length

English

Etymology

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþō, equivalent to long +‎ -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: lĕng(k)th, lĕn(t)th, IPA^(key): /lɛŋ(k)θ/, /lɛn(t)θ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛŋkθ, -ɛŋθ, -ɛntθ, -ɛnθ

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     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 is 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

distance along the longest dimension

• Albanian: gjatësi (sq)
• Arabic: طُول‎ m (ṭūl)

  Egyptian Arabic: طول‎ m (ṭūl)

• Aramaic:

  Hebrew: אורכא‎ m (ūrkā, ūrko)

  Syriac: ܐܘܪܟܐ‎ m (ūrkā, ūrko)

• Armenian: երկարություն (hy) (erkarutʿyun)
• Assamese: দীঘ (digh)
• Asturian: llargor m or f, llargu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: uzunluq (az)
• Bashkir: оҙонлоҡ (oðonloq), буй (buy)
• Belarusian: даўжыня́ f (daŭžynjá)
• Bengali: দৈর্ঘ্য (doirggh)
• Breton: hed (br) m
• Bulgarian: дължина́ (bg) f (dǎlžiná)
• Burmese: အလျား (my) (a.lya:)
• Catalan: longitud (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᏂᎦᏅᎯᏒ (niganvhisv)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 長度, 长度 (coeng⁴ dou⁶)

  Mandarin: 長度 (zh), 长度 (zh) (chángdù), 長 (zh), 长 (zh) (cháng)

  Min Nan: 長度 (zh-min-nan), 长度 (tn̂g-tō͘)

• Czech: délka (cs) f
• Danish: længde (da) c
• Dutch: lengte (nl) f
• Egyptian: (ꜣw m)
• Esperanto: longo, longeco
• Estonian: pikkus
• Faroese: longd f
• Finnish: pituus (fi)
• French: longueur (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Länge (de) f, Längenmaß (de) n
• Greek: μήκος (el) n (míkos)

  Ancient: μῆκος n (mêkos)

• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: אורך \ אֹרֶךְ‎ (he) m
• Hindi: लंबाई (hi) f (lambāī)
• Hungarian: hossz (hu), hosszúság (hu)
• Icelandic: lengd (is) f
• Ido: longeso (io)
• Indonesian: panjang (id), bujur (id)
• Interlingua: longitude
• Interlingue: longore
• Irish: fad m
• Italian: lunghezza (it) f
• Japanese: 長さ (ja) (ながさ, nagasa), 全長 (ja) (ぜんちょう, zenchō)
• Javanese: dawa (jv)
• Kazakh: ұзындық (kk) (uzındıq)
• Khmer: ប្រវែង (km) (prɑvaeŋ), បណ្ដោយ (km) (bɑndaoy)
• Korean: 길이 (ko) (giri)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: درێژایی‎ (drêjayî)

  Northern Kurdish: dirêjahî (ku), dirêjî (ku), dirêjatî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: узундук (ky) (uzunduk)
• Lao: ຄວາມຍາວ (lo) (khuām nyāo)

• Latin: longitūdō f
• Latvian: garums
• Lithuanian: ilgis m, ilgumas m
• Lower Sorbian: dłujkosć
• Luxembourgish: Längt f
• Macedonian: должина f (dolžina)
• Malay: panjang (ms), kepanjangan
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: roa (mi), whāroa, tiāroa (of fencing, or roadway etc)
• Marathi: लंबी f (lambī)
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: nineezgo
• Norman: londgeu f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lengde m or f

  Nynorsk: lengd f, lengde f

• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: longor (oc) f
• Old English: lengu, lengþu, leng
• Papiamentu: largura
• Persian: طول‎ (fa) (tul), درازا‎ (fa) (derâzâ)
• Polish: długość (pl) f
• Portuguese: comprimento (pt) m, extensão (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਲਾਬ f (lāb)
• Quechua: karu kay
• Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: lungime (ro)
• Russian: длина́ (ru) f (dliná)
• Scots: lenth
• Scottish Gaelic: fad
• Serbo-Croatian: дужина f, dužina (sh) f
• Slovak: dĺžka f
• Slovene: dolžina f
• Spanish: largo (es) m, eslora (es) f (nautical: length of a ship from bow to stern), longitud (es) f
• Sranan Tongo: langa
• Swahili: urefu (sw)
• Swedish: längd (sv)
• Tagalog: haba (tl)
• Tajik: тул (tg) (tul)
• Tamil: நீளம் (ta) (nīḷam)
• Tatar: озынлык (tt) (ozınlıq)
• Telugu: పొడవు (te) (poḍavu)
• Thai: ความยาว (th) (kwaam yaao)
• Turkish: uzunluk (tr)
• Turkmen: uzynlyk, uzaklyk
• Ukrainian: довжина́ f (dovžyná)
• Upper Sorbian: dołhosć
• Urdu: لمبائی‎ f (lãmbāī)
• Uzbek: uzunlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: chiều dài (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: hyd (cy)
• West Frisian: lingtemaat, lingte
• Yiddish: לענג‎ (leng)
• Yucatec Maya: chowakil
• Zhuang: dohraez
• Zulu: ubude 14

duration — See also translations at duration

• Finnish: pituus (fi), kesto (fi)
• French: durée (fr) f

• Spanish: duración (es) f

length of a horse

• Bashkir: буй (buy)
• Finnish: hevosenmitta
• German: Pferdelänge f
• Hungarian: hossz (hu)

• Turkish: boy (tr)

math: distance between the two ends of a line segment

• Finnish: pituus (fi)

cricket: distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman

figuratively: total extent

• Finnish: pituus (fi)

part of something that is long; a physical piece of something

• Finnish: mitta (fi); pätkä (fi) (especially a short one)

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.