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.
Eligible creators who meet YouTube’s shopping affiliate requirements can discover and feature products directly within YouTube Studio, tagging items across long-form videos, [YouTube] Shorts and livestreams. — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 20 Oct. 2026 Their seconds-long spiels have touched on topical news instead, providing brief summaries of subjects like the protests in Europe and the war in Ukraine, as if long-form journalism is incomplete without a quick nod to the daily headlines. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 19 Oct. 2026 Her Instagram long-form project Excellences & Perfections, from 2014, however, was major cringe. — Eugenie Brinkema, ARTnews.com, 17 Oct. 2026 The company produces podcasts, long-form and short-form original content. — Nicole Fell, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 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 24 Oct. 2026.

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