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length
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
length
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a piece/length/strand of wire
▪ The pieces of wire he’d cut were too short.
an amount/a length of time
▪ Customers only have a limited amount of time to inspect the goods.
be equal in size/length/height etc
▪ The population of each town is roughly equal in size.
be of equal size/length/height etc
▪ Draw two lines of equal length.
cut sth to size/length (=so that it is the size/length you need)
▪ The place where I bought the wood cut it to size for me.
focal length
half the price/size/length etc
▪ It’s only half the size of a normal violin.
▪ They offered to pay half the cost of repairs.
(of) medium height/length/build
▪ She’s of medium height.
▪ hair of medium length
of unequal size/length etc
▪ two rooms of unequal size
runs the length of
▪ The Sierra mountain range runs the length of the north west coast of Majorca.
three-quarter length
▪ a three-quarter length coat
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
average
▪ The specialisms of geriatrics and orthopaedic surgery have recorded the largest decreases in average length of stay.
▪ To begin with, the average length of time per customer transaction tripled, which meant longer lines and increased waiting times.
▪ The average length of stay of readmitted patients was 12 days compared with 15 for those not readmitted.
▪ The average length of a bull market is 28 months, according to Ibbotson.
▪ So short of an immediate recovery, this recession will be longer than the 11-month average length of recessions since the war.
▪ Regardless of who or what triggered these placements, the average length of stay was reported as 15. 4 months.
▪ The average length of time in this accommodation was 10 months.
▪ The average length of service of my colleagues in London fell rapidly from six years to less than two years.
considerable
▪ Here, some one had gone to considerable lengths to get the cushions toning in nicely with the curtains.
▪ If pump failure should occur during your absence, the fishes could live for a considerable length of time.
▪ Ninety autobiographies refer to grandparents, sometimes at considerable length.
▪ GasGenie has gone to considerable lengths to make the site easy to find.
▪ This is reflected, as the University goes to considerable lengths to import sportsmen.
▪ I have spent too many hours on these Benches arguing on behalf of Bills, often at considerable length.
▪ They went to considerable lengths to remove all traces of her from the offices and rooms she had used at the Palace.
▪ J., we become so entangled in the tale that its considerable length is hardly noticeable.
different
▪ The two lips of the drum are of the same thickness hut follow arcs of different lengths.
▪ This is particularly important when a column has entries of different lengths.
▪ Each string has a different length so you will each be investigating a different size circle.
▪ Some people prefer different line lengths.
▪ They were also regularly penetrated day and night by a variety of trains of different lengths and sizes.
▪ Try using different lengths of pencil. 7.
▪ Take the case of the copywriter charged with advertising men's shirts with three different sleeve lengths.
▪ The wave theory also explains the existence of different colours of light: they are just waves of different lengths.
entire
▪ The lateral membrane takes up the entire length of one side of the chamber, pushing the grapes against the other side.
▪ Sedimenting particles in the horizontal-head centrifuge must travel the entire length of the liquid in the tube.
▪ The freak wave broke top to bottom across the entire length of the Bay.
▪ She walks back and forth, slowly, the entire length of the bus.
▪ The flexible rod in its back which runs the entire length of its body carries transverse bands of muscles.
▪ One has antennae much larger than its entire body length.
▪ The proposal covers the entire length of the 30-acre site, from County Hall to Waterloo Bridge.
▪ Analysis was confined to those crypts whose entire lengths could be completely visualised and which contained a single layer of cells only.
equal
▪ The circle is a special case of the ellipse in which the two axes are equal in length.
▪ The radiating ribs of a fan are of equal length and the bounding line is in the form of a semicircle.
▪ Take a sharp knife and cut the roll into four equal lengths.
▪ The lines must be of equal length, and fully paid-out before launch.
▪ There are proximally 8 slightly rugose arm spines, the second dorsalmost one the largest, equal in length to 3 segments.
▪ There are 5 short arm spines, the longest is scarcely equal in length to one segment.
▪ You will need a strip of paper to equal this length by at least the desired depth of your pelmet.
▪ We must assume either that all chains between junctions are of equal stretched length or that there is some definable length distribution.
focal
▪ The image produced by a diverging lens is however frequently virtual and consequently the focal length does not seem easy to determine.
▪ Properties of a parabola All parabolas are similar. Focal length a determines the magnitude.
▪ A single focal length, fixed-focus is often sufficient.
▪ This does cause a problem in that you need shorter focal length lenses to obtain the same effect.
full
▪ I always enjoyed walking the full length of the street to check how the other shops were faring.
▪ Then he simply extends the arrow to full length once more while appearing to cough the whole thing up again.
▪ The stick began to grow shorter at both ends.Then it shot out to full length again.
▪ Zips: the two-way zip is well protected inside with a baffle and has anti-snag webbing along its full length.
▪ He can still lie full length in it.
▪ Anthea turned out the light and stretched full length on the bed.
▪ Zips: the full length zip is protected inside with a zip baffle.
