length

English

Etymology

Old English lengþu

Pronunciation

• enPR: lĕngth, IPA: /lɛŋθ/, SAMPA: /lENT/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

length (plural lengths)

1. The measurement of distance along the longest dimension of an object.
2. duration
   • Robert Frost

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively): total extent

   The length of a book

7. part of something that's long, a physical piece of something

   A length of rope

Derived terms

Derived terms

arm's length at length cable length feature-length floor-length focal length full-length good length go to great lengths half-length knee-length lengthen

lengthful length overall lengthways lengthwise lengthy line and length null patch length overlength path length screening length short of a length wavelength zero-length launching

Translations

measurement of distance

Albanian: gjatësi (sq) Arabic: طول (ar) Aramaic: Hebrew: אורכא (ūrkā, ūrko) m. Syriac: ܐܘܪܟܐ (ūrkā, ūrko) m. Armenian: երկարություն (hy) (yerkarutyun) Breton: hed (br) m. Bulgarian: дължина (bg) (dәlžiná) f. Catalan: longitud (ca) f. Chinese: Cantonese: tn̂g-té Mandarin: 長度 (cmn), 长度 (cmn) (chángdù), 長 (cmn), 长 (cmn) (cháng) Min Nan: tn̂g-té (nan) Croatian: duljìna (hr) f., dužìna (hr) f. Czech: délka (cs) f. Danish: længde (da) Dutch: lengte (nl) f. Egyptian: 𓄫𓅱𓏏𓏝 f. Esperanto: longo (eo), longeco (eo) Estonian: pikkus (et) Faroese: longd (fo) f. Finnish: pituus (fi) French: longueur (fr) f. German: Länge (de) f., Längenmaß (de) Greek: μήκος (el) Hebrew: אורך \ אֹרֶךְ (he) m. Hungarian: hossz (hu), hosszúság (hu) Icelandic: lengd (is) f. Ido: longeso (io) Indonesian: panjang (id), bujur (id) Interlingua: longitude (ia) Irish: fad (ga) m. Italian: lunghezza (it) f. Japanese: 長さ (ja) (nagasa), 全長 (ja) (zenchou) Javanese: dawa (jv) Kazakh: ұзындық (kk) Korean: 길이 (ko) Kurdish: Kurmanji: dirêjahî (ku), dirêjî (ku), dirêjatî (ku) Sorani: درێژایی (ku) (diréjayí) Latin: longitūdō (la) f.

Latvian: garums (lv) Lithuanian: ilgis (lt) m., ilgumas (lt) m. Lower Sorbian: dłujkosć Malay: panjang (ms) Marathi: लंबी (mr) (lambī) f. Norwegian: lengde (no) Occitan: longor (oc) f. Old English: lengu (ang), lengþu (ang), leng (ang) Papiamentu: largura Persian: طول (fa) (tul), درازا (fa) Polish: długość (pl) f. Portuguese: comprimento (pt) m., extensão (pt) f. Punjabi: ਲਾਬ (pa) (lāba) f. Quechua: karu kay (qu) Romanian: lungime (ro) Russian: длина (ru) f. Scots: lenth Scottish Gaelic: fad (gd) Serbian: дужина (sr) Slovak: dĺžka (sk) f. Slovene: dolžina (sl) f. Spanish: largo (es) m., eslora (es) f. (nautical: length of a ship from bow to stern) Sranan Tongo: langa Swahili: urefu (sw) Swedish: längd (sv) Tajik: тул (tg) Tamil: நீளம் (ta) Tatar: ozınlıq (tt) Telugu: పొడవు (te) (poDavu) Thai: มาตราวัดความยาว (th) Turkish: uzunluk (tr) Ukrainian: довжина (uk) Upper Sorbian: dołhosć Urdu: لمبائی (ur) Vietnamese: chiều dài (vi) Welsh: hyd (cy) West Frisian: lingtemaat (fy), lingte (fy) Yiddish: לענג (yi) Yucatec Maya: chowakil

length of a horse

German: Pferdelänge f. Hungarian: hossz (hu)

Turkish: boy (tr)

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: France · London · save · #579: length · play · remained · bear