Showing results for "prolonged"

• past tense form of prolong.
• past participle of prolong.

prolonged

American  

[pruh-lawngd, -longd] / prəˈlɔŋd, -ˈlɒŋd /

adjective

1. lasting a long time; lengthy.

   Regular or prolonged absence from school without a valid reason may result in the absentee being barred from examinations.

2. 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.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of prolong.

Other Word Forms

• unprolonged
  adjective
• well-prolonged
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of prolonged

prolong ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

prolonged

A closer examination showed that the prolonged X-ray emission was being powered directly by the remnant left behind by the merger, rather than by the outward-moving blast wave.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

The Ellisons have been spared a prolonged legal ordeal to make even harder the job of keeping up two sprawling studio facilities located in the high-cost Los Angeles area.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The judge said that, in weighing the sentence, he considered Iza’s history and characteristics, including childhood displacement from Iraq, separation from his parents, neglect, poverty, physical abuse and prolonged social isolation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

People who are more active generally tend to have healthier bowel function, while prolonged inactivity is often associated with slower digestion.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026

He awoke minutes later only to laugh himself to sleep again, and so he continued, laughing and sleeping and laughing again, all afternoon, until at last he slipped into a prolonged slumber.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart