Expanse
nounA wide, open, continuous area of something such as land, sea, or sky.
How to spell expanse
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce expanse
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does expanse mean?
- nounA wide, open, continuous area of something such as land, sea, or sky.
Expanse in a sentence
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The pilot crossed a vast expanse of ocean before reaching land.
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From the ridge they looked out over a green expanse of farmland.
Where does expanse come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin verb expandere, which meant 'to spread out' or 'to stretch wide', formed from the prefix ex- meaning 'out' and the verb pandere meaning 'to spread or stretch'. By the early 1600s English had taken the noun 'expanse' to describe a wide, open, continuous stretch of something, especially sky, sea, or land. The same pandere root lies behind the everyday verb 'expand' and the word 'spawn', and it is even distantly related to 'pace'. A useful spelling note is that 'expanse' ends in -anse, not the more familiar -ance you see in words like 'distance' or 'balance', and that mismatch is exactly where adult writers slip.
How the word is built
- ex- (out)
- panse (from Latin pandere: to spread, stretch)
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