Python: Takes a list of words and returns the length of the longest one

Last update on June 12 2025 12:41:49 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Find longest word in a list.

Write a Python function that takes a list of words and return the longest word and the length of the longest one.

Python String Exercises: Takes a list of words and return the length of the longest one

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Define a function named find_longest_word that takes a list of words as the argument, 'words_list'.
def find_longest_word(words_list):
    # Create an empty list 'word_len' to store pairs of word lengths and the corresponding words.
    word_len = []

    # Iterate through each word 'n' in the 'words_list'.
    for n in words_list:
        # Append a tuple containing the length of the word and the word itself to 'word_len'.
        word_len.append((len(n), n))

    # Sort the list 'word_len' based on the word lengths (ascending order).
    word_len.sort()

    # Return the length and the word of the last item in the sorted list (which is the longest word).
    return word_len[-1][0], word_len[-1][1]

# Call the find_longest_word function with a list of words and store the result in 'result'.
result = find_longest_word(["PHP", "Exercises", "Backend"])

# Print the longest word and its length.
print("\nLongest word: ", result[1])
print("Length of the longest word: ", result[0])

Sample Output:

Longest word:  Exercises
Length of the longest word:  9

Flowchart:

Flowchart: Function that takes a list of words and return the length of the longest one

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to iterate through a list of words and return the longest word along with its length using a loop.
Write a Python program to use the max() function with a custom key to determine the longest word in a list.
Write a Python program to sort a list of words by length and output the last element as the longest word.
Write a Python program to implement a recursive function that finds the longest word in a list of words.

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Python Code Editor:

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