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
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Examples of long-form in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Gubbara has nine long-form titles in active development, has produced seven short documentaries, and has one fiction short and one anthology feature in post-production. Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 8 Sep. 2026 When a power user pushes for an extensive, long-form synthesis, the system's optimization guardrails actively fight the input to keep token generation low, sacrificing depth to protect processing margins. New Atlas, 4 Sep. 2026 Hulbert is preparing to release her first long-form fiction novel, which takes readers back to 2007 to follow 29-year-old jewelry sales associate Veronika DeMarco after she was cast on the popular reality TV dating show Man or Million. Charna Flam, PEOPLE, 1 Sep. 2026 Messaging is exempt from the restrictions, and time spent watching long-form videos would not count against the daily limit. Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 27 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for long-form

Word History

First Known Use

1961, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of long-form was in 1961

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Cite this Entry

“Long-form.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/long-form. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

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