▪ He spread the strip out to full length.
great
▪ Cecil had expressed his own attitude at great length and less clarity a year or two before this.
▪ Yet Phillips climbed the wall anyway, went to great lengths to hurt his ex-girlfriend.
▪ It is likely that Celsus discussed the matter at greater length, and with greater clarity.
▪ Lombardi went to great lengths over the weekend to deny the Sharks were pursuing Gretzky.
▪ George Bush went to great lengths to keep out of his way on the campaign trail.
▪ Bartley goes to great lengths to make each kit as easy as possible.
▪ This subject was discussed at greater length in Chapter 9.
▪ And recently Tucson Water has gone to great lengths to become a private utility.
long
▪ The dredging and deepening of long lengths of the existing canal; 3.
▪ P would like to see the debt spread out over a longer length of time.
▪ Chunky long length bobble sweater, £269, in a variety of colours.
▪ I use long lengths of floating row cover, anchored with bricks and stones, on annual and perennial beds.
▪ Moulding planes are excellent to work with, but the job of producing long lengths of moulding can be very time-consuming.
▪ The paternoster I use is the genuine article, which entails a long bomb length and a short hook length.
▪ Uginox is lightweight, vandal resistant and can be laid in long lengths, eliminating the need for cross joints.
▪ Reaching the ridge, a logjam of bewildered novices develops. Long lengths of rope trail dangerously on the ground.
maximum
▪ Minimum length is one character and maximum length is 52 characters.
▪ The maximum length of stay is seven days; reservations must be requested no earlier than 30 days before travel.
▪ Once you know the maximum width and length required, you can decide which way the sheet will be laid.
▪ Action: The maximum length of any line which can be used in a module header is 255 characters.
▪ Unless otherwise specified, all fields have a maximum length of 20 characters, including colons, square brackets, etc.
▪ When the file is closed, the directory is updated to show the maximum used length of the file.
▪ There is a £3.50 entry fee per manuscript and a maximum length of 2,500 words.
▪ The shadows of the stones stretched to their maximum length, while the sun seemed to rest on the horizon.
short
▪ Film loops or mini-films are usually single concept films of a short length, say ten minutes.
▪ At breakfast a short length of bamboo was seen floating away behind the raft.
▪ Patients readmitted consistently had a shorter length of stay in all specialisms than non-readmitted patients.
▪ The human eye and brain are much happier reading short to medium length unjustified lines although books are conventionally justified.
▪ In the field, the tanker runs alongside the injector and feeds it via a short length of hose.
▪ Where a short length is required, you have to cut these notches yourself.
▪ There are several special fittings for doing this, including a short length of pipe and push-fit brass or plastic fittings.
▪ The paternoster I use is the genuine article, which entails a long bomb length and a short hook length.
total
▪ The total length of the basic training process is often debated.
▪ Therefore the total unraveled length of a network can be shortened by adding nodes to it!
▪ That figure is arrived at by multiplying the total length of traffic jams by their duration.
▪ Remember, the total length the leader should be 6 feet or less.
▪ The section length occupied by the respective injury grades was expressed as a percentage of the total section length.
▪ The total length of the lines connecting those three cities is 3, 000 miles.
▪ The total length of the Aeschylean corpus, however, provides rather a narrow base for statistical treatment.
▪ This led to the line being extended thither, the total length then being 380 versts.
whole
▪ From the air she was able to see the whole length of the valley and she could only guess at its size.
▪ Keep your notes for at least a full year - and probably for the whole length of the course.
▪ Either that or using one player to dribble the whole length of the pitch.
▪ Often the whole length of the radial shields is visible and they may be bowed upwards in some specimens.
▪ Soundlessly, he swept his forearm down the whole length of the mantelpiece, scattering cards and ornaments alike.
▪ I discussed the whole issue at length with Vivienne and decided I should tough it out.
▪ The heat from this fire warmed the whole length and breadth of the bothy, a stone longhouse of one single room.
▪ The first autumn mists made it difficult to see the whole length of the reach.
■ VERB
cut
▪ If the outlet is directly over the pipe, simply cut the pipe to length and push it over the outlet connection.
▪ They are displayed whole at meat counters or are cut into short lengths and packaged.
▪ He cut off his shoulder length hair, put on a suit, and started dealing with bankers.
▪ This fastening can be cut to any length as it is available by the metre or sold in pre-packed form.
▪ An immigration-reform measure pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee would cut the length of employment to three years, but Sen.
▪ They were straightened, then cut to length on a saw, drilled, and placed adjacent to their assembly points.
▪ The aluminium tube is then cut to length as required with a hacksaw.
discuss
▪ The Polytechnic Chaplaincy was discussed at some length.
▪ He discussed at length the procedures of advanced research: tales of meticulous quests for elusive sources.
▪ The criteria employed for the weeding process are discussed at some length in Chapter 11.
▪ Although seemingly obvious, this principle is quite slippery and difficult to follow for reasons discussed at length in the next chapter.
▪ The service developments which followed the Home Support Project will be discussed at greater length in the final chapter.
▪ This subject was discussed at greater length in Chapter 9.
