How to Use a long time ago in a Sentence

a long time ago

idiom
  • This was mentioned a long time ago in our sharing about former relationships.
    R. Eric Thomas, The Mercury News, 28 Sep. 2024
  • Bluegrass music is more about social context in a way, but the social context that it was based on was a long time ago, and things have changed.
    Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 25 Sep. 2024
  • That was a long time ago, but that was the most painful thing to feel.
    Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 14 Jan. 2024
  • And the thing is, the grounds for this were established a long time ago.
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Seems like a long time ago the way this season has gone.
    Dallas News, 23 Feb. 2023
  • But, as Dabney says, the movie came out a long time ago.
    Phil Gast, CNN, 30 Apr. 2023
  • One of Ford’s stories is one that was told to her a long time ago.
    Frank Vaisvilas, Journal Sentinel, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Bill is at the precipice that the family crossed with Christy a long time ago.
    Robert Kolker, New York Times, 20 July 2023
  • So is Texas baaaa … Uh, c’mon that became a cliché a long time ago.
    Dallas News, 24 Feb. 2023
  • And has Owen gotten over all the things that happened a long time ago?
    Jennifer Maas, Variety, 24 Sep. 2024
  • The Voyager spacecraft flew by Uranus a long time ago, in 1985.
    Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 5 May 2023
  • We got used to not being played on the radio and stuff like that a long time ago.
    Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2023
  • That long two-week wait for Oregon State seems like a long time ago.
    Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Then the other piece is shows like WordGirl, which launched a long time ago.
    Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Aug. 2023
  • That industry, as of a long time ago, is now standing on the last of its legs.
    Jasmine Browley, Essence, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Perhaps so, but the midterms are beginning to feel like a long time ago.
    Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2023
  • And since the Universe is 13.7 billion years old, that is light from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
    Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 5 Dec. 2023
  • Not in this country, anyway — just three days in a Pakistani prison a long time ago.
    John Koopman, Rolling Stone, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Bergman might have written the story a long time ago, but some things never change.
    Marta Balaga, Variety, 7 Sep. 2024
  • Best Lego Deals for Toddlers Lego learned a long time ago that even the youngest amongst us want to get in on the building action.
    Dorian Smith-Garcia, Parents, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The year 2003 was a long time ago, and the opening Nightcrawler scene could still be the best action sequence of the superhero movie era.
    Nick Romano, EW.com, 26 July 2024
  • The future comes from a long time ago passed to a new generation.
    Megha Kapoor, Vogue, 8 Mar. 2023
  • The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868—a long time ago.
    Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2024
  • That was all before the dreadful things that happened on 7th of October, which seems a long time ago.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Experts and advocates say that leaving lead pipe should have stopped a long time ago.
    Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 10 July 2023
  • If the pandemic could be ended by signing a piece of paper, this whole mess would have been over a long time ago.
    Karen Kaplanscience and Medicine Editor, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2023
  • But, admittedly, that was a long time ago, all the way back in nineteen-dickety-two.
    Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2023
  • The pier’s old Ruby’s Diner shuttered during the pandemic, and those hand pies were a long time ago.
    Jackie Burrell, The Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Mobile County has elected Black judges before, but it’s been a long time ago.
    al, 8 Feb. 2023
  • So people who have started a long time ago who are already at the highest doses may be okay at this point.
    Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 9 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'a long time ago.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: