Word.ws English Dictionary

the long and short

the long and short noun: the gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features.

Noun

the long and short

  1. (usually) The gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features.
    • The speech went on for hours, but the long and short of it is that not much has changed since last year.
    • Shepard: What's your relationship with Cerberus?
      Zaeed: Easy. Cerberus is paying me a lot of money to help you on your mission. That's the long and short.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Omega
    Synonyms:
    digest, summary, upshot

Synonyms of the long and short

Forms of the long and short

alternative formthe long and the short

Questions about the long and short

What does the long and short mean?
The long and short means the gist; the essence or substance; the most important or salient features.
What part of speech is the long and short?
The long and short is a noun.

Words near the long and short in the dictionary

  1. the lights are on but nobody's home
  2. the lights are on, but nobody's home
  3. the line is busy
  4. the living daylights out of
  5. the living shit out of
  6. the long and short
  7. the long and the short
  8. the long way around the barn
  9. the longest pole knocks the persimmon
  10. the longest purse knocks the persimmon
  11. the Loop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the long and short (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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