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long

adjective · noun · verb · adverb

Simple meaning

Having much distance in space from one end to the other.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lawng
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈlɔŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Having much distance in space from one end to the other.

  2. Specifically, having much distance in a horizontal dimension.

  3. Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.

  4. Having great duration.

  5. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.

  6. Seeming to last a lot of time, due to being boring, tedious, tiring, irksome, etc.

noun

  1. Angular distance measured west or east of the prime meridian.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true).

adverb

  1. For an extended distance

  2. chiefly sports

    Over a great distance in space.

  3. (placed before a verb, participle, adjective, preposition, or adverb) For a long time.

  4. Over too great a distance, beyond the target.

  5. For a particular duration (specified by additional qualifying words accompanying it).

  6. For an extended time or at a distant time

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Having much distance in space from one end to the other.

Used this way, long is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

long termbefore longlong period

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • longeradverbInflected form

    For more time.

  • longestadverbInflected form

    For the most time.

  • longingnounInflected form

    Prolonged unfulfilled desire or need.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • long-fin tunnynounCompound term

    Large pelagic tuna the source of most canned tuna.

  • long flynounCompound term

    A gymnastic exercise involving a long leap from a vaulting horse.

  • long-handled spadenounCompound term

    A spade with a long handle for digging narrow ditches.

  • long haulnounCompound term

    A journey over a long distance.

  • long-head coneflowernounCompound term

    Plant similar to the Mexican hat coneflower.

  • long-horned beetlenounCompound term

    Long-bodied beetle having very long antennae.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • longhornnounRelated term

    Long-horned beef cattle formerly common in southwestern United States.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: having much distance in space from one end to the other

short

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.