Long or longue?
long is an adjective meaning “Having much distance in space from one end to the other”; longue is a noun meaning “Synonym of mackinaw trout”. Use long as an adjective and longue as a noun (long is also a noun: “A long vowel”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) long is about 3,631 times as common as longue.
What is the difference between long and longue?
| long | longue | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb, adverb, suffix, preposition | noun |
| Meaning | Having much distance in space from one end to the other Specifically, having much distance in a horizontal dimension (see also Usage Notes below) A long vowel | Synonym of mackinaw trout |
| Example | I need a long piece of wood | none recorded |
| Forms | longer, longest | longues |
| Pronunciation | /lɒŋ/ /lɔːŋ/ /lʊŋɡ/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 646 times per million words | about once in every 6 million words |
Sources: long and longue 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 and longue
long
- 1
Having much distance in space from one end to the other
I need a long piece of wood
- 2
A long vowel
- 3
To take a long position in
- 4
Over a great distance in space
Every golfer wants to hit the ball long and straight
- 5
To await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true)
She longed for him to come back
- 6
Abbreviation of longitude
- 7
Alternative form of loong
- 8
Forms adjectives indicating length or duration when suffixed to nouns
longue
- 1
Synonym of mackinaw trout
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 or longue?
long appears 646 times per million words; longue about once in every 6 million words.
long 646 times per million wordslongue about once in every 6 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).