elongatus

Elongatus is a Latin adjective widely used in the scientific names of organisms to indicate elongated morphology. In taxonomy, it is typically used as a specific epithet within a binomial name and is combined with a genus to form the species name. The word itself means elongated, stretched out, or extended, and it derives from Latin elongatus, the past participle of elongare, with the root longus meaning long.

Because species epithets must agree in gender with their genus, elongatus is masculine; when the genus is feminine the form elongata is used, and when neuter, elongatum. In practice, many species across plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms bear an epithet derived from elongatus, reflecting a morphological feature such as a long body part, leaf, spine, or inflorescence. It is one of many Latin adjectives used in taxonomy to encode descriptive traits.

In formal writing, the binomial name is presented with the genus capitalized and the epithet lowercase, and many style guides italicize the whole species name; the epithet by itself is not capitalized.

Because elongatus is a descriptive epithet rather than a taxonomic group, there is no single organism called “elongatus”; instead, it appears in multiple, independent species across different genera. For researchers, databases and taxonomic repositories can show the full list of species whose epithet is elongatus.