extensive
- 1Covering a large area or reaching across a great extent; vast in scope.
The estate included extensive gardens and stretches of woodland.
Firefighters struggled to contain the extensive blaze spreading across the valley.
Similarvast, large, sprawling, expansive, huge
Oppositesmall, limited, confined
Note
Land and territory are its home ground: estates, gardens, woodland and, in Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), a whole empire, "that extensive monarchy." The word entered late Middle English from Late Latin extensivus. It measures spread rather than height or bulk, and it sits most naturally before the noun it sizes.
- 2Considerable in amount, degree, or range.
His extensive knowledge of medieval history impressed the entire panel.
The committee made extensive changes to the original proposal.
Similarcomprehensive, broad, considerable, substantial, thorough
Oppositelimited, minor, slight, minimal
Note
Here the measure moves from ground to things that have no ground, such as research, knowledge and changes. The word suggests both quantity and breadth, as in extensive research on the subject, and it pairs best with abstract nouns or with work done. Where the spatial meaning sizes an area, this one sizes an effort or a body of knowledge.
- 3Of entropy or a system: such that the entropy of independent systems taken together equals the sum of their separate entropies.
In the standard theory the entropy is extensive, so two independent systems taken together have the sum of their separate entropies.
The generalized formula keeps the entropy extensive only when its parameter is set to one.
Similaradditive
Oppositenonextensive
Note
Physics uses the word as a test of additivity. Put two independent systems together and ask whether their total entropy is simply the sum of the parts. A larger total is called superextensive, and a smaller one is called subextensive. In the generalized entropy that Tsallis proposed in 1988, a single parameter decides among the three, and setting it to one gives the extensive case.
Less common meaning
- 4Serving to extend or lengthen; characterized by extension.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of extensive apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
This word entered late Middle English from Late Latin "extensivus", which came from Latin "extensus".