different between reach vs length

English

Etymology

From Middle English rechen, from Old English r??an (“to reach”), from Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, from Proto-Germanic *raikijan?, from the Proto-Indo-European *rey?- (“to bind, reach”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?t??/
• Rhymes: -i?t?
• Homophone: reech

Verb

reach (third-person singular simple present reaches, present participle reaching, simple past and past participle reached or (obsolete) raught)

1. (intransitive) To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).

2. (transitive) To give to someone by stretching out a limb, especially the hand; to give with the hand; to pass to another person; to hand over.

3. (intransitive) To stretch out the hand.
4. (transitive) To attain or obtain by stretching forth the hand; to extend some part of the body, or something held, so as to touch, strike, grasp, etc.

5. (intransitive) To strike or touch with a missile.

6. (transitive, by extension) To extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.
   • 1889, The Kindergarten-Primary Magazine (volume 1, page 119)

     A few words, lovingly, encouragingly spoken failed to reach her heart.
7. (transitive) To extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.

8. (transitive) To arrive at (a place) by effort of any kind.
   • 1705-1715, George Cheyne, Philosophical Principles of Religion Natural and Revealed

     the best Accounts of the Appearances of Nature (in any single Instance how minute or simple soever) human Penetration can reach, comes infinitely short of its Reality
9. (transitive, figuratively) To make contact with.

   Synonyms: contact, get hold of, get in touch

10. (transitive, figuratively) To connect with (someone) on an emotional level, making them receptive of (one); to get through to (someone).

    What will it take for me to reach him?

11. (intransitive, India, Singapore) To arrive at a particular destination.
12. (transitive) To continue living until, or up to, a certain age.

13. (obsolete) To understand; to comprehend.

    • Do what, sir? I reach you not.

14. (obsolete) To overreach; to deceive.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

15. To strain after something; to make (sometimes futile or pretentious) efforts.
    • 2015, Janet S. Steinwedel, The Golden Key to Executive Coaching

      Repetitious comments are other examples of introjects that we take on as if they were truths. These include: You're lazy; you're selfish; you'll never amount to anything; you have big dreams; don't you think you're reaching a bit; try something more attainable; you were never good in math; you're not quick on your feet; you're oblivious to the world around you.

16. (intransitive) To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, page 4:

      The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide.

17. (nautical) To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
18. To experience a vomiting reflex; to gag; to retch.

Usage notes

• In the past, raught, rought and retcht could be found as past tense forms; these are now obsolete, except perhaps in some dialects.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

reach (plural reaches)

1. The act of stretching or extending; extension.
2. The ability to reach or touch with the person, a limb, or something held or thrown.

   The fruit is beyond my reach.

   to be within reach of cannon shot

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VI

     […] and we have learned not to fire at any of the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after hitting them in the brain or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their hearts—it takes them so long to die.

3. The power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity.
   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI

     Drawn by others who had deeper reaches than themselves to matters which they least intended.
4. Extent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     And on the left hand, hell, / With long reach, interposed.

   • 1999, Evan J. Mandery, The Campaign: Rudy Giuliani, Ruth Messenger, Al Sharpton, and the Race to be Mayor of New York City

     While points measure the number of times the average person in a group sees an ad, reach measures the percentage of people in a group that see an ad at least once. Increasing the reach of an ad becomes increasingly expensive as you go along (for the mathematically inclined, it is an exponential function).

5. (informal) An exaggeration; an extension beyond evidence or normal; a stretch.

   To call George eloquent is certainly a reach.

6. (boxing) The distance a boxer's arm can extend to land a blow.
7. (nautical) Any point of sail in which the wind comes from the side of a vessel, excluding close-hauled.
8. (nautical) The distance traversed between tacks.
9. (nautical) A stretch of a watercourse which can be sailed in one reach (in the previous sense). An extended portion of water; a stretch; a straightish portion of a stream, river, or arm of the sea extending up into the land, as from one turn to another. By extension, the adjacent land.
   • December 2011, Dan Houston, Sailing a classic yacht on the Thames, Classic Boat Magazine

     Close-hauled past flats at Island Gardens opposite the old Royal Naval College at Greenwich we’d been making more than seven knots over the ground and we came close enough to touch the wall. It had felt like roller-blading – long lee-bowed boards down the reaches of this historic river. They have such great names: Bugsby’s Reach, Gallions [Reach], Fiddler’s [Reach] or the evocative Lower Hope [Reach].

   • The river's wooded reach.

   • the gulfe Iasius, and all the coast thereof is very full of creekes and reaches.

10. A level stretch of a watercourse, as between rapids in a river or locks in a canal. (examples?)
11. An extended portion or area of land or water.
    • 2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey.

12. (obsolete) An article to obtain an advantage.
    • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

      The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own, under hand, to cross the design.

13. The pole or rod connecting the rear axle with the forward bolster of a wagon.
14. An effort to vomit; a retching.

Derived terms

reaches

Translations

Anagrams

• Arche, acher, arche, chare, chear, rache

Mòcheno

Etymology

From Middle High German r?ch, from Old High German r?h, from Proto-West Germanic *raih?, from Proto-Germanic *raihô, *raih? (“deer”). Cognate with German Reh, English roe.

Noun

reach n

1. roe deer

References

• “reach” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

reach n (plural reagen, diminutive reachje)

1. spiderweb

Further reading

• “reach”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþ?, equivalent to long +? -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: l?ng(k)th, l?n(t)th, IPA^(key): /l??(k)?/, /l?n(t)?/
• Rhymes: -??k?, -???, -?nt?, -?n?

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively) Total extent.

7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.

8. (theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
   • 1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club (page 38)

     […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

   • 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, ?Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre (page 45)

     The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.