how long

how long adjective: used literally: what length.

Adjective

how long

Used literally: what length.
- How long is that piece of string?
- I don't know how long the Amazon River is.
Used literally: what duration.
- How long are you here for? ~ Until the end of next month.
- How long have you already been here (for)? ~ Since last Friday

how long

Used literally: for what duration.
- How long have you lived in Chicago?
- He won't tell me how long he is going to stay.

எவ்வளவு

how long (length of time): كَم وَقْتًا kam waqtan, إِلَى مَتَى ʔilā matā

More languagesFewer languages

How long is it to lunch?
How long ago did you stop playing tennis?
How long I slept I cannot tell, for I had nothing to guide me to the time, but woke at length, and found myself still in darkness.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

What does how long mean?: How long means used literally: what length.
What is how long in Tamil?: How long in Tamil is எவ்வளவு. See How long meaning in Tamil.
How do you use how long in a sentence?: How long is it to lunch?
What part of speech is how long?: How long can be an adjective or an adverb.

Adapted from Wiktionary: how long (page history and authors); how long (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-how long.wav.

Cite this entry: “how long.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/how_long. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.