blu-ray.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: "The Man Who Wasn't There" grossed $7.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.9 million against its $20 million budget. The film was the Coen Brothers' worst-performing film at the box office since "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994). Some authors speculated that the result of this failure was due, in part, to the lack of enthusiasm of the mass public towards black and white film. In its opening weekend in the United States, it grossed $664,404 from thirty-nine theaters.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Many critics praised the film for both its technique and its performances. Richard Schickel of Time wrote: "The ability to show no emotion isn't a highly prized quality in movie leads, but Thornton, that splendid actor, does it perfectly as Ed Crane, a taciturn small-town barber, circa 1949". Other critics also praised Thornton's leading role, such as Emanuel Levy, who opined that Thornton "beautifully absolves himself in a challenging role that demands more reaction than action" and added, "he comes across as a tormented Montgomery Clift". Variety magazine wrote that the film's protagonist "sets new standards of opacity and passivity".


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader noted that "Joel and Ethan Coen stay true to their penchant for bumbling, neo-noir heroes, and their firm belief that life normally turns out lavishly horrific." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented, "The film is effective and confident in its style, so loving and so intense that if you see it often, it will be like a party." In the same way, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the best films of the year and expressed that it is "devilishly funny" and highlighted the photography and performances. Travers included "The Man Who Wasn't There" at number eight on his list of the ten best indie films of 2001. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated, "It's the best American film of the year" and Philip French, in another review for The Guardian, also claimed that it was the best film of the year up to that point. Likewise, Marc Savlov of Austin Chronicle announced that it was "the most beautiful film of the year" and added that "Billy Bob Thornton's performance represents a dazzling rough diamond". The BBC Critic Nev Pierce also described it as "one of the best films of the year" and added about its viewing that it was "a unique, peculiar, captivating experience."


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Deakins's black-and-white photography was singled out by several critics. The Chicago Reader compared the photograph to Federico Fellini's 8½ 8 and reviewer Matthew Turner of View London commented that black and white "hasn't looked this splendid since the 1940s". Despite writing a lukewarm review, Variety's Todd McCarthy praised Deakins' work, Dennis Gassner's sets, and Mary Zophres' costumes to create a "superior representation of the post-war period in a small town". Concerning the rural setting, the historian José María Caparrós pointed out: "Few times has American cinema appeared in such a subtle and forceful way to testify the deep existential emptiness and the mediocrity of deep America". The film did not convince Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun, who said: ""The Man Who Wasn't There" is an intellectualized, stylized, completely empty period production. Despite its lavish, claustrophobically controlled black-and-white look, it packs the punch of a toy gun." Similarly, David Denby of ‘’The New Yorker’’ called it a “dud academic exercise”.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: After its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Joel Coen took home Best Director No. 3 and shared the award with David Lynch for Mulholland Drive. The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest honor, but Nanni Moretti's Son's Room won the prize. The film was part of the selection of the ten best of the year by the National Board of Review.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: The film was nominated for a statuette at the 74th Academy Awards in the category of Best Cinematography (Deakins), although the award ultimately went to Andrew Lesnie for "". Also, the film received three nominations for the Golden Globe Awards in the categories of best dramatic film, best screenplay, and best dramatic actor (Thornton), but failed to win any.


title: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)

text: Deakins won the Best Cinematography award at the BAFTA Awards. Additionally, Deakins received multiple accolades from other organizations, including the American Society of Cinematographers, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Online, the Society Film Critics Online, and the Satellite Awards, among others.


title: Tom Alter

text: Thomas Beach Alter (22 June 1950 – 29 September 2017) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.


title: Tom Alter

text: Born in Mussoorie in present-day Uttarakhand, Alter was the son of American Presbyterian missionaries of English, Scottish and Swiss German ancestry and lived for years in Mumbai and the Himalayan hill station of Landour. His grandparents migrated to Madras, India from Ohio, U.S., in November 1916. From there, they moved to and settled in Lahore, in present-day Pakistan. His father was born in Sialkot. After the Partition of India, Alter's family too split into two; his grandparents chose to stay in Pakistan while his parents moved to India. After living in Allahabad (now Prayagraj), Jabalpur and Saharanpur, in 1954 they finally settled in Rajpur, Uttarakhand, then a small town located between Dehradun and Mussoorie; Rajpur is now considered a suburb of Dehradun. Alter's siblings are older sister Martha Chen, who teaches at Harvard University and brother John, a poet. Author Stephen Alter is a first cousin.


