extent
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
the amount, size, or importance of something.
the degree to which something exists, happens, or is true.
Simple“The extent of the damage was only clear after the storm had passed.”
In context“The full extent of the corruption within the department only became apparent after a multi-year investigation by the federal authorities.”
UsageOften used in the phrase 'to some extent' or 'to a certain extent'.
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
the physical area or length that something covers.
the physical space, area, or volume over which something extends.
Simple“From the mountain top, you can see the full extent of the forest.”
In context“The vast extent of the desert made navigation nearly impossible for the early explorers who lacked modern mapping tools.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
a continuous section of storage space on a computer disk.
a contiguous area of storage in a file system, reserved for a particular file.
Simple“The system failed because it could not find a large enough extent for the new file.”
In context“Fragmented files often consist of multiple extents scattered across the physical disk, which can significantly degrade read performance.”
UsageUsed as a countable noun in technical documentation.
- 04 C2 Proficiency
a legal document that allows the government to take a person's property to pay back debts.
a writ allowing for the valuation and seizure of a debtor's property to satisfy a debt to the state.
Simple“The court issued an extent against the merchant's warehouse to recover the unpaid taxes.”
In context“The historical use of the writ of extent allowed the Crown to bypass ordinary civil proceedings to secure immediate payment from defaulting contractors.”
Usage extent of the damage · affect extent · assess extent
“Most people care about all of those things, to different extents.”
“To an extent, that simplifies matters, given that DNA only uses four “letters,” A, T, C, and G.”
From Middle English extente, from Anglo-Norman extente and Old French estente (“valuation of land, stretch of land”), from estendre, extendre (“extend”) (or from Latin extentus), from Latin extendere (See extend.)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.