in the long term
41
3.7
- idiom
:
a largo plazo
- In the long term, investing in education pays off for both individuals and society.
- effective in the long term
- growth in the long term
- policy in the long term
I don't disagree with that approach, but in the long term how sustainable is it?
- I don't disagree with that approach, but in the long term how sustainable is it?
- Yes, there'll be challenges, but in the long term, it will succeed.
- I'm a firm believer that the true key to great sex in the long term is connection.
- And sometimes the suboptimal answer in the long term is the right one.
- That's a trade off that doesn't cost me anything in the long term.
- And yet it is the most important problem in the long term.
- Our DNA says the only way we survive in the long term is when we take care of each other.
- But in the longer term, it is exhausting to keep making this argument.
- And while that is true in the short term, it is not true in the long term.
- And this is really what's going to help my career out in the long term.
Examples
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Our DNA says the only way we survive in the long term is when we take care of each other.
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Preparing for renewable hydrogen in the long term is perhaps the strongest argument for making wise infrastructure choices today.
Academic text (2000) -
And yes, it certainly does make sense in the long term to identify why did people leave?
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And certainly in the long term it's not better.
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A solution to one in particular could solve most of the others in the long term.
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These are really basic, affordable things that often actually make farmers more money in the long term.
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Yes, there'll be challenges, but in the long term, it will succeed.
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I don't disagree with that approach, but in the long term how sustainable is it?
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In the long term, it will be shown that we owe to the monster a period of prosperity unprecedented in this kingdom.
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Reliability studies and theoretical modeling reinforce confidence in the long-term performance of these new devices.
Academic text (1993)
Synonyms
502
3.0
Lasting for a long time
247
3.0
A time that continues far into the future
205
3.2
A long time when you see the final result of actions
6
4.2
Happening over a long time, not just now
4
3.3
Over a long time into the future
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'over an extended period of time' is directly and compositionally derived from 'in' + 'long' + 'term' (i.e. inside a long period), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer the phrase. This adverbial construction is common and has clear cross-linguistic equivalents (e.g. Spanish 'a largo plazo'), making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
In the long term makes you imagine a very long road or a tree that grows slowly, with long meaning lasting and term meaning time. So it means thinking about results 'in the future' or 'over a long time', not just what happens now.