title: Tom Alter

text: As a child, Alter studied Hindi among other subjects in Mussoorie. Consequently, he came to be occasionally referred to as the "Blue-eyed saheb with impeccable Hindi." He was educated in Mussoorie's Woodstock School. At 18, Alter left for the U.S. for higher education and studied at Yale University for a year before returning to India upon losing interest in studies. The following year, he obtained work as a teacher at St. Thomas School, Jagadhri, in Haryana. He worked there for six months, simultaneously coaching his students in cricket. Over the next two and a half years, Alter worked several jobs, teaching for a while at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, and working at a hospital in the U.S., and returning to India before continuing to work at Jagadhri. At Jagadhri, he began to watch Hindi films. It was during this time that he saw the Hindi film "Aradhana", which proved to be a turning point in his career and drifted towards a career in acting, inspired by the lead actor Rajesh Khanna. He headed to Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, where he studied acting from 1972 to 1974 under Roshan Taneja. In a 2017 interview, he recalled, "I came to Mumbai to become Rajesh Khanna; didn't come to act on stage."


title: Tom Alter

text: After graduating from FTII, Alter headed straight to Mumbai (Formerly called as Bombay) and soon got his first break in the Dev Anand starrer "Saheb Bahadur" (1977), directed by Chetan Anand. However, his first release was Ramanand Sagar's "Charas". This was followed by roles in "Des Pardes", "Ram Bharose", "Hum Kisise Kum Nahin" and "Parvarish". He dubbed for actor Jeevan for the innocent person of the twin roles played by Jeevan in the film "Amar Akbar Anthony".


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter was fluent in Hindi and Urdu, and was knowledgeable about Indian culture. He could also read Urdu and was fond of Shayari. He worked for noted filmmakers like Satyajit Ray in "Shatranj Ke Khilari" and is remembered for his role as a British officer in "Kranti". He got the opportunity to act with his idol Rajesh Khanna in the film "Naukri", directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1978 and later in Chetan Anand's Kudrat. In "Sardar", the 1993 film biography of Indian leader Sardar Patel, which focused on the events surrounding the partition and independence of India, Alter portrayed Lord Mountbatten of Burma. He also acted in the Hollywood movie "One Night with the King" with Peter O'Toole.


title: Tom Alter

text: In 1996 he appeared in the Assamese film "Adajya", and in 2007 acted in William Dalrymple's "City of Djinns" alongside Zohra Sehgal and Manish Joshi Bismil. He also appeared in the solo play "Maulana" and the film "Ocean of An Old Man".


title: Tom Alter

text: In April 2011 he acted in a short film "Yours, Maria" directed by Chirag Vadgama, playing the lead role of Matthew Chacha in the movie.


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter lent his voice for the authorized audio autobiography of Dr. Verghese Kurien, titled "The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance", which was released in 2012.


title: Tom Alter

text: Some of his most famous movie roles have been as Musa in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's acclaimed crime drama "Parinda", Mahesh Bhatt's blockbuster romance "Aashiqui", and Ketan Mehta's "Sardar", in which Alter essayed the role of Lord Mountbatten.


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter appeared in much Indian television series, including "Samvidhaan", all of which were praised by the audience for his acting. In "Zabaan Sambhalke" he played the role of a British writer, Charles Spencers, who lives in India and wants to learn the Hindi language. He acted in the TV series "Khamosh Sa Afsana" (as a Husain Baba), telecast on Doordarshan in 2014–15. In November 2014, he played Sahir Ludhianvi in a stage production based on the life and work of the famous Urdu poet and film lyricist. He also played a schoolteacher in "Yahan Ke Hum Sikandar". Alter has worked as the red robe guru in Mukesh Khanna's TV production "Shaktimaan" (1998–2002). Also, he appeared in Contiloe & Cinevistaas show "Ssshhhh...Koi Hai" in 2002-03. He played Indian characters in Indian television series, such as the long-running "Junoon", in which he was the sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi. He anchored "Adabi Cocktail" in 2000 telecast on Urdu Television Network and interviewed Johny Walker, Naushad, TunTun, Hasan Kamaal, Adnan Sami, Jagdeep, Naqsh layalpuri and many more.


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter was also a stage actor. In 1977, he, Naseeruddin Shah, and Benjamin Gilani formed a theatre group called Motley Productions. Their first play was Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot", which was staged at Prithvi Theatre, Bombay, on 29 July 1979. He went on to appear in many other plays at the theatre, including an adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's "My Grandad Had an Elephant" which was performed on 7 June 2011. He has also worked with the New Delhi theatre group Pierrot's Troupe.


title: Tom Alter

text: In the early 2000s, he played the Indian independence activist Maulana Azad in a one-man Urdu-language play.


title: Tom Alter

text: He was the lead actor in "Once Upon A Time", a collection of five short stories presented as vignettes, directed by Sujata Soni Bali and co-starring prominent stage actor and TV personality Sunit Tandon. The production was last staged in Mumbai on 17 June 2017.


