• (RP) IPA: /lɒŋ/
  • (Conservative RP) IPA: /lɔːŋ/
• (America) enPR: lông, IPA: /lɔŋ/
• (cot-caught) enPR: läng, IPA: /lɑŋ/
• (Black Country) enPR: lo͝oŋg, IPA: /lʊŋɡ/

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang, from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos.

Cognate with Scots lang, Northern Frisian long, lung ("long"), Saterland Frisian loang, Norwegian -, Western Frisian -, Dutch - and German lang, Swedish lång, Icelandic langur, Portuguese longo, Spanish luengo, French long, Latin longus, Russian дли́нный, до́лго, Sanskrit दीर्घ.

The word exceptionally retains the Old English darkening of -a- before nasals. Though there are other such examples in Middle and Modern English (e.g. bond, song, throng, wrong), the o-form may have been reinforced by Old French long, from Latin longus, from the same Indo-European word.

long (comparative longer, superlative longest)

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

   I need a long piece of wood.

   It’s a long way from the Earth to the Moon.

   How long was your newborn baby?

   1. Specifically, having much distance in a horizontal dimension (see also Usage Notes below).

      This table is long but not very high.

   2. Travelling a great distance.

      Smith hoofs a long ball up to Jones.

   3. (informal) Having a long penis.

      My ex was very strong but not very long.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:

     The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.

2. Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.
   1. (of weapons fire, landing aircraft, etc.) Passing or landing ahead of or beyond the intended target or location.

      The plane touched down long and overran the end of the runway.

   2. (sports, of a ball or shot) Going beyond the intended target.

      That forehand was long. It landed two feet beyond the baseline.

      The pass was long and was gathered by the opposing goalkeeper.

3. Having great duration.

   His speech was long and dull.

   The pyramids of Egypt have been around for a long time.

   I took a long look at the house, knowing it was for the last time.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […] , and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.

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

   It took us three long weeks to clear the stones from the field.

   It'll be a long journey home for the travelling supporters after that 5-0 defeat.

   • [1877], Anna Sewell, “A Strike for Liberty”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC ↗, part II, page 109 ↗:

     What I suffered with that rein for four long months in my lady’s carriage, it would be hard to describe, but I am quite sure that, had it lasted much longer, either my health or my temper would have given way.

5. (UK, dated) Not short; tall.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:

     The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.

6. (finance) Possessing or owning stocks, bonds, commodities or other financial instruments with the aim of benefiting from an expected rise in their value.

   Antonyms: short

   I’m long in DuPont.

   I have a long position in DuPont.

7. (cricket) Of a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
8. (gambling) Of betting odds, offering a very large return for a small wager.
9. Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗, page 55 ↗:

     But Campbell thus did ſhut vp all in ieſt, / Braue Knights and Ladies, certes ye doe wrong / To ſtirre vp ſtrife, when moſt vs needeth reſt, / That we may vs reſerue both freſh and ſtrong, / Againſt the Turneiment which is not long.

10. (AAVE, slang, of money) In great supply; abundant.
11. (slang, MLE) Clipping of taking a long time

    Synonyms: boring, late, slow, time-consuming

12. (slang, MLE, by extension) stupid; annoying; bullshit
13. (slang, MLE, by extension) serious; deadly.

    Synonyms: the end, curtains

• (having much distance from one point to another) deep (vertically downwards), extended, high (vertically upwards), lengthy, tall
• (having great duration) extended, lengthy, prolonged

• (antonym(s) of “having much distance from one point to another”): low (vertically upwards), shallow (vertically upwards or downwards), short
• (antonym(s) of “having great duration”): brief, short

see long/translations

long (plural longs)

1. (linguistics) A long vowel.
   • 1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics, volume 2, page 60:

     In French most vowels are half-long, and are only occasionally lengthened or shortened into full longs and shorts.

2. (prosody) A long syllable.
3. (music) A note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.
4. (programming) A long integer variable, twice the size of an int, two or four times the size of a short, and half of a long long.

   A long is typically 64 bits in a 32-bit environment.

5. (finance) An entity with a long position in an asset; for example, a trader or investor possessing an amount of a company's shares.

