longitudinal
Americanadjective
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of or relating to longitude or length.
longitudinal measurement.
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extending in the direction of the length of a thing; running lengthwise.
a thin, longitudinal stripe.
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Zoology. pertaining to or extending along the long axis of the body, or the direction from front to back, or head to tail.
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pertaining to a research design or survey in which the same subjects are observed repeatedly over a period of time.
noun
adjective
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of or relating to longitude or length
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placed or extended lengthways Compare transverse
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psychol (of a study of behaviour) carried on over a protracted period of time
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of longitudinal
1535–45; < Latin longitūdin- (stem of longitūdō; see longitude) + -al 1
Explanation
Use the adjective longitudinal to describe something that takes place over a long period of time, like a study of the lifetime eating habits of people who live on islands. Sociologists and other scientists use the word longitudinal when they're talking about long-term research. Geographers also describe things as longitudinal, but instead they mean something that relates to the east-west measurement across the Earth. When doctors use the word, it's in yet another way, describing muscles or other body parts that run lengthwise, rather than up-and-down. Longitudinal comes from the Latin word longitudo, "length or duration."
Vocabulary lists containing longitudinal
The Old Man and the Sea
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 3–February 9, 2024
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Articles on Benefits of Technology
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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.
The study Longitudinal assessment of DNA repair signature trajectory in prodromal versus established Parkinson's disease has been published in npj Parkinson's Disease.
From Science Daily • Jan. 29, 2026
Longitudinal studies usually consist of a “brief self-report at one point in time, and early mortality” at some later point.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 24, 2024
For the majority of multiple jobholders, their side gigs made up about 25% of their total income, according to the Census Bureau analysis of Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2024
Longitudinal waves are like the ones in air.
From Science Daily • Oct. 5, 2023
Department of Education undertook a monumental project called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