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter has written books including "The Longest Race", "Rerun at Rialto", and "The Best in the World". He was also a sports journalist with a special interest in cricket, a game on which he has written extensively in publications such as "Sportsweek", "Outlook", "Cricket Talk", "Sunday Observer", "Firstpost", "Citizen", and "Debonair". He played cricket for a film industry team MCC (Match Cut Club), which includes Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah, Vishal Bhardwaj, Aamir Khan, Nana Patekar, Bhupinder Singh and Amarinder Sangha. He also wrote on cricket in Indian publications. In 1996, he was invited by friend Siraj Syed to Singapore, to do cricket commentary in Hindi, for Indian viewers, on the sports TV channel, ESPN.


title: Tom Alter

text: In addition to acting, Alter also ventured into a direction - he directed a one-shot episode for the short-lived series "Yule Love Stories" in the mid-1990s - and was a sports journalist in the late 1980s to early 1990s. He has written three books: one non-fiction, and two fiction. Before his sudden death, Alter had just announced his inaugural feature film as a director called Rerun at Rialto, which was based on the book written by him.


title: Tom Alter

text: Alter married Carol Evans, a fellow Woodstock School student, in 1977. The marriage produced two children: son Jamie and daughter Afshaan. Jamie has worked as a cricket writer for "ESPNcricinfo" and "CricBuzz", and was also the sports editor of "The Times of India". As a cricket enthusiast himself, Tom wrote columns for newspapers and journals for over ten years. He also worked as a journalist during the time and was the first to video interview Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in 1988.


title: Tom Alter

text: In September 2017, Alter was diagnosed with stage IV skin cancer (squamous cell carcinoma). His thumb had been amputated a year earlier because of the condition. He died on 29 September at his residence in Mumbai. A statement released on behalf of his family read: "It is with sadness we announce the death of our beloved Tom Alter, actor, writer, director, Padma Shri, and our dear husband and father. Tom passed away Friday night at home with his family and close family members in attendance."


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina in the 1870s. The city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883. They and European immigrants also came because of land development opportunities with farming, citrus, cattle and phosphate industry developing. Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The first Paleo-Indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south. As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Native Americans ended up staying and thrived on the peninsula for thousands of years. By the time the first Spanish conquistadors arrived, an estimated 350,000 Native Americans were living in what is now the state of Florida. Some of these first early tribes were the Tocobago, Timucua, and Calusa.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 1527, a Spanish map showed a settlement near the Rio de la Paz. The arrival of the Spanish turned out to be disastrous to these Native American tribes. Within 150 years, the majority of the pre-Columbian Native American peoples of Florida had been wiped out. Those who had not succumbed to diseases such as smallpox or yellow fever were either killed or enslaved. Little is left of these first Native Americans cultures in Polk County except for scant archaeological records, including a few personal artifacts and shell mounds. Eventually, the remnants of these tribes merged with the Creek Indians who had arrived from the north and became the Seminole Indian tribe.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In the 18th century Native Americans groups, collectively called "Seminoles", moved into the areas left vacant. In 1823 the United States and the various tribes in Florida signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, which created a reservation in central Florida that included what is now Polk County. Starting in 1832 the United States government tried to move the Seminoles in Florida west to the Indian Territory. Most of the Seminoles resisted, resulting in the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842. By the end of that war, most of the Seminoles had been sent west, with a few remnants pushed well south of what is now Polk County.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Florida became a state in 1845, and Polk County was established in 1861. After the American Civil War, the county seat was established southeast of Lakeland in Bartow. While most of Polk County's early history centered on the two cities of Bartow and Fort Meade, eventually, people entered the areas in northern Polk County and began settling in the areas which became Lakeland.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland was first settled in the 1870s and began to develop as the rail lines reached the area in 1884. Freedmen settled here in 1883, starting development of what became the African-American neighborhood of Moorehead. Lakeland was incorporated January 1, 1885. The town was founded by Abraham Munn (a resident of Louisville, Kentucky), who purchased of land in what is now downtown Lakeland in 1882 and platted the land for the town in 1884. Lakeland was named for the many lakes near the town site.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In April 1898, the Spanish–American War began and started a crucial point in Lakeland's development. While the war ended quickly and had little effect on most of the nation, the Florida peninsula was used as a launching point for military forces in the war. The then small town of Lakeland housed over 9,000 troops. The 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments, were housed on the banks of Lake Wire. Soon after being stationed there, the black troops faced conflict with the local white population. In one event, a local druggist refused to sell to black soldiers and an argument ensued which eventually escalated to the point where the druggist brandished a pistol. The soldiers shot the druggist before he could fire, which resulted in two of the troops being arrested.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The Florida boom resulted in the construction of many significant structures in Lakeland, a number of which are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This list includes the Terrace Hotel, New Florida Hotel (Regency Tower, currently Lake Mirror Tower), Polk Theatre, Frances Langford Promenade, Polk Museum of Art (not a product of the 1920s boom), Park Trammell Building (formerly the Lakeland Public Library and today the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce), and others. The city also has several historic districts that have many large buildings built during the 1920s and 1940s. The Cleveland Indians held spring training there from 1923 to 1927 at Henley Field Ball Park. Parks were developed surrounding Lake Mirror, including Barnett Children's Park, Hollis Gardens, and the newest, Allen Kryger Park.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The "boom" period went "bust" quickly, and years passed before the city recovered. Part of the re-emergence was due to the arrival of the Detroit Tigers baseball team in 1934 for spring training. The Tigers still train at Lakeland's Joker Marchant Stadium and own the city's Class A Florida State League team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers. In the mid-1930s, the Works Progress Administration built the Lakeland Municipal Airport.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 1938, Florida Southern College President Ludd Spivey invited architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a "great education temple in Florida." Wright worked on the project for over 20 years as Spivey found ways to fund it and find construction workers during World War II. Wright's original plan called for 18 structures; in total he designed 30, but only 12 were completed. Wright's textile block motif is used extensively on the campus. The concrete blocks he used are in need of restoration.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Wright titled the project "Child of the Sun", describing his Florida Southern buildings as being "out of the ground, into the light, a child of the sun." It is the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world, and attracts 30,000 visitors each year. In 1975, the "Florida Southern Architectural District" was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2012, Wright's campus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: At the beginning of World War II, the Lakeland School of Aeronautics—headquartered at the recently built Lakeland Municipal Airport—became part of a nationwide network of civilian flight schools enjoined for the war effort by the United States Army Air Corps.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Between 1940 and 1945, more than 8,000 Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces cadets trained on two-seater Stearman PT-17 and PT-13 biplanes at the school (renamed the Lodwick School of Aeronautics in the midst of this period).


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: From June 1941 until October 1942, 1,327 British Royal Air Force cadets trained at the Lakeland facility. The Lodwick School of Aeronautics closed in 1945. The airport ceased flight operations in the 1960; the site has since then housed the Detroit Tigers' "Tiger Town" baseball complex.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and (10.90%) is covered by water. Lakeland is within the Central Florida Highlands area of the Atlantic coastal plain, with a terrain consisting of flatland interspersed with gently rolling hills.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The dominant feature in Lakeland is the city's many lakes. Thirty-eight lakes are named, with a number of other bodies of water unnamed, mostly phosphate mine pits that eventually filled with water. The largest of these is Lake Parker, which is in size. Much of the culture of Lakeland revolves around its many lakes, and many people use the lakes as reference points in much the same way people in other towns use streets as reference points, such as "I live near Lake Beulah." In addition to Lake Parker, some of the more prominent lakes in the Lakeland area are Lake Hollingsworth, Lake Morton, Lake Mirror, and Lake Gibson.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Swans are one of the most visible features on the lakes near downtown Lakeland. They have a long history, the first swans appearing around 1923. By 1954, the swans were gone, eradicated by alligators and pets. A Lakeland resident who mourned the passing of the swans wrote to Queen Elizabeth. The royal family allowed the capture of two of the royal swans, and the swans now on the lakes of Lakeland are the descendants of the one surviving royal swan sent by the Queen.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In July 2006, Scott Lake, one of the city's lakes, was almost totally drained by a cluster of sinkholes. Later the lake partially refilled.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland, like most other parts of Florida north of Lake Okeechobee, is in the humid subtropical zone (Köppen climate classification: "Cfa"). Typically, summers are hot and humid with high temperatures seldom dropping below 90 °F and 70 °F for the overnight low. Like most of Central Florida, afternoon thunderstorms are the norm throughout the summer. Winters in Lakeland are drier and warm, with frequent sunny skies. High temperatures range in the mid 70s during the day, with lows in the 50s. Cold snaps drop temperatures below freezing twice a year on average.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: As of 2010, 48,218 households were in the city, with 15.5% being vacant. As of 2000, 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39% were individuals and nontraditional families. About 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.82.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: As of the 2010 census, the city was 20.9% Black or African American, 70.8% White, 0.3% Native American, 1.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian, and 2.7% were two or more races. Of the population 12.6% were of Hispanic or Latino ancestry.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 2000, the city the population was spread out, with 21.4% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 23.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.1 males.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $16,119, and for a family was $17,468. Males had a median income of $14,137 versus $9,771 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,760. About 47% of families and 35% of the population were below the poverty line, including 97% of those under age 18 and 9% of those age 65 or over. In 2008–2012, the per capita income was $23,817 and the median household income was $40,284. Persons below the poverty line in 2008–2012 were 17.5% according to the US Census.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: As of 2000, those who spoke only English at home accounted for 91% of all residents, while 9% spoke other languages at home. The most significant were Spanish speakers who made up 6.4% of the population, while German came up as the third-most spoken language, which made up 0.8%, and French was fourth, with 0.5% of the population.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 1913, the Wolfson family arrived from Lithuania and became the first Jewish settlers to the area. After some struggles, the Jewish community in Lakeland flourished and the first synagogue, Temple Emanuel opened in 1932.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute presents classes and seminars in Lakewood in partnership with Chabad of Lakeland.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 1994, the first and only mosque in the county was established. It was called Masjid Aisha, but is now called the Islamic Center of Lakeland.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Christianity makes up the largest religious group in Lakeland. As of 2013, an estimated 300 churches existed with an address in the city.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland is the largest city on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa. Large industries in the Lakeland area are citrus, cattle, and phosphate mining. In the past few decades, tourism, medicine, insurance, transportation, and music have grown in importance.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Citrus growing dates back to the early settlers who planted trees in the area in the 1850s. After a series of freezes in counties north of Polk County, the area became the focal point for citrus growing in Florida. Although citrus is no longer the largest industry in the area, it still plays a large part in the economy of Lakeland and Polk County.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Phosphate mining is still important to the economy of Lakeland, although most of the mining now takes place farther south. The Bone Valley produced 25% of the U.S. phosphate supply.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland's largest employer is Publix Supermarkets. Publix is one of the largest regional grocery chains in the United States with over 1,200 stores across the American South. Publix employs over 6,500 people in the Lakeland area including headquarter and warehouse employees.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland is a transportation hub. FedEx Freight and FedEx Services and the Saddle Creek Corporation employ over 600 people in the area. Other large employers in the area include Amazon, GEICO, Rooms To Go, and Lakeland Regional Health.