Long has 23 different meanings across 4 categories:
Verb · Adjective · Adverb · Proper Noun
A long vowel.
"The captain checked the ship's charts to confirm our exact position based on longitude before adjusting the course toward the equator."
longitude
In plain English: A long is an old-fashioned word for a piece of cloth used to make clothes.
"The long of the night felt endless until sunrise."
Usage: As a noun, long refers specifically to the imaginary lines running east-west on a map that measure distance north or south of the equator. Use this term only in geographical contexts like "lines of long," never to describe duration or length as an adjective.
To take a long position in.
"Since I am long your friend, you can always count on me for help."
To await, aspire, desire greatly (something to occur or to be true)
To be appropriate to, to pertain or belong to.
To belong.
In plain English: To long means to really want something so much that you feel sad because it is not here right now.
"The train will be long for another twenty minutes before it arrives at the next station."
Usage: The verb "long" means to have a strong desire or yearn for something, not to belong to it. Use it when expressing a deep emotional wish, such as saying you long for home.
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
"a long life"
"a long boring speech"
"a long time"
"a long friendship"
"a long game"
"long ago"
"an hour long"
primarily spatial sense; of relatively great or greater than average spatial extension or extension as specified
"a long road"
"a long distance"
"contained many long words"
"ten miles long"
holding securities or commodities in expectation of a rise in prices
"is long on coffee"
"a long position in gold"
(of speech sounds or syllables) of relatively long duration
"the English vowel sounds in `bate', `beat', `bite', `boat', `boot' are long"
planning prudently for the future
"large goals that required farsighted policies"
"took a long view of the geopolitical issues"
Having much distance from one terminating point on an object or an area to another terminating point (usually applies to horizontal dimensions; see Usage Notes below).
"The long delay was caused by heavy traffic on the highway."
On account of, because of.
In plain English: Long means having a lot of length from one end to the other.
Usage: Use "long" as an adjective to describe something that extends over a great distance or duration, such as a long road or a long wait. Do not use it to mean "on account of," which is the function of the word "because."
for an extended time or at a distant time
"a promotion long overdue"
"something long hoped for"
"his name has long been forgotten"
"talked all night long"
"how long will you be gone?"
"arrived long before he was expected"
"it is long after your bedtime"
for an extended distance
"The hikers walked a long path through the dense forest before finally reaching the summit."
Over a great distance in space.
"The long journey across the desert took us three days to complete."
In plain English: Long means continuing for a great amount of time.
"He waited long for the bus to arrive."
Usage: Use "long" as an adverb to describe actions that take a great deal of time or extend over a significant duration, such as waiting long or living long. Do not use it to indicate physical distance, which requires the adjective form before a noun.
A surname, from nicknames. Originally a nickname for a tall man.
"The ancient city walls in Long County have been preserved for centuries despite its location near the Wei River in Baoji."
A county of Baoji, Shaanxi, China.
The word "long" comes from the Old English words long and lang, which already meant both long in length and tall in height. It has been used with this same meaning since its arrival in Middle English, tracing back through Proto-Germanic to the ancient Proto-Indo-European root for "long."