Long time or longtime?
long time is an interjection meaning “Used as part of greeting of two people who have not been in contact for a long…”; longtime is an adjective meaning “Having endured for a long period of time”. Use long time as an interjection and longtime as an adjective. long time is written as two words and longtime as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between long time and longtime?
| long time | longtime | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun, adjective | adjective, adverb |
| Meaning | Used as part of greeting of two people who have not been in contact for a long time Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see long, time A meeting with a sex worker that usually lasts the entire night | Having endured for a long period of time Having been for a long time |
| Example | long time no see! | My longtime friend, since birth actually, called and gently broke the bad news to me |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 5.4 times per million words |
Sources: long time and longtime 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 time and longtime
long time
- 1
Used as part of greeting of two people who have not been in contact for a long time
long time no see!
- 2
A meeting with a sex worker that usually lasts the entire night
- 3
Alternative spelling of longtime
- 4
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see long, time
"You’ve been a long time!" "Admittedly, I did stay (for) a long time, but she stayed even longer"
longtime
- 1
Having endured for a long period of time
My longtime friend, since birth actually, called and gently broke the bad news to me
- 2
Having been for a long time
longtime married
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 time or longtime?
long time is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; longtime 5.4 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 long time vs longtime?
“long time vs longtime” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“longtime vs long time”, “long time or longtime”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.