▪ These are the ones we have already discussed at length, such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
▪ There are many reasons for this, which Romaine discusses at some length.
go
▪ Dealers, sometimes surreptitiously encouraged by their firms, would go to great lengths to extract information from employees of rival firms.
▪ Not worth investigating, never mind going to the lengths of deadly sabotage.
▪ The Medieval church went to some lengths to specify the roles of particular stones in religious imagery.
▪ Reporters will also go to desperate lengths to get invitations to the White House Christmas party.
▪ George Bush went to great lengths to keep out of his way on the campaign trail.
▪ We go to great lengths to keep track of what a robber did, but none to find out where he went.
▪ But 50-year-old Thaw has gone to extreme lengths to keep his location secret and has turned into a virtual recluse.
▪ The locals go to suicidal lengths to overtake vehicles travelling only marginally slower than themselves.
reach
▪ He opened the door, allowing it to reach only the length of the chain.
▪ It reaches a length of about a foot, but is commonly seen at five to six inches.
▪ Another favoured prey item is the giant squid, which can reach lengths of 12m.
▪ Giraffe catfish can reach a length well in excess of two feet in their natural environment.
▪ Most are small, about five inches, but some reach a foot in length.
▪ Shubunkins and comets are slower growing but can still reach a length of 8-10 inches.
run
▪ Next door, the living room is large and beautifully proportioned, running the length of the house.
▪ Then Red runs the length of the court, grabs a pass, drives to the basket and sinks one.
▪ A prickling sensation running the length of her spine told her that Rourke had made an appearance.
▪ Rumor was that this tiger had special powers hidden in the dark-black stripes that ran the length of its rich orange-colored coat.
▪ A long corridor ran down the length of the building with doors leading off on both sides.
▪ The closet was deep and wide, but it only ran half the length of the wall.
▪ Kadan was stretched out across a couch which was placed under one of the windows which ran the length of the room.
▪ A groined passage ran along the length of the site connecting both offices, with the stairs leading off it.
stretch
▪ I swung my boots up on to the bed and stretched out full length.
▪ And the line, which stretched nearly the length of Mizner Park, moved quickly.
▪ Eliot was stretched the length of his iron bedstead.
▪ The field of battle which our commanding generals selected stretched its length for six miles through that great forest....
▪ Anthea turned out the light and stretched full length on the bed.
▪ Horton had stretched lengths of fabric, also figured, over the doors, creating a deep, cave-like illusion.
▪ The exit was impossible to reach as this abyss stretched the length of the floor.
▪ The Headmaster turned towards a row of small carts sitting on a miniature railway track that stretched the length of the corridor.
vary
▪ Because games may vary slightly in length you may not start at the exact time given.
▪ There was a concatenation of ladies that he squired around for varying lengths of time.
▪ Depending upon the style of kungfu being practised, the forms vary in length and degrees of difficulty.
▪ The Koran is a book divided into 114 suras of varying length, from a few lines to several pages.
▪ However, the slats are of varying lengths and the barrel is leaking.
▪ Different tasks require varying lengths of time to complete.
▪ Somerville-1941 Special Report Degree courses vary in length, but because of the war our stay at Somerville varied even more.
▪ Ideally you should vary your sentence length, establishing a rhythm for your writing.
walk
▪ I always enjoyed walking the full length of the street to check how the other shops were faring.
▪ We walked the length of South Finger with its series of wooden hides.
▪ I would have to walk the length of the shed to reach him.
▪ She had to walk nearly its full length before finding a seat in a non-smoking carriage.
▪ He picked up the ball and walked the length of the yard with six of us hanging on him.
▪ She walked the length of the street without finding the office.
▪ The girl rose, put her comic down, and walked the length of the car to the toilet.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
hold sth at arm's length
keep/hold sb at arm's length
▪ Economic policies kept the Soviet Union and Japan at arm's length during the Cold War.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Actually, no-one has legs of exactly equal length.
▪ Aksar won by three lengths.
▪ Do you want your hair at the back to be the same length as the sides?
▪ Greene's book is less than half the length of most novels.
▪ I like the length of this skirt.
▪ Measure the length of all three sides of the triangle.
▪ Ron swims several lengths every morning.
▪ The average length of a stay in the hospital has dropped sharply.
▪ The leaves reach 20-25 cm in length.
▪ The two pieces or rope were unequal in length.
▪ The windows stretch across the whole length of the wall.
▪ These fish can grow to a length of four feet.
▪ Try these trousers, they look about the right length.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At ten lengths the furthest Pfalz turned to meet the attack, far too late.
▪ Bear in mind that all sections must add up to the overall length measurement.
▪ For most of its length it didn't look hard enough and then, with its final roll, it fell in.
▪ In silence, they watched the man's progress along the length of the corridor.
▪ The service developments which followed the Home Support Project will be discussed at greater length in the final chapter.
▪ This in turn led to criticism of the length and complexity of documents that customers were being asked to sign.
▪ Thread a small length of round elastic through the base of the puppet.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Length