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The Lakeland History Room is a special collections archive established in 1987 housed within the Lakeland Public Library's main branch. The Lakeland History Room maintains the City's collection of historical materials as well as other locally relevant collections composed of documents, photographs, maps, building plans, audio/visual media, scrapbooks, specialty items like citrus crate labels, artwork, yearbooks, posters, and postcards. The LHR maintains a large digital collection with over 7,000 images of the city of Lakeland, its landmarks, significant historical moments, cultural institutions, and prominent citizens. The LHR provides one-on-one assistance with historic research, a history lecture series with prominent local historians, a DIY Digitizing Lab for personal material preservation, and genealogical programs and resources.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 2019, an initiative led by Lakeland City Commissioner Phillip Walker, was first presented to the City Commission to create the City's first History and Culture Center. The project was unanimously approved by the Commission and funds were allocated for the project's construction; although, the exhibit's content design would be funded by local donations and grant funding. An advisory committee made up of educators, city officials, local business owners, and civic and community leaders, led by former Mayor Gow Fields, was established to organize and advise the City in the design, content, and construction of the exhibit. The Lakeland Public Library was eventually chosen as the location of the future exhibit space due to its central location within the city, its status as a community hub, and because it was the current home of the city's local archive, the Lakeland History Room, which would be expanded into the Lakeland History and Culture Center. Construction on the project is currently underway and it is unknown when the project will be completed.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Joker Marchant Stadium, north of downtown, hosts spring training for the Detroit Tigers, as well as their Lakeland Flying Tigers class-A Florida State League and GCL Tigers rookie-league Gulf Coast League minor league baseball teams.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: RP Funding Center is also home to two indoor sports teams. The Lakeland Magic is a basketball team playing in the NBA G League and is an affiliate of the Orlando Magic. The Florida Tropics SC is an indoor soccer team playing in the Major Arena Soccer League. The Tropics organization also operates an outdoor team, the Lakeland Tropics, which competes in the Premier Development League. The Florida Tarpons were an indoor football team playing in the American Arena League for one season after relocating from Estero, Florida.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In the 1980s, the Lakeland Center briefly played host to the indoor version of the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team. The Lakeland Center has also hosted a few hockey teams, the Lakeland Ice Warriors, the Lakeland Prowlers, and the Lakeland Loggerheads. The United States Basketball League once had a team here as well called the Lakeland Blue Ducks. Sun 'n Fun was home to Lakeland's only roller derby league, the Lakeland Derby Dames; however, the team was dissolved in November 2015.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The Lakeland Center also hosts the Florida High School Athletic Association's state basketball finals.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland is governed by a six-member city council. Four members are elected from single-member districts; the other two are elected at-large, requiring them to gain a majority of the votes. The mayor is elected.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The City of Lakeland was incorporated on January 1, 1885. The mayor is one of seven members of the City Commission, acting as the board chair and performing mostly ceremonial and procedural duties beyond the powers of the other six. Prior to 1988, the City Commission selected Lakeland's mayor from among its members. Mayors can be on the board for up to 12 years in a lifetime, or 16 years in combination with holding a regular commission position. Lakeland's first mayor was J.W. Trammell.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The 1970 municipal election placed the first African-American on the City Commission, Dr. John S. Jackson. In 1972, he became the first black mayor for the city.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: On September 28, 2006, Polk County Sheriff's Deputy Vernon "Matt" Williams and his K-9 partner Diogi were shot and killed after a routine traffic stop in the Wabash area of Lakeland. More than 500 police officers from a variety of law enforcement agencies joined in a search for Angilo Freeland, suspected of murdering Williams and stealing his gun. Freeland was found hiding in a rural area the next morning. Nine officers from five different law enforcement agencies surrounded Freeland and shot him when he raised Williams' stolen gun at them. A total of 110 shots were fired, and Freeland was hit 68 times, killing him instantly. Multiple investigations concluded the officers' use of force was justified. Deputy Williams and Diogi were laid to rest on October 3, 2006, after a funeral that included a one-hour-and-45-minute procession to Auburndale.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 2021, the Lakeland Police Department hired numerous former NYPD officers. Two of the new hires failed to disclose that they had been disciplined by the NYPD, and one new hire used to work in the NYPD's notorious anti-crime units which were disbanded after high-profile scandals.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: The 28 elementary schools, seven middle schools, six traditional high schools, and three magnet-choice high schools in the Lakeland area are run by the Polk County School Board.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: A number of opportunities exist for higher education around the Lakeland area. Southeastern University is the largest university in the area, with undergraduate enrollment around 6200. Southeastern is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Florida Southern College, established in 1883 and with a current undergraduate enrollment of just over 2600, is on Lake Hollingsworth. Florida Southern is the home of the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. In July 2008, the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus was granted partial autonomy by Governor Charlie Crist and became Florida Polytechnic University. Florida Polytechnic (FLPoly) is just inside the Lakeland's northeast border at the intersection of I-4 and Polk Parkway. They also have some administrative offices on the campus of Polk State College on Winter Lake Road. FLPoly is focused on STEM degree programs, such as engineering and computer science. Both Everest University and Keiser University, two multisite, accredited universities, have locations in Lakeland. Traviss Career Center is a vocational school. Webster University offers on-site, regionally accredited graduate degree programs in business and counseling at their Lakeland Metropolitan Campus


