longa

Longa is a Latin term meaning "long" and it appears in several technical contexts rather than as a single, standalone subject.

In linguistics and classical prosody, longa refers to syllable quantity or vowel length. A syllable or vowel is described as long (longa) or short (brevis). Syllable length affects the meter of verse in classical Latin poetry, where the pattern of long and short syllables determines line structure, cadence, and stress patterns in meters such as dactylic hexameter.

In musical notation, longa is a historical note value used in medieval and Renaissance music. It is a value longer than a breve, with its exact duration varying across time and mensural systems. Longae were common in early polyphony and liturgical music, but the value gradually fell out of use as modern rhythmic notation became standardized during the Baroque period.

In taxonomy and scientific naming, longa appears as a feminine Latin epithet used in various species names to indicate elongated or extended morphology. It is part of the descriptive Latin vocabulary commonly employed in binomial nomenclature, where the form of the epithet (longa, longus, longum) agrees with the gender of the genus name.

See also: longus, longum, longa (disambiguation).