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.
The longstanding joke about Emmy Awards broadcasts, among jaded TV critics anyway, is that an evening dedicated to celebrating the best TV often turns out to be one of the worst shows of the year.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
It also updated the principles that make up the “Novo Way,” the company’s longstanding internal credo, to focus on customers, competitiveness and speed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
There’s a longstanding phenomenon in polling on such issues that parents tend to be critical of education generally but much more positive about the job their own local schools are doing in educating their kids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
“If you’re looking at the arc — not as a Super Bowl but how the NFL wanted to come back to Los Angeles — you have Disney, a longstanding, old-school entertainment partner,” Demoff said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
I mention the recent, widely publicized remarks of Elphias Doge, Special Advisor to the Wizengamot and longstanding friend of Albus Dumbledore’s, that “Skeeter’s book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card.”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