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Polk County is within the Tampa Bay television market. Charter Spectrum is the cable television franchise serving Lakeland, which offers most television stations from the Tampa Bay market, as well as WFTV, the ABC affiliate from Orlando. WMOR-TV, an independent television station, is licensed to Lakeland, with its studios in Tampa and its transmitter in Riverview.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: WLLD 94.1 FM is licensed to Lakeland, but has wider focus on the Tampa Bay area, with studios in St. Petersburg. WKES 91.1 FM is also licensed to Lakeland as part of the statewide Moody Radio Florida network, with studios in Seminole, near St. Petersburg. Most major stations from Tampa Bay and a few from Orlando are also available.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Print media include "The Ledger", a local newspaper owned by Gannett. Patterson Jacobs Media Group publishes a magazine, "The Lakelander".


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Because Lakeland is the largest city on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando, the city is an important transportation hub. The county nickname, Imperial Polk County, was coined because a large bond issue in 1914 enabled wide roads between the cities of Polk County.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In recent years, the Lakeland area has developed a number of paved, multi-use bicycle routes including the Lake-To-Lakes Trail, which runs from Lake Parker through downtown, past several lakes, ending at Lake John. Other routes include University Trail, which connects Polk State College to Florida Polytechnic University, and the Fort Fraser Trail, which runs along US Highway 98 from Polk State College to Highway 60 in Bartow.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Water and wastewater in the Lakeland area is managed by Lakeland Water Utilities, municipal water supply is treated at local water plants, T.B. Williams and C. Wayne Combee. The water is mainly supplied by wells that draw from the Floridan aquifer. Power is generated by a nonprofit public power utility, Lakeland Electric.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland Electric powers the city of Lakeland by two power plants, C.D. McIntosh Power Plant, coal-natural gas combined cycle plant slated to phase out in 2024, and Larsen Memorial.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: Lakeland Sister Cities International (LSCI), a chapter of Sister Cities International, was formed in 1990 with Lakeland's first sister city Richmond Hill, Canada.


