prolonged
Americanadjective
-
lasting a long time; lengthy.
Regular or prolonged absence from school without a valid reason may result in the absentee being barred from examinations.
-
lengthened or extended in time or space.
Technological innovations in the ICU have led to artificially prolonged life, with associated costs.
Abnormally shortened or prolonged telomeres are a hallmark of cancer.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of prolonged
Explanation
Something prolonged is long and drawn-out — it's taking longer than it should. A prolonged wait is usually annoying. If a fan throws a drink on the court during a basketball game and it takes an hour to clean it up, and then another hour to re-wax the floor, and then another hour for the players to warm up again...that's a prolonged delay. Anything prolonged has been stretched out further than it should be. America's war with Vietnam was prolonged much longer than anyone expected. If something is tedious, time-consuming, and feels like it's taking forever, it's prolonged.
Vocabulary lists containing prolonged
The Call of the Wild
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Boy: Tales of Childhood
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Britain's Finest Hour Speech - Winston Churchill (1940)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Despite the uptick, officials say California is not included in the cyclosporiasis outbreak that’s hit 15 states, sickening tens of thousands of people with prolonged bouts of diarrhea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Even so, the results suggest that limiting prolonged exposure during periods of poor air quality may be a practical precaution.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
Over the past two decades, numerous studies have documented a rise in both extreme wet spells and prolonged dry periods across East Africa, external.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
A survey carried out in 2025 among Cuban adults detected "extremely severe" levels of depression, anxiety and stress and found a direct relationship between prolonged blackouts and worsening mental health.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
The clay was baked hard in prolonged, intense firing.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
