One who longs or yearns for something.
"After months of searching, she became a longer to finding her lost ring again."
In plain English: A longer is an old-fashioned word for a long, thin piece of cloth that people used to wear as part of their clothing.
"The longer in my pocket was just a receipt."
Usage: The word longer is not used as a noun to mean a person who longs for something; that definition belongs to the archaic term "lunger." Use longer only as an adjective to compare length or duration.
comparative form of long: more long
"The movie played for two hours, which was much longer than I expected it to be."
In plain English: Longer means lasting for more time than something else.
"The movie was longer than I expected."
Usage: Use longer only when comparing two things to indicate that one has a greater length than the other. Do not use it to mean "more frequent" or "extended in time," as those require different words like often or extended.
comparative form of long: more long
"The road to the beach is much longer than I expected, so we will arrive late for dinner."
In plain English: Longer means for a greater amount of time than something else.
"The movie is longer than I expected."
Usage: Do not use "longer" to mean "more often"; that is incorrect because the word refers strictly to duration or length, not frequency. Instead, use words like "again" or "repeatedly" when you intend to indicate something happens more frequently.
Longer comes from Middle English and Old English, where it originally meant something that was of greater length. The word traveled into modern English by adding the suffix -er to the base form long to create its comparative degree.