Word.ws English Dictionary

take the long view

take the long view verb: to evaluate something in terms of its expected long-term results rather than its immediate state.

Verb

take the long view (third-person singular simple present takes the long view, present participle taking the long view, simple past took the long view, past participle taken the long view)

  1. To evaluate something in terms of its expected long-term results rather than its immediate state.
    • To determine the proper course, Americans must take the long view.1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 170

Forms of take the long view

third-person singular presenttakes the long view
present participletaking the long view
pasttook the long view
past participletaken the long view

Origin of take the long view

From long view.

Questions about take the long view

What does take the long view mean?
Take the long view means to evaluate something in terms of its expected long-term results rather than its immediate state.
What part of speech is take the long view?
Take the long view is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the long view?
The past tense of take the long view is took the long view.

Words near take the long view in the dictionary

  1. take the l
  2. take the law into one's hands
  3. take the law into one's own hands
  4. take the lead
  5. take the liberty
  6. take the long view
  7. take the mask off
  8. take the matter into one's own hands
  9. take the meaning
  10. take the Michael
  11. take the mick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the long view (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.

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