longstanding
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of longstanding
Explanation
Anything longstanding has been around for a long time. If it's a longstanding tradition for your school's senior class to play a prank, that means it was even going on back when your grandfather's class let hundreds of crickets loose in the halls. Humans keeping cats as pets is a longstanding custom, and the habit of cooking food before eating it is also longstanding. You can call yourself a longstanding customer of your town's last remaining video store if you've been going there for years, or a longstanding fan of your favorite tennis player if you've followed her entire career. The adjective longstanding has been around since the early 1800s, so it's longstanding too.
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.
Perpetuals are a new financial product for the U.S., but they didn’t debut on longstanding financial exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange —they are tradable only on Kalshi, the prediction market platform.
From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026
Both of those challengers say plans to bifurcate the city attorney’s office are rooted in longstanding conflicts between Feldstein Soto and the City Council.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026
“Our longstanding love for perfectly salty, buttery fish made it especially important for us to approach this with care.”
From Salon • May 28, 2026
He was at the private screening of “Melania” at the invitation of one of the movie’s producers, Fernando Sulichin, an Argentine who has longstanding ties to Venezuelan officials, people familiar with the matter said.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026
I own as I do not, although I stake a claim on a pretty decent fashion sense, on account of my longstanding friendship with a certain party by the name of Joe Bunch.
From "The Misfits" by James Howe
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.
