Extant Meaning
/ˈɛk.stənt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjStill in existence; not having disappeared.
adjStill alive; not extinct.
Sentence Examples
But there is no publication extant authenticated with his name.
The yellow-eyed penguin is the sole extant species in the genus Megadyptes.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Only a few ____ manuscripts survive from that era.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The original manuscript of the famous play is no longer ____, only later copies exist.
Word Origin & History
First attested in 1545, from Latin extantem, extāns, present participle of extō (“to stand out, exist, be extant”), from ex- (“out”) + stō (“stand”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]"
— 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond:
"This English Nation, will it get to know the meaning of its strange new Today? Is there sense enough extant, discoverable anywhere or anyhow, in our united twenty-seven million heads to discern the same; valour enough in our twenty-seven million hearts to dare and do the bidding thereof?"
— 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter II, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book I (Proem):
"There are many narrow-gauge systems still extant."
— 1948 May and June, J. Macartney Robbins, “A Railway Tour of Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 150:
"Demetreius of Phalerum, a peripatetic philosopher of the fourth century B.C., wrote an amatory treatise entitled Eroticus - no longer, however, extant."
— 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 75:
"Some have argued that no one moment and/or process of textual formation should be presumed for any of these texts, and that they were constantly in a state of becoming, but the extant evidence does not support such a position."
— 2020, Chaim Milikowsky, “7.6 Philological practices: Hebrew”, in Philipp Roelli, editor, Handbook of Stemmatology: History, Methodology, Digital Approaches, De Gruyter, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 494:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
Only a few ____ manuscripts survive from that era.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The original manuscript of the famous play is no longer ____, only later copies exist.