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Furlong Has Old English Roots
Furlong is an English original that can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh (“furrow”) and the adjective lang (“long”). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow—a trench in the earth made by a plow—in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an acre—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.
Examples of furlong in a Sentence
Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 6 June 2026
Solitude Dude is 4-0 in his four sprints and 2-0 at seven furlongs.
—Geoff Clark Outkick, FOXNews.com, 6 June 2026
Powershift is trying the 10-furlong distance for the first time, but his pedigree screams stamina.
—Teresa Genaro, New York Times, 5 June 2026
Chasing Liberty won the last race before Saturday’s main event, a 5 1/2-furlong sprint that’s also the day’s last race on the Laurel Park turf.
—Taylor Lyons, Baltimore Sun, 16 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for furlong
Cite this Entry
“Furlong.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furlong. Accessed 14 Jun. 2026.
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furlong
noun
