"long tail" meaning in English

See long tail in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: long tails [plural]
Etymology: In the marketing sense popularized by journalist Chris Anderson in 2004, alluding to the long tail of a power law distribution. Head templates: {{en-noun}} long tail (plural long tails)
  1. (marketing, sometimes capitalized) Sales made for less usual goods within a very large choice, which can return a profit through reduced marketing and distribution costs. Tags: capitalized, sometimes Translations (sales made for less usual goods): longue traîne [feminine] (French)
    Sense id: en-long_tail-en-noun-4c8tAuPa Categories (other): Marketing, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 71 29 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 62 38 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 77 23 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 77 23 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 67 33 Topics: business, marketing Disambiguation of 'sales made for less usual goods': 96 4
  2. (statistics) The tail of a distribution that represents the rare occurrence of extreme values. Related terms: big head, power law, tail risk
    Sense id: en-long_tail-en-noun-oxTDP3q~ Categories (other): Statistics Topics: mathematics, sciences, statistics

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "In the marketing sense popularized by journalist Chris Anderson in 2004, alluding to the long tail of a power law distribution.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "long tails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "long tail (plural long tails)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Marketing",
          "orig": "en:Marketing",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "71 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "62 38",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "67 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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            [
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          "ref": "2004 October, Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail”, in Wired, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Jan 2016:",
          "text": "What’s really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it. Combine enough nonhits on the Long Tail and you’ve got a market bigger than the hits.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              98
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Astra Taylor, quoting Eric Schmidt, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“I would like to tell you that the Internet has made such a level playing field that the Long Tail is absolutely the place to be, that there's so much differentiation, so much diversity, so many new voices. I'd love to tell you that that's in fact how it really works. Unfortunately, it's not,” Schmidt said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sales made for less usual goods within a very large choice, which can return a profit through reduced marketing and distribution costs."
      ],
      "id": "en-long_tail-en-noun-4c8tAuPa",
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
        [
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(marketing, sometimes capitalized) Sales made for less usual goods within a very large choice, which can return a profit through reduced marketing and distribution costs."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "capitalized",
        "sometimes"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "marketing"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "sales made for less usual goods",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "longue traîne"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
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          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Statistics",
          "orig": "en:Statistics",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The tail of a distribution that represents the rare occurrence of extreme values."
      ],
      "id": "en-long_tail-en-noun-oxTDP3q~",
      "links": [
        [
          "statistics",
          "statistics"
        ],
        [
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          "tail"
        ],
        [
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          "distribution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(statistics) The tail of a distribution that represents the rare occurrence of extreme values."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "big head"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "power law"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "tail risk"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "statistics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Chris Anderson (writer)"
  ],
  "word": "long tail"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with French translations"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In the marketing sense popularized by journalist Chris Anderson in 2004, alluding to the long tail of a power law distribution.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "long tails",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "long tail (plural long tails)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "big head"
    },
    {
      "word": "power law"
    },
    {
      "word": "tail risk"
    }
  ],
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        "en:Marketing"
      ],
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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            ],
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2004 October, Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail”, in Wired, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Jan 2016:",
          "text": "What’s really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it. Combine enough nonhits on the Long Tail and you’ve got a market bigger than the hits.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              98
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Astra Taylor, quoting Eric Schmidt, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“I would like to tell you that the Internet has made such a level playing field that the Long Tail is absolutely the place to be, that there's so much differentiation, so much diversity, so many new voices. I'd love to tell you that that's in fact how it really works. Unfortunately, it's not,” Schmidt said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sales made for less usual goods within a very large choice, which can return a profit through reduced marketing and distribution costs."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "marketing",
          "marketing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "capitalized",
          "capitalisation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(marketing, sometimes capitalized) Sales made for less usual goods within a very large choice, which can return a profit through reduced marketing and distribution costs."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "capitalized",
        "sometimes"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "marketing"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Statistics"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The tail of a distribution that represents the rare occurrence of extreme values."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "statistics",
          "statistics"
        ],
        [
          "tail",
          "tail"
        ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(statistics) The tail of a distribution that represents the rare occurrence of extreme values."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "mathematics",
        "sciences",
        "statistics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "sales made for less usual goods",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "longue traîne"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Chris Anderson (writer)"
  ],
  "word": "long tail"
}

Download raw JSONL data for long tail meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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