Extent

How to spell extent

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce extent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does extent mean?

1. nounThe range, scope, or degree to which something reaches or applies.

Extent in a sentence

• The surveyor measured the full extent of the property before the sale.

• Managers were shocked by the extent of the damage after the flood.

Where does extent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word goes back to the Latin verb extendere, which literally meant 'to stretch out', formed from ex- 'out' and tendere 'to stretch'. The past participle of that verb was extentus or extensus, and from this idea of something stretched to its limits came the notion of how far a thing reaches. English took the word in the early 1300s through Anglo-French extente, a legal term for the valuation or measured area of land. Over time the strictly legal sense of a surveyed estate broadened into the modern meaning of the scope, range, or degree of anything. The same tendere root still stretches through relatives such as 'extend', 'tension', and 'tent', and remembering 'extend' is a reliable way to keep the spelling steady, since both share that 'ext' opening before the single 't' ending.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• tent (from Latin tendere, to stretch)