# long

> English word · Adjective · IPA /lɒŋ/ · frequency rank #150

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

## Easily confused with
- **lot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lot)
- **low** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-low)
- **los** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-los)
- **Lou** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lou)
- **loo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-loo)
- **lug** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lug)
- **lyn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lyn)
- **lor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lor)
- **lop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lop)
- **lun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lun)
- **lox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lox)
- **loy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-loy)
- **love** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-love)
- **look** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-look)
- **lost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lost)
- **lord** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lord)
- **lose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lose)
- **loss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-loss)
- **lots** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-lots)
- **loud** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/long-vs-loud)

## Common misspellings (6)
`llong`, `lnog`, `logn`, `longg`, `lonng`, `olng`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/long