First Known Use: 1545
Dictionary
extant
adjective ex·tant \ˈek-stənt; ek-ˈstant, ˈek-ˌ\
: in existence : still existing : not destroyed or lost
Full Definition of EXTANT
1
archaic : standing out or above
2
a : currently or actually existing <the most charming writer extant — G. W. Johnson> b : still existing : not destroyed or lost <extant manuscripts>
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Examples of EXTANT
- There is, he reports, no extant copy of the Super Bowl I television broadcast; nobody bothered to keep the tapes. —Joe Queenan, New York Times Book Review, 1 Feb. 2009
- First produced in the spring of 472 BC, Persians is noteworthy in the corpus of the thirty-two extant Greek tragedies in that it is the only classical Greek drama that dramatizes an actual historical event. —Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review, 21 Sept. 2006
- [George] Lucas' brain teemed with plots and characters, exotic creatures, worlds to be spun out of the words and sketches in his notebooks. Also, by numbering the extant episodes IV, V and VI, he was implicitly promising a prequel trilogy… —Richard Corliss, Time, 9 May 2005
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Origin of EXTANT
Latin exstant-, exstans, present participle of exstare to stand out, be in existence, from ex- + stare to stand — more at stand
Rhymes with EXTANT
aslant, bacchant, bacchante, bezant, courante, decant, descant, displant, eggplant, enceinte, enchant, explant, face-plant, fire ant, formant, gