long-form

adjective

ˈlȯŋ-ˌfȯrm 

variants or less commonly longform

: notably long in form in comparison to what is common or typical for works or content of a particular category

Making Michael Jackson's Thriller … spawned the long-form music video.

—Paul Taublieb

His compositions are long-form; by a comparative ratio to most piano players, there's not much soloing. Like good long-form structures, they don't always strike you as such; the written parts ease into solos without giving notice.

—Ben Ratliff

especially, journalism : covering a subject at much greater length and in much greater depth than a standard news article

Long-form and investigative stories were replaced by short, searchable bursts of information.

—Adam Weinstein

Mine was a world made new by memoir and biography, investigative journalism and longform essay.

—E. Ce Miller

Examples of long-form in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This will be the fourth installment in the eight-part true crime series built on long-form investigative journalism. —Detroit Free Press, 7 Apr. 2024

Now, more than a quarter of the more than 3 million creators in its YouTube Partner Program are earning money on Shorts, often in addition to traditional long-form videos, the company announced in a blog post Thursday. —Clare Duffy, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024

While long-form audio used to be the province of dour-sounding NPR and BBC radio documentaries, the proliferation of titles and program formats has massively expanded the boundaries of audio-only storytelling. —Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 27 Mar. 2024

The Academy also made minor tweaks to its definition of what qualifies for the singer-songwriter field (60 percent of tracks must be in Spanish, Portuguese, or other native dialect) and to the long-form video category, reducing the length of a film from 20 minutes to 12. —Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2024

Column One Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. —Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2024

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. —Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 15 Mar. 2024

No, of course Sadie is the most like me because the type of journalism she’s drawn to is probably the type I’m drawn to: long-form narrative nonfiction. —Sonia Rao, Washington Post, 14 Mar. 2024

While those streaming news offerings, which combine original live news hours, replays of their respective broadcast shows, and long-form fare, the BBC News channel is a 24/7 live news offshoot of the larger BBC News organization. —Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1961, in the meaning defined above