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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

linger.

To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈlɪŋɡɚ/General-American/ˈliŋɡɚ//ˈlɪŋɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.

    intransitive
  2. To remain alive or existent although still proceeding toward death or extinction; to die gradually.

    intransitive
  3. To consider or contemplate for a period of time; to engage in analytic thinking or discussion.

    idiomatic · intransitive · often
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lengeren, frequentative of lengen (“to stay, dwell, tarry”), from Old English lenġan (“to lengthen, delay, extend”), from Proto-West Germanic *langijan, from Proto-Germanic *langijaną (compare West Frisian lingje (“to linger”), Dutch lengen, German längen, Icelandic lengja (“to lengthen”)), related to the root of English long. Equivalent to linge or long + -er (frequentative verb suffix).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.