verb · neutral

lengthen

/ˈleŋθən/LENGTH·en

Band 5-6speakingtask2

make something longer in time or space

Examples

They plan to lengthen the school day to include more lessons.

The tailor lengthened the sleeves of my coat.

Roadworks lengthened the journey by half an hour.

Band 8 sentence

To accommodate feedback, the department decided to lengthen the internship from four to six weeks.

Collocations

  • lengthen the school day
  • lengthen the sleeves
  • lengthen the project timeline

Word family

lengthen vlengthens v (3rd sing)lengthening v -ing / nounlengthened v (past/past participle)

Common mistakes

They will lengthen more the course.They will lengthen the course.

She lengthened the time of exam.She lengthened the exam time.

Say it for a higher band

5get longer6extend7+lengthen

Synonyms

extend

Easily confused

extend

The university decided to extend the application deadline by two weeks.

Related words

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In -en

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