title: Lakeland, Florida

text: In 1990, Lakeland made its Hollywood debut when the Southgate Shopping Center was featured in the movie "Edward Scissorhands". It was also used in the filming of the Judd Nelson movie "Endure". Classrooms from Florida Southern College were used in the Adam Sandler comedy, "The Waterboy". The Lakeland civic center also was the filming location for music video for Little Red Corvette by Prince (musician)


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration.


title: Longest words

text: Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Words consisting of hundreds, or even thousands of characters have been coined. Even non-agglutinative languages may allow word formation of theoretically limitless length in certain contexts. An example common to many languages is the term for a very remote ancestor, "great-great-...-grandfather", where the prefix "great-" may be repeated any number of times. The examples of "longest words" within the "Agglutinative languages" section may be nowhere near close to the longest possible word in said language, but is instead a popular example of a text-heavy word.


title: Longest words

text: Systematic names of chemical compounds can run to hundreds of thousands of characters in length. The rules of creation of such names are commonly defined by international bodies, therefore they formally belong to many languages. The longest recognized systematic name is for the protein titin, at 189,819 letters. While lexicographers regard generic names of chemical compounds as "verbal formulae" rather than words, for its sheer length the systematic name for titin is often included in longest-word lists.


title: Longest words

text: Longest word candidates may be judged by their acceptance in major dictionaries such as the "Oxford English Dictionary" or in record-keeping publications like "Guinness World Records", and by the frequency of their use in ordinary language.


title: Longest words

text: The longest Basque toponym is (40) which means "The lower field of the sheepfold (located in) the hight of Azpilicueta".


title: Longest words

text: Since Esperanto allows word compounding, there are no limits on how long a word can theoretically become. An example is the 39-letter , meaning "Orange County gun control activist hater". Such clusters are not considered good style (the 8-word alternative is more standard), but they are permissible under the rules of Esperanto grammar. Hyphens are optional in Esperanto compounds, so is also technically a valid spelling.


title: Longest words

text: The longest Esperanto roots officially recognized by the Akademio de Esperanto are 13 letters long, shown here with the added substantive "-o" ending:


title: Longest words

text: The longest word found in the dictionary Plena Ilustrita Vortaro as of its 2020 edition is the 24-letter proper noun (the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), followed by the 21-letter word (rations administration).


title: Longest words

text: As of March 2022 the longest word found in the Tekstaro de Esperanto text corpus is the 66-letter word , meaning "first-volapukist-then-esperantist-then-idist-then-again-esperantist", which was used in a review published in Monato in 1997 to describe František Lorenz. However, this word does not follow normal Esperanto word formation rules. Other long words found in Tekstaro de Esperanto that do follow regular word formation include:


title: Longest words

text: Examples of long words that have been in everyday use in the Finnish language are which means "three-phase kilowatt hour meter" (31 letters), ("mobilization inspection round", 33 letters), ("a public utility of a municipal federation for provision of basic services", 34 letters), and "airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student" (61 letters), an actual military term, although one which has been deprecated. The longest military term in current use is "counter-artillery targeting radar systems engineer specialist officer" with 71 characters, with 2 more if grammatically incorrect extra hyphens added for readability are counted. If conjugated forms are allowed, even longer real words can be made. Allowing derivatives and clitics allows the already lengthy word to grow even longer, although the usability of the word starts to degrade. Because Finnish uses free forming of composite words, new words can even be formed during a conversation. One can add nouns after each other without breaking grammar rules.


title: Longest words

text: If one allows artificial constructs as well as using clitics and conjugated forms, one can create even longer words: such as (102 letters), which was created by Artturi Kannisto.


title: Longest words

text: The longest non-compound (a single stem with prefixes and suffixes) Finnish word recognised by the Guinness Book of Records is (see also Agglutination#Extremes), based on the stem (reason, sanity), and it means: "I wonder if – even with his/her quality of not having been made unsystematized".


title: Longest words

text: , with 67 letters is the longest word in the Hungarian language and approximately means "you could defragmentation defragmenting impenetrability defragmentation". It is already morphed, since Hungarian is an agglutinative language.


title: Longest words

text: The Hungarian language has many causes for writing words together, but there are a few rules for avoiding undisciplined length, resulting in unreadability.


title: Longest words

text: Words with less than six syllables can be written in one. Agglutinated words have to be separated by one dash, if they are more than six syllables altogether. If there are more than two words that are already written with a dash and we want to add some more, we have to use a new dash to add it (like , meaning "Vitamin C rationing"). If there would be two long words to be written, they are advised to be used separately (possible: meaning "peace agreement plan elaboration", but advised rather meaning "the elaboration of the plan of the peace agreement").


title: Longest words

text: The longest dictionary form word is the word , with 21 characters (although it ultimately derives from the word meaning: "saint" or "sacred"), and it means "desecrated" or "profaned".


title: Longest words

text: There is some disagreement about what is the longest word in the Korean language, which arises from misunderstanding of the Korean language.


title: Longest words

text: The longest word appearing in the "Standard Korean Dictionary" published by the National Institute of the Korean Language is (); Revised Romanization: , which is a kind of ceramic bowl from the Goryeo dynasty; that word is 17 syllable blocks long, and contains a total of 46 hangul letters. However, to call this a word would be incorrect. It simply consists of many words which act as adjectives for the one word 대접.


title: Longest words

text: The word (), a phonetic transcription of "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide", has a larger number of syllable blocks (19) but a smaller number of letters (41), but does not qualify as a single word due to the spaces.


title: Longest words

text: In proper nouns, many Korean monarchs have long posthumous names built from many different Sino-Korean nouns describing their positive characteristics, for example Sunjo of Joseon, whose full posthumous name is the 77-syllable-block (). This is simply writing the phrase in Hanja (Hanzi) 純祖先覺淵德顯道景仁純禧體聖凝命欽光錫慶繼天配極隆元敦休懿行昭倫熙化峻烈大中至正洪勳哲謨乾始泰亨昌運弘基高明博厚剛健粹精啓統垂曆建功裕範文安武靖英敬成孝肅皇帝, being transliterate in Hangul. It is not a single word and does not qualify as a lexical entry.


title: Longest words

text: A popular example of the longest suffixed word in Mongolian is "" () which is 26 letters long. Here is a table showing, with translations, which suffixes are added.


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in the Ojibwe language is (66 letters), meaning "blueberry pie". This literally translates to "blueberry cooked to jellied preserve that lies in layers in which the face is covered in bread".


title: Longest words

text: The longest published word in the language is , with 59 letters. This compound word means "to keep making up a lie that causes the most extreme anger while pretending you are not."


title: Longest words

text: , at 70 letters, has been cited as the longest Turkish word. It was used in a contrived story designed to use this word. The word means "As if you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones" and its usage was illustrated as follows:


title: Longest words

text: We are in a teachers' training school that has evil purposes. The teachers who are being educated in that school are being taught how to make unsuccessful ones from students. So, one by one, teachers are being educated as makers of unsuccessful ones. However, one of those teachers refuses to be maker of unsuccessful ones, in other words, to be made a maker of unsuccessful ones; he talks about and criticizes the school's stand on the issue. The headmaster who thinks every teacher can be made easily/quickly into a maker of unsuccessful ones gets angry. He invites the teacher to his room and says "You are talking as if you were one of those we can not easily/quickly turn into a maker of unsuccessful ones, huh?"


title: Longest words

text: Afrikaans, as it is a daughter language of the Dutch language, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length in the same way as in the Dutch language. According to the Total Book of South African Records, the longest word in the language is


title: Longest words

text: The Bulgarian online etymological dictionary claims that longest word in Bulgarian to be the 39-letter-long (), introduced in the Constitution of Bulgaria of 1947 (Dimitrov Constitution). The word means "do not perform actions against the constitution" (addressed to more than one person).


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in Catalan is considered to be , an adverb meaning "[done in a way that is] against the constitution", however, the scientific word , related to endocrinology, has been proposed by the University of Barcelona to be the true longest word.


title: Longest words

text: The longest known word in Croatian is , meaning "to those who belong to the throne successor's little wife." The 31-letter word is the dative case of "the throne successor's little wife" which is the diminutive of "the throne successor's wife."


title: Longest words

text: Traditionally, the word ("of the least cultivable", 28 letters) is considered as the longest Czech word, but there are some longer artificial words. Most of them are compound adjectives in dative, instrumental or other grammatical case and derived from the iterative or frequentative verbal form or the ability adjective form (like "-able").


title: Longest words

text: Danish, like many Germanic languages, is capable of compounding words to create "ad hoc" compounds of potentially limitless length. Nevertheless, the constructed word – which means "a period of stabilising the planning of a specialist doctor's practice" – was cited in 1993 by the Danish version of the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest word in the Danish language at 51 letters long. It is however not possible (using Google) to find a text, which actually uses this word, except for in the context of discussing the longest Danish word.


title: Longest words

text: Dutch, like many Germanic languages, is capable of forming compounds of potentially limitless length. The 53-letter word , meaning "preparation activities plan for a children's carnival procession", was cited by the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Dutch word.


title: Longest words

text: The longest word in the authoritative Van Dale Dutch dictionary (2009 edition) "in plural form" is ; 38 letters long, meaning "multiple personality disorders". The entry in the dictionary however is in the singular, counting 35 letters.