Elongated

How to spell elongated

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce elongated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elongated mean?

1. adjectiveStretched out so as to be longer than usual, or having an unusually long, narrow shape.
2. verbMade or became longer; stretched out in length or duration.

Elongated in a sentence

• adjective

  The new sports car had a sleek, elongated bonnet.

• verb

  The editor elongated the article by adding two extra paragraphs.

• adjective

  The artist drew the figures with elongated limbs for dramatic effect.

• verb

  Heat had elongated the metal rod by several millimetres.

Where does elongated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin elongare, meaning 'to remove to a distance' or 'to prolong', which was formed from the prefix ex-, meaning 'out' or 'away', and longus, the ordinary Latin word for 'long'. In medieval Latin the sense drifted toward stretching something out in space or in time, and English took it up through Old French in the late 1300s. The early English meaning was actually 'to move far off' or 'to remove to a distance', and only later did the modern sense of 'made longer or stretched out in shape' become dominant. The very same longus root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'long', 'longitude', and 'prolong', which is a useful memory anchor: the spelling keeps that visible 'long' in the middle. The single l after the opening e is the usual stumbling block, since the word sounds as though it might want a double letter that it does not have.

How the word is built

• e- (from ex-: out)
• long (long)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past participle/adjective suffix)