longer

Plurallongers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative form of long.

   The new bridge is considerably longer than the old wooden one.

   Audiences expected a longer film given the dense source material.

   Note

   The everyday comparative has a less regular past. Middle English mostly said lenger, from Old English lengra, and longer is a later normalization that rebuilt the form on long + -er. It compares whatever long measures: distance from end to end, a journey, or a shot that lands beyond its mark. It usually takes than, as in longer than the old bridge.

2. 2
   adverb

   Comparative form of long.

   The meeting dragged on longer than anyone had planned.

   If the paint had cured longer, the finish would have held.

   Note

   An adverb that compares reach in two directions, carried over from long itself. One is distance, as in throwing longer or past the target. The other is duration, as in staying or waiting longer. Like long, it often leans on qualifying words to fix the amount of time (two hours longer, much longer). Its spelling shares the history told under the comparative adjective.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A person who feels a strong desire for something.

   The poem gives voice to every longer after a home left behind.

   She remained a quiet longer for the career she had abandoned years before.

   Note

   A separate word that happens to share the spelling. It comes from the verb long, "to yearn", plus the agent suffix -er, the same pattern as dreamer. It takes a regular plural, longers, and usually takes for to name what is wanted: a longer for home. Only context separates it from the comparative adjective, because the spelling gives no clue.

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