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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
Patrick Radden Keefe, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026
Owners and trainers spend years pursuing a dream that is decided in just 10 furlongs, or 1.25 miles.
—Karla Walsh, Travel + Leisure, 1 Apr. 2026
The pace indeed was fast, with Baffert’s 4-5 favorite Brant, coming off a four-month layoff, and So Happy, a sprinter stretching out for the first time, going through six furlongs in 1 minute, 10.42 seconds.
—Jay Posner, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2026
Touchdown Arkansas, second in a Feb. 6 prep race, went six furlongs in 1:10.31 under 119 pounds and paid $10, $6 and $4.
—Arkansas Online, 22 Feb. 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 13 Apr. 2026.
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furlong
noun
