longueur
/lɒŋˈ(ɡ)ɜː/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.06 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A lengthy passage in a dramatic or literary work, especially a dull or tedious one; a period of boredom.
Example Sentences
- "Most of the reasons given for its disappearance make sense: people are happier, busier; the work done by the anti-Freudian skeptics has finally taken hold of the popular imagination, so that people have no time for analytic longueurs and no patience with its mystifications."
- "He cultivated the aura, if not quite of the Anti-Christ, at least of an Anti-Sun King, discountenancing his uncle and shocking the dévots by preferring the intimacy and informality of a clique of drinking companions to the formal longueurs of the courtly round […]."
- "[T]he reader can’t help feeling that a few judicious nips and tucks might have dispersed the longueurs that waft around the third quarter of the book."
- "Claire Fontaine (who are actually a duo) have queered the phrase, lending its pungency and ambiguity to a biennale that I wish were nearly so succinct. There are longueurs. There are detours and incomprehensible delays."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /lɒŋˈ(ɡ)ɜː/