extent

Etymology

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.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈstɛnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Hyphenation: ex‧tent

Noun

extent (plural extents)

1. A range of values or locations.
2. The space, area, volume, etc., to which something extends.

   The extent of his knowledge of the language is a few scattered words.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But when they came where that dead Dragon lay, / Stretcht on the ground in monstrous large extent

   • 1827, Conrad Malte-Brun, Universal Geography, or A Description of All the Parts of the World, on a New Plan, Edinburgh: Adam Black, volume 6, book 101, 285:

     The surface of the Balaton and the surrounding marshes is not less than 24 German square miles, or 384 English square miles; its principal feeder is the Szala, but all the water it receives appears inconsiderable relatively to its superficial extent, and the quantity lost in evaporation.

   • 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times‎:

     [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.

3. (computing) A contiguous area of storage in a file system.
   • 2019, Richard E. Smith, Elementary Information Security, page 205:

     Each extent contains one or more contiguous clusters. The file system describes each extent with two numbers: the number of the first cluster in the extent, and the number of clusters in the extent.

4. The valuation of property.
5. (law) A writ directing the sheriff to seize the property of a debtor, for the recovery of debts of record due to the Crown.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], lines 1117-20:

     Well, push him out of doors;
     And let my officers of such a nature
     Make an extent upon his house and lands.
     Do this expediently, and turn him going.

Adjective

extent

1. (obsolete) Extended.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But both his Hands, most filthy feculent,
     Above the Water were on high extent,

See also

• scope
• extent on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

extent

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of extō