Life long or lifelong?
life long is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of lifelong”; lifelong is an adjective meaning “Extending for the entire duration of life”. life long is written as two words and lifelong as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between life long and lifelong?
| life long | lifelong | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | Alternative form of lifelong | Extending for the entire duration of life |
| Example | none recorded | They were lifelong friends; they met in elementary school and ended their lives in the same rest home |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈlaɪf.lɔːŋ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 5.6 times per million words |
Sources: life long and lifelong in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of life long and lifelong
life long
- 1
Alternative form of lifelong
- 2
Alternative form of lifelong
lifelong
- 1
Extending for the entire duration of life
They were lifelong friends; they met in elementary school and ended their lives in the same rest home
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, life long or lifelong?
life long is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; lifelong 5.6 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search life long vs lifelong?
“life long vs lifelong” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“lifelong vs life long”, “life long or lifelong”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.