extent

ik-STENT/ɪkˈstɛnt/

Pluralextents (some meanings)

6 meanings of extent

1
noununcountable
The whole area or distance that something covers or reaches.
Like how far a puddle spreads across the floor.
The fire spread across a huge extent of forest.
From the hill, we could see the full extent of the valley.
Similararea, size, expanse, reach
Note
2
noununcountable
The range that something covers, from the smallest to the largest.
Like a ruler that shows everything from the smallest mark to the biggest.
The chart shows the extent of prices, from cheap to very expensive.
Doctors checked the extent of the patient's symptoms.
Similarrange, scope, spread, span
3
nouncountable
A piece of storage space that sits all in one block in a computer's file system.
Like keeping all of one book's pages together on a shelf instead of spread around the room.
The file system saved the whole document as one extent.
A large file may be stored across several extents.
Note
4
nouncountable
The official value placed on someone's property.
Like the price an official writes down for a house.
The clerk drew up an extent of the manor for the lord's records.
An extent of the estate was made before the sale.
Similarvaluation, appraisal, assessment
5
nouncountable
An old legal order telling the sheriff to seize someone's property to pay a debt owed to the king.
Like a court paper that lets an officer take your things to pay what you owe the government.
The sheriff carried out the extent against the merchant's lands.
An extent was issued to recover the unpaid debt.
Note

Less common meaning

6
adjectiveobsolete
Stretched out or spread across a wide area.
But both his Hands, most filthy feculent, Above the Water were on high extent,
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneHere, extent means stretched out, so his hands were held up above the water.
Note

Practice

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Origin

This word came through Middle English and Old French from Latin "extendere," meaning "to extend."