Coverage

How to spell coverage

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce coverage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coverage mean?

1. nounThe extent to which something is included, dealt with, or reported.
2. nounThe protection or range of risks provided by an insurance policy.
3. nounThe geographic area reached by a broadcast or mobile network signal.

Coverage in a sentence

• The documentary gave thorough coverage of the strike and its causes.

• The policy provides coverage for flooding and storm damage.

• The phone lost all coverage once we drove into the valley.

• The report offered detailed coverage of the new tax rules.

• She checked whether her coverage included dental treatment.

• Rural areas still suffer from patchy mobile coverage.

Where does coverage come from?

Language of origin: French

The word is built on the verb 'cover', which reached English through Old French 'covrir' from the Latin 'cooperire', literally 'to cover over completely', formed from 'co-' (an intensifying prefix) plus 'operire' (to close or shut). To that English base was attached the busy French suffix '-age', which forms abstract nouns describing the result, amount, or extent of an action; the same suffix sits inside 'storage', 'mileage', and 'wreckage'. 'Coverage' itself is a comparatively young formation, emerging in the 1800s, and it spread rapidly in the twentieth century as insurance and then mass media gave it precise technical senses. The spelling keeps the silent final 'e' of 'cover' before the '-age' is added, which is the small point writers most often pause over. Knowing that it is simply 'cover' plus '-age', with nothing dropped, removes the doubt.

How the word is built

• cover (from Latin cooperire: to cover over)
• -age (noun suffix meaning the action, result, or extent of)