Long term or longterm?
long term is an adjective meaning “Becoming evident after a relatively long time period”; longterm is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of long-term”. long term is written as two words and longterm as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between long term and longterm?
| long term | longterm | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb, noun | adjective |
| Meaning | Becoming evident after a relatively long time period Extending over a relatively long time period Over a relatively long period of time | Alternative form of long-term |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | longer-term, longest-term | none |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: long term and longterm 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 long term and longterm
long term
- 1
Becoming evident after a relatively long time period
- 2
Over a relatively long period of time
- 3
Alternative form of long-term
- 4
Alternative form of long-term
- 5
The longer period, dealing with more than the short-term effects or concerns
- 6
Extending over a relatively long time period
longterm
- 1
Alternative form of long-term
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, long term or longterm?
long term is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; longterm about once in every 2 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 long term vs longterm?
“long term vs longterm” 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 (“longterm vs long term”, “long term or longterm”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.