   Synonyms: bull

   Every uptick made the longs cheer.

6. (finance) A long-maturity security, such as a ten- or twenty-year bond.
   • "U.S. Treasury Market Structure", https://www.mfaalts.org/issue/u-s-treasury-market-structure/

     Hedge funds are constrained in how much leverage they can utilize, in part because the futures contracts they are shorting against their Treasury longs have significant initial margin requirements.

7. (Oxbridge, dated) Clip of long vacation

long (longs, present participle longing; simple past and past participle longed)

1. (transitive, finance) To take a long position in.

From Middle English longe, lange, from Old English longe, lange, from the adjective (see above).

long (comparative longer, superlative longest)

1. (chiefly, sports) Over a great distance in space.

   Synonyms: a long way, far

   Antonyms: a short distance

   Every golfer wants to hit the ball long and straight.

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

      She hit her return long and lost the point.

2. For a particular duration.

   How long is it until the next bus arrives?

   She has known us as long as you.

   I’ve waited long enough.

   He slept all day long.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 156 ↗, column 1:

     I ſtay too long ; but here my Father comes : / A double bleſſing is a double grace; / Occaſion ſmiles vpon a ſecond leaue.

3. (as premodifier of a verb, participle, adjective, preposition, or adverb) For a long time.

   Paris has long been considered one of the most cultured cities in the world.

   By eight o’clock, the food will be long gone.

   • 1863 November 18, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)‎^{[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address_(Bliss_copy)]}, near Soldiers' National Cemetery, →LCCN ↗, Bliss copy, page 2:

     The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

4. (rare, postposed to positive verb) For a long time.
5. A long time (see usage notes).

   Antonyms: an instant, a minute, a moment, a second, a short time, not long

   Will this interview take long?

   I haven’t got long to live.

   They are in a hurry; they can’t wait for too long.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗, stanza 17, page 512 ↗:

     My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo, / Whileſt ye in durance dwelt, ye to me gaue / A little mayde, the which ye chylded tho ; / The ſame againe if now ye liſt to haue, / The ſame is yonder Lady, whom high God did ſaue.

see long/translations

From Middle English longen, from Old English langian, from Proto-West Germanic *langōn, from Proto-Germanic *langōną, from Proto-Indo-European *lengʷʰ-.

long (longs, present participle longing; simple past and past participle longed)

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

   Synonyms: ache, yearn

   She longed for him to come back.

see long/translations

From Middle English long, lang, an aphetic form of Middle English ilong, ylong, from Old English ġelong, ġelang; the verb later reinterpreted as an aphetic form of belong.

long (not comparable)

1. (archaic) On account of, because of.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.8, page 224 ↗:

     I am of opinion, that in regarde of theſe debauches and lewde actions, fathers may, in ſome ſort, be blamed, and that it is onely long of them.

long (longs, present participle longing; simple past and past participle longed)

1. (archaic) To be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     A goodly Armour, and full rich aray, / Which long’d to Angela, the Saxon Queene, / All fretted round with gold, and goodly wel beseene.

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     Tis well, and hold your owne in any case / With such austeritie as longeth to a father.

Shortening of longitude.

long (plural longs)

1. Abbr of longitude

   Coordinate term: lat

From Middle English longen, from Old English langian, from Old English *lang, which is of uncertain origin yet related to Old English ġelang, osx gilang.

long (longs, present participle longing; simple past and past participle longed)

1. (obsolete) To belong.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene v ↗:

     Now ſend Ambaſſage to thy neighbor Kinges,
     And let them know the Perſian King is chang’d:
     From one that knew not what a King ſhould doe,
     To one that can commaund what longs there to: […]

• IPA: /ˈlɒŋ/

1. Surname. Originally a nickname for a tall man.

   Huey Long

2. An unincorporated community in Columbia County, Washington.
3. A commune in Somme.

From the cmn-pinyin - romanization of the Mandarin - Chinese pronunciation for 隴.

• IPA: /ˈlɒŋ/, /ˈlʊŋ/

1. (countable) Surname.
2. A county in Baoji, Shaanxi.