long-term

/ˌlɔŋ ˌˈtʌrm/

/ˈlɒŋtəm/

Other forms: longer-term; longest-term

Something that's long-term has lasted for quite a while. If you have a long-term girlfriend, she's been in your life for years.

Use the adjective long-term to describe things that are so enduring that they're nearly permanent. Someone who's a long-term resident of Canada has lived there for a very long time, and news of long-term unemployment is discouraging because it means people have been out of work for months and months. Long-term was originally a word describing only insurance policies, in the 1870's.

Definitions of long-term

1. adjective

   relating to or extending over a relatively long time
   “the long-term reconstruction of countries damaged by the war”

   “a long-term investment”

   synonyms: long-run, semipermanent

   long

   primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified