long shot

1. 1.

   a venture that involves great risk but promises great rewards

   Broadergamble
2. 2.

   a contestant that is unlikely to win

   Broadercontestant

Questions about long shot

What does long shot mean?

long shot means "a venture that involves great risk but promises great rewards". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is long shot a common word?

long shot is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.