coverage
- 1The amount and type of attention that news media or other media give to an event or topic.
The election received extensive coverage across both print and broadcast outlets.
Critics argued that the scandal's coverage focused on personalities rather than policy.
UsageOften media coverage; a story gets or receives coverage, which can be extensive, fair or critical.
Similarreporting, attention, publicity
Note
A newsroom measures attention in two ways at once: how much, and what kind. RAIL magazine's Industry Insider column (November 2022) made a pointed observation: the Elizabeth line's added services drew little coverage, mainly because they worked. Success rarely makes the news.
- 2The extent of the protection given by an insurance policy: which risks and costs it will pay for, and which people it includes.
Her health insurance coverage ended the day she left the company.
Standard homeowner policies rarely provide coverage for flood damage.
UsageUsed with for the risk: coverage for flood damage; also dental coverage, health coverage.
Similarprotection
- 3The extent or amount to which something or someone is covered.
Two coats produced even coverage across the entire ceiling.
Satellite images showed that snow coverage across the mountains was far below normal this winter.
Note
The broadest sense, and the one closest to the word's roots: cover comes through Old French covrir from Latin cooperiō, built on con- and operiō. Coverage can mean staff on duty at the phones, a layer of topsoil over clay, or protective fire from a bunker.
- 4The area within which a cell phone, radio, or other network can send and receive signals, or how well signals reach a given place.
The carrier expanded coverage to several rural counties last year.
Coverage drops away completely once you leave the city limits.
UsageYou have, get or lose coverage; coverage area names the region itself.
Note
Radio engineers were mapping coverage long before anyone carried a phone: C. M. Jansky, Jr., wrote in 1931 of a station's "primary coverage area," where reception is free of objectionable interference. The same word also asks how good the signal is where you stand, so it can describe the whole map or a single spot on it.
- 5In team sports, defensive responsibility for guarding an opponent or an area of the field to prevent the other side from scoring.
The cornerback's coverage on the receiver forced an incomplete pass.
Zone coverage left the middle of the field wide open.
Note
Defense seen as an assignment: in American football a defender covers a receiver, and how well he does it is his coverage. Schemes divide into man-to-man coverage, where each defender shadows one opponent, and zone coverage, where each guards a region of the field. The word is most at home in talk about passing plays, where coverage decides whether a throw can be completed.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- American football defenders have assignments to cover receivers. blogs.usafootball.com
- Man-to-man coverage assigns defenders individual opponents to follow. blogs.usafootball.com
- Zone coverage assigns defenders areas of the field. blogs.usafootball.com
Less common meaning
- 6In DNA sequencing, the average number of times each nucleotide in the reconstructed sequence is represented by a read.
Practice
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Origin
Formed in English from "cover" plus the suffix "-age," first attested in 1912. The word "cover" traces back through Middle English and Old French "covrir" to Latin "cooperiō," while "-age" comes through Old French from the Latin ending "-āticum."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The modern English word was formed from cover plus -age. en.wiktionary.org
- The modern English formation is first attested in 1912. en.wiktionary.org
- Cover derives through Middle English and Old French covrir from Latin cooperiō. en.wiktionary.org
- The suffix -age derives through Old French from Latin -āticum. en.wiktionary.org