length
Plurallengths
Plurallengths
Formslengths, lengthing, lengthed
- 1The measurement of how far something extends from one end to the other, especially along its longest side.
The carpenter recorded the length of each beam before assembly.
Engineers calculated the bridge's total length down to the millimeter.
UsageAfter a number: ten meters long or ten meters in length. The phrase the length of names the measurement: the length of the beam.
Note
The central meaning, and the one that explains the word's shape: Old English lengþ is long plus -th, the same abstract-noun ending found in strength and width. Time shares the word too, while a horse's body and a hand of cards borrow this measurement later. Distance is the broader word, the space between any two points. Length is distance taken along a thing itself, the long way.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Length comes from Old English lengþ and is etymologically equivalent to long plus the abstract-noun suffix -th. en.wiktionary.org
- Strength and width contain the same abstract-noun suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- Strength contains the abstract-noun suffix -th. en.wiktionary.org
- 2The amount of time that something continues or lasts.
The length of the trial stretched the patience of the jury.
Doctors monitored the length of each patient's recovery.
Similarduration, span, term, period
Note
Time measured like space: the physical measurement also describes how long something lasts, so a trial has length just as a beam does. Robert Frost leans on both senses at once in a poem titled "Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length." Happiness is short in time, and the title measures it like an object.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Robert Frost wrote a poem titled Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length, with the quoted wording. commons.wikimedia.org
- The quotation is the poem's title; it does not occur in the body, which begins 'Oh, stormy stormy world,'. archive.org
- The poem presents happiness as brief, supporting the note's interpretation of length as duration. archive.org
- 3The extent or degree to which an action or effort is carried, especially in expressions such as "go to great lengths."
Few people expected the company to go to the length of suing its own customers.
Investigators were stunned by the length to which the firm had gone to hide its losses.
UsageMostly in set phrases: go to great lengths to, go to any length(s), go to the length of doing something.
- 4A piece or section of something long, such as rope, pipe, or fabric.
The plumber fitted a new length of copper pipe under the sink.
She draped a length of silk across the table for the display.
UsageUsually a length of + material: a length of rope, two lengths of pipe.
Less common meanings
- 5The distance between the two ends of a swimming pool, used as a unit when counting how far a swimmer goes.
She swims forty lengths every morning before work.
He managed one more length of the pool before the lifeguard blew the whistle.
UsageCounted with swim or do: swim ten lengths, do lengths before work.
Similarlap
- 6A unit approximately equal to a horse's length from nose to tail, used to describe the gap between horses at the finish of a race.
The colt pulled away to win by three lengths.
Only a length separated the top two horses at the wire.
UsageUsually win by a number of lengths: won by three lengths, a length behind.
Note
A racing unit borrowed from the animal itself: the gap between finishers is counted in horse-bodies rather than in feet. The figure describes the margin at the finish, never the distance of the race itself.
- 7In wine tasting, the time the flavor of a wine lingers on the palate after it is swallowed or spat out.
Tasters praised the Burgundy for its remarkable length on the palate.
A wine with real length often signals quality and aging potential.
UsageUsually with no article, like body: a wine has length, great length or real length.
Similarfinish
Note
Tasters' term for the finish, and it has its own unit: the caudalie, one second of lingering flavor. A wine is praised for its length on the palate, and the longer the taste holds after the wine is gone, the more length it has.
- 8In cricket, the distance down the pitch at which a bowled ball bounces before reaching the batsman.
The spinner varied his length to keep the batsman guessing.
A fuller length tempted the batsman into a rash drive.
UsageOften a good length, a full length or short of a length; a bowler bowls or hits a length.
Note
A bowler's word, and a judgment as much as a measurement. Where the ball pitches decides how the batsman must play it. A good length lands far enough away to leave him unsure whether to play forward or back. A fuller length pitches nearer and invites the drive. Bowlers are praised or faulted for their length, and a spinner varies it to unsettle.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The pitching distance affects the batsman's response; a good length creates uncertainty between playing forward and back. en.wikipedia.org
- A fuller length pitches nearer the batsman than a good length. en.wikipedia.org
- Fuller deliveries invite driving strokes. dt5602vnjxv0c.cloudfront.net
- Varying length can unsettle a batsman. en.wikipedia.org
- 9Slang for the penis, often used in sexual or erotic writing.
Her fingers closed around his length as they kissed.
His length strained against the zipper of his jeans.
Note
Because the measuring sense is so common, "proud of his length" can read either way. The sexual meaning needs a context that makes the body, not a number, the subject.
- 10To make or become longer; to lengthen.
[He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.
a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in HellWas never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.
1552, Richard Huloet, “Ladies of Destinie”Note
The noun once did the work of a verb. Thomas Sackville, writing before 1608, says life "doth but length his pain," and Richard Huloet in 1552 has ladies who "lengthe or shorte the day." Modern English gives the job to lengthen. As a verb, length and its past form lengthed now read as errors outside imitations of older verse.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Length formerly functioned as a verb meaning to lengthen. en.wiktionary.org
- Thomas Sackville wrote “doth but length his pain” before 1608; the passage appears in The Induction, published in 1563. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
- Richard Huloet's 1552 Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum contains “lengthe or shorte the day,” referring to ladies. en.wiktionary.org
- 11In the card game bridge, the number of cards a player holds in a particular suit.
- 12In theater, a unit of script measurement equal to 42 lines.
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Origin
From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþ, going back to Proto-Germanic *langiþō. It is essentially "long" combined with the abstract noun suffix "-th," and is related to Dutch lengte, Low German Längde, Danish længde, and Swedish längd.