Elongated means stretched out or made longer, especially in one direction. When you pull a rubber band, it becomes elongated. A dachshund has an elongated body, long and low to the ground. If you stretch out the word “sooooo” when telling a story, you're using an elongated version of “so.”

The word often describes things that are notably longer than they are wide. An elongated shadow stretches across the ground at sunset. A giraffe has an elongated neck. Artists sometimes draw elongated figures to make people look taller and more graceful.

You'll also see elongated used to describe things that take longer than expected. An elongated meeting drags on past its scheduled end time. An elongated pause in conversation feels awkwardly long.

The opposite of elongated is compressed or shortened. While an elongated oval looks like a stretched circle, a compressed shape looks squashed. Think of how your reflection looks elongated in a fun house mirror, making you appear impossibly tall and thin.