Library / English Dictionary

EXTENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The distance or area or volume over which something extends

Example:

an orchard of considerable extent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("extent" is a kind of...):

magnitude (the property of relative size or extent (whether large or small))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "extent"):

coverage (the extent to which something is covered)

frontage (the extent of land abutting on a street or water)

bound; boundary; limit (the greatest possible degree of something)

ambit; compass; orbit; range; reach; scope (an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:)

area; expanse; surface area (the extent of a 2-dimensional surface enclosed within a boundary)

length (the property of being the extent of something from beginning to end)

deepness; depth (the extent downward or backward or inward)

Derivation:

extend (stretch out over a distance, space, time, or scope; run or extend between two points or beyond a certain point)

extend (span an interval of distance, space or time)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The point or degree to which something extends

Example:

to a certain extent she was right

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("extent" is a kind of...):

degree; level; point; stage (a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process)

Derivation:

extend (extend in scope or range or area)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Since satellites began monitoring sea ice in 1978, researchers have observed a steep decline in the average extent of Arctic sea ice for every month of the year.

(Arctic Sea Ice Annual Minimum Ties Second Lowest on Record, NASA)

The extent of damage depends on the length and intensity of exposure and time until provision of treatment.

(Burn, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

Normal cells provide enough asparagine for their own needs through biosynthesis and are affected to a lesser extent by this treatment.

(Catabolic Pathway for Asparagine and Aspartate, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The final result of a determination of the value, significance, or extent of.

(Assessment, NCI Thesaurus)

This process is involved in regulating the extent of the response to receptor binding, as well as regulating active populations of immune cells.

(Negative Regulation of Immunologic Factor Signaling, NCI Thesaurus)

• The average Arctic sea ice extent for October was 28.5 percent below the 1981–2010 average.

(Last month tied as 3rd warmest October on record for the globe, NOAA)

By a singular and happy chance, we are able to some extent to check what passed along this road during the night in question.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“To some extent,” he answered, thoughtfully.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Photographs of faces under LPS lighting were also matched to greens, but to a lesser extent.

(Rosy health and sickly green: color associations play robust role in reading faces, National Institutes of Health)

Any process that decreases the frequency, rate or extent of apoptosis in B cells, T cells or natural killer cells.

(Negative Regulation of Lymphocyte Apoptotic Process, NCI Thesaurus)