Word.ws English Dictionary

longer

UK/ˈlɒŋ.ɡə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/ˈlæŋ.ɡæ/

longer is the comparative form of long.

Meaning of long

Adjective

long (comparative longer or more long, superlative longest or most long)

  1. Having much distance in space from one end to the other.
    • I need a long piece of wood.
    1. Specifically, having much distance in a horizontal dimension (see also Usage Notes below).
      • This table is long but not very high.
    2. Travelling a great distance.
      • Smith hoofs a long ball up to Jones.
    3. (informal) Having a long penis.
      • My ex was very strong but not very long.
  2. (usually, landing aircraft) Passing or landing ahead of or beyond the intended target or location.
    • The plane touched down long and overran the end of the runway.
  3. Going beyond the intended target.
    • That forehand was long. It landed two feet beyond the baseline.

See all 41 meanings of long

Noun

UK/ˈlɒŋ.ə/US/ˈlɔŋ.ɚ/

longer (plural longers)

  1. One who longs or yearns for something.
    • The slayer also lay,
      The terrible earth-drake deprived of life,
      Oppressed by bale: the ring-hoard longer
      The twisted worm, might not control.1887, Albert H[arris] Tolman, The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, page 15

Forms of longer

plurallongers

Origin of longer

From Middle English longer, longere, normalisation of Middle English lenger, lengere (“longer”), from Old English lengra (“longer”), from Proto-Germanic *langizô (“longer”), comparative of Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), equivalent to long + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian laanger (“longer”), West Frisian langer (“longer”), Dutch langer (“longer”), German länger (“longer”), Danish længere (“longer”), Swedish längre (“longer”), Icelandic lengri (“longer”).

From long (“yearn”) + -er.

Words formed from longer

Phrases with longer

Words that rhyme with longer

Questions about longer

What does longer mean?
Longer means one who longs or yearns for something.
What is longer the comparative form of?
Longer is the comparative form of long.
What part of speech is longer?
Longer is a noun.
How do you pronounce longer?
Longer is pronounced /ˈlɒŋ.ɡə/ (UK).
What is the plural of longer?
The plural of longer is longers.

Words near longer in the dictionary

  1. longeing
  2. longeing cavesson
  3. longeing cavessons
  4. Longenecker
  5. Longeneckers
  6. longer
  7. longer ago
  8. longer grain
  9. longer-acting
  10. longer-distance
  11. longer-felt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: longer (page history and authors); long (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-us-longer.ogg.

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