so long
"so-long" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“so long” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Goodbye; a valediction used when leaving or departing from a person or place.
Corpus desk
Index EN-so-long · so long · English
so long · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | so long |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “so long” in English
Rare enough to double-check
so long is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Goodbye; a valediction used when leaving or departing from a person or place.".
so long doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Uncertain. Compare to Swedish hej så länge and Russian пока (poka). See Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “so long”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. The correct English form is so long, spelled S-O- -L-O-N-G.
Definition
- 1Goodbye; a valediction used when leaving or departing from a person or place.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how so long appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
He had a lot to say / He had a lot of nothing to say / We'll miss him / We'll miss him / We're gonna miss him / We're gonna miss him / So long / We wish you well / You told us how you weren't afraid to die / Well, so long / Don't cry / Or feel too down / Not all martyrs see divinity / But at least you tried / Standing above the crowd / He had a voice that…
Etymology
Uncertain. Compare to Swedish hej så länge and Russian пока (poka). See Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “so long”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.