Length \Length\, v. t. To lengthen. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Length

Length \Length\ (l[e^]ngth), n. [OE. lengthe, AS. leng[eth], fr. lang, long, long; akin to D. lengte, Dan. l[ae]ngde, Sw. l["a]ngd, Icel. lengd. See Long, a. ]

  1. The longest, or longer, dimension of any object, in distinction from breadth or width; extent of anything from end to end; the longest line which can be drawn through a body, parallel to its sides; as, the length of a church, or of a ship; the length of a rope or line.

  2. A portion of space or of time considered as measured by its length; -- often in the plural.

    Large lengths of seas and shores.
    --Shak.

    The future but a length behind the past.
    --Dryden.

  3. The quality or state of being long, in space or time; extent; duration; as, some sea birds are remarkable for the length of their wings; he was tired by the length of the sermon, and the length of his walk.

  4. A single piece or subdivision of a series, or of a number of long pieces which may be connected together; as, a length of pipe; a length of fence.

  5. Detail or amplification; unfolding; continuance as, to pursue a subject to a great length.

    May Heaven, great monarch, still augment your bliss With length of days, and every day like this.
    --Dryden.

  6. Distance. [Obs.] He had marched to the length of Exeter. --Clarendon. At length.

    1. At or in the full extent; without abbreviation; as, let the name be inserted at length.

    2. At the end or conclusion; after a long period. See Syn. of At last, under Last.

      At arm's length. See under Arm.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
length

Old English lengðu "length," from Proto-Germanic *langitho, noun of quality from *langgaz (root of Old English lang; see long (adj.)) + *-itho, abstract noun suffix (see -th (2)).\n

\nCognate with Old Norse lengd, Old Frisian lengethe, Dutch lengte. Figurative sense of "the distance one goes, extremity to which something is carried" is from 1690s. Phrase at length "to full extent" is attested from c.1500.

Wiktionary
length

n. 1 The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object. 2 duration 3 (context horse racing English) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race. 4 (context mathematics English) distance between the two ends of a line segment. 5 (context cricket English) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman. 6 (context figuratively English) Total extent. 7 Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something. vb. (context obsolete English) To lengthen.

Related phrases:
WordNet
length

  1. n. the linear extent in space from one end to the other; the longest horizontal dimension of something that is fixed in place; "the length of the table was 5 feet"

  2. continuance in time; "the ceremony was of short duration"; "he complained about the length of time required" [syn: duration]

  3. the property of being the extent of something from beginning to end; "the editor limited the length of my article to 500 words"

  4. size of the gap between two places; "the distance from New York to Chicago"; "he determined the length of the shortest line segment joining the two points" [syn: distance]

  5. a section of something that is long and narrow; "a length of timber"; "a length of tubing"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Length

In geometric measurements, length is the most extended dimension of an object. In the International System of Quantities, length is any quantity with dimension distance. In other contexts "length" is the measured dimension of an object. For example, it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire thickness.

Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, which are the distance from side to side, measuring across the object at right angles to the length. Length is a measure of one dimension, whereas area is a measure of two dimensions (length squared) and volume is a measure of three dimensions (length cubed). In most systems of measurement, the unit of length is a base unit, from which other units are defined.

Length (disambiguation)

Length in its basic meaning is the long dimension of an object.

Length may also refer to:

  • Length measurement
  • Length (phonetics), in phonetics
    • Vowel length
    • Geminate consonant
  • Arc length
  • Length of a module, in abstract algebra
  • Length of a polynomial
  • Vector field length in vector calculus
  • Line and length in cricket
  • Horse length in equestrianism
  • Nautical term: Length overall
Length (phonetics)

In phonetics, length or quantity is a feature of sounds that have distinctively extended duration compared with other sounds. There are long vowels as well as long consonants (the latter are often called geminates).

Many languages do not have distinctive length. Among the languages that have distinctive length, there are only a few that have both distinctive vowel length and distinctive consonant length. It is more common that there is only one or that they depend on each other.

The languages that distinguish between different lengths have usually long and short sounds. According to some linguists, Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic (meaning-distinguishing) lengths for consonants and vowels. Some Low German/ Low Saxon varieties in the vicinity of Hamburg and some Moselle Franconian and Ripuiarian Franconian varieties do, too.

Strictly speaking, a pair of a long sound and a short sound should be identical except for their length. In certain languages, however, there are pairs of phonemes that are traditionally considered to be long-short pairs even though they differ not only in length, but also in quality, for instance English "long e" which is (as in feet ) vs. "short i" which is (as in fit ) or German "long e" which is (as in Beet 'garden bed') vs. "short e" which is (as in Bett 'sleeping bed'). Also, tonal contour may reinforce the length, as in Estonian, where the over-long length is concomitant with a tonal variation resembling tonal stress marking.

In transcription, diacritics may occur over either the base letter, the length sign, or both. For example, in some non-rhotic varieties of English the /t/ of the word party may be nearly elided, with just some breathy-voice remaining, in which case it may be transcribed . When both length and tone are moraic, a tone diacritic may appear twice, as in (falling tone on a long vowel). A morpheme may be reduced to length plus nasalization, in which case a word might be transcribed . If the length is morphemic, the morphemes would be and .

In non-linear phonology, the feature of length is often not a feature of a specific sound segment, but rather of the whole syllable.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "length".

That some matter is absorbed from the gluten, we have clear evidence in the length of time during which the tentacles remain inflected, and in the greatly changed colour of the glands.

The cost of abutments and bridge flooring is practically independent of the length of span adopted.

In his declaration he made rise of the singular pretext, that the more enemies there were against Napoleon there would be the greater chance of speedily obliging him to accede to conditions which would at length restore the tranquillity of which Europe stood so much in need.

The latter of those mighty streams, which rises at the distance of only thirty miles from the former, flows above thirteen hundred miles, for the most part to the south-east, collects the tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is, at length, through six mouths, received into the Euxine, which appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters.

His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Christian religion.

I reached Acies Castle, having walked almost the entire length of the city.

However, as Jones persisted in his desire of seeing him, a vociferous drawer at length found means to disturb his slumbers, and to acquaint him with the message.

The bill came before the house of lords on the 2nd of February, when it was opposed by Lord Brougham, in a speech of great length, and in an acrimonious spirit.

When one views the intricacies of adaptation of the San in the Kalahari or the Inuit of the far north, it is apparent that the huge body of knowledge that enables these human cultures to adapt to such extremes was cultured over immense lengths of time.

But he let Addle play the Fates, spinning out the length of the kiss and cutting it when she saw fit.

In the course of their deliberations they addressed his majesty for more information, till at length the truth seemed to be smothered under such an enormous burden of papers, as the efforts of a whole session could not have properly removed.

DEAR SON,--I wrote you at length and sent it by Don Ferdinand, who left to go yonder twenty-three days ago to-day, with the Lord Adelantado and Carbajal, from whom I have since heard nothing.

The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridge of boats, five miles in length, over the River Drave, and the adjacent morasses, has been always considered as a place of importance in the wars of Hungary.

When this part is irritated by contact with any object, by caustic, or by a thin slice being cut off, the upper adjoining part of the radicle, for a length of from 6 or 7 to even 12 mm.

The Managers of the House objected to the admission of the testimony and the question of its admissibility was argued at length by General Butler, by Judge Curtis, and by Mr.