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long

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "long", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "long" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "long" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

long is anEnglishadj. It means: Having much distance in space from one end to the other. Pronounced /lɒŋ/. It ranks #150 in English word frequency. Often confused with lot and low.

Key facts for long
PropertyValue
Headwordlong
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/lɒŋ/
Letters4
Frequency rank#150
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of long in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for long is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɒŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #150 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for long, with forms such as "llong", "lnog", and "logn". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "lot", "low", "los", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”). Cognates Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), Yola lhaung, l… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is long, spelled L-O-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
  2. 2
    Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
  3. 3
    Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
  4. 4
    Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
  5. 5
    Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.
  6. 6
    Travelling or extending too great a distance in space.
  7. 7
    Having great duration.
  8. 8
    Seeming to last a lot of time, due to being boring, tedious, tiring, irksome, etc.
  9. 9
    Not short; tall.
  10. 10
    Possessing or owning stocks, bonds, commodities, or other financial instruments with the aim of benefiting from an expected rise in their value.
  11. 11
    Of a fielding position, close to the boundary (or closer to the boundary than the equivalent short position).
  12. 12
    Of betting odds, offering a very large return for a small wager.
  13. 13
    Occurring or coming after an extended interval; distant in time; far away.
  14. 14
    In great supply; abundant.
  15. 15
    Clipping of taking a long time.
  16. 16
    stupid; annoying; bullshit
  17. 17
    serious; deadly.
  18. 18
    Measuring 8½ in × 13 in.
  19. 19
    Measuring 8½ in × 14 in.

Etymology

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”). Cognates Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), Yola lhaung, long (“long”), North Frisian long, lung, lüng (“long”), Saterland Frisian loang (“long”), West Frisian lang (“long”), Cimbrian lång (“long”), Dutch, German, and Low German lang (“long”), Luxembourgish laang (“long”), Mòcheno lònk (“long”), Vilamovian łaong (“long”), Yiddish לאַנג (lang, “long”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lang (“long”), Faroese and Icelandic langur (“long”), Swedish lång (“long”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍃 (laggs, “long”); also Latin longus (“long”) (whence French long (“long”), Italian lungo (“long”), Portuguese longo (“long”), Spanish luengo (“long”)), Ancient Greek δολιχός (dolikhós, “long; wearisome”), Albanian gjatë (“long; tall”), Latvian ilgs (“long”), Lithuanian ilgas (“long”), Belarusian до́ўгі (dówhi, “long”), Bulgarian дъ́лъг (dǎ́lǎg, “long”), Czech dlúhý (“long”), Macedonian долг (dolg, “long”), Polish długi (“long”), Russian дли́нный (dlínnyj, “lengthy, long”), до́лгий (dólgij, “long”), Serbo-Croatian ду̏г, dȕg (“long”), Slovak dlhý (“long”), Slovene dolg (“long”), Ukrainian до́вгий (dóvhyj, “long”), Ossetian даргъ (darǧ, “late”), Central Kurdish دێر (dêr), درەنگ (dreng, “late”), Northern Kurdish dereng (“late”), Persian دیر (dēr / dir, “late; long”), درنگ (derang, “delay”), Sanskrit दीर्घ (dīrgha, “long”) (whence Bengali দীর্ঘ (dirgho, “long; tall”), Dhivehi ދިގު (digu, “long, lengthy”), Kalasha driga, dríga (“long; tall”), Kholosi taɽgo (“long”), Khowar درونگ (drung, “long”), Hindi दीर्घ (dīrgh, “long; tall; weighty”), Nepali दिघो (digho, “stable”), Odia ଦୀର୍ଘ (dirgha, “long”), Sinhalese දිග (diga, “long”), Urdu دیرگھ (dīrgh, “long; tall; weighty”)), Kamkata-viri drëgeř, drëgëř, drëŋëň, dërëgeň (“long; tall”), Prasuni jigni (“long; tall”). The word shows the regular historical change of a to o before certain consonant clusters such as ng (compare with other examples in Middle and Modern English such as bond, song, throng, and wrong). The o-form may have also been reinforced by Old French long, from Latin longus, from the same Indo-European word. Doublet of lungo and lunge.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: llong,lnog,logn,longg,lonng,olng

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for long

Misspelling Variants of "long"

llong5lnog4logn4longg5lonng5olng4
Misspelling Variants of "long"

Frequency rank: #150 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "long"?
"long" is spelled L-O-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is /lɒŋ/.
What does "long" mean?
As an adj, "long" means: Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
What words are commonly confused with "long"?
"long" is commonly confused with "lot", "low", "los". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "long"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "long" is /lɒŋ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "long"?
From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”). Cognates Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), Yola... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter L in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.