Word.ws English Dictionary

go a long way

go a long way verb: to be adequate or helpful for a significant amount of time.

Verb

go a long way (third-person singular simple present goes a long way, present participle going a long way, simple past went a long way, past participle gone a long way)

  1. (idiomatic) To be adequate or helpful for a significant amount of time.
    • This new law will go a long way in addressing this issue.
    • Thank you for your generous donation; I'm sure it will go a long way.
  2. (idiomatic) To achieve considerable success.
    • All parents hope that their children will go a long way in their lives.
    • The moment I met him I knew he would go a long way.

Forms of go a long way

third-person singular presentgoes a long way
present participlegoing a long way
pastwent a long way
past participlegone a long way

Questions about go a long way

What does go a long way mean?
Go a long way means to be adequate or helpful for a significant amount of time.
What part of speech is go a long way?
Go a long way is a verb.
What is the past tense of go a long way?
The past tense of go a long way is went a long way.

Words near go a long way in the dictionary

  1. GNVQ
  2. GNVQs
  3. go
  4. go a bundle on
  5. go a cropper
  6. go a long way
  7. go a mucker
  8. go a raker
  9. go a-begging
  10. go about
  11. go about one's business

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go a long way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-go a long way.ogg.

Cite this entry: “go a long way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go_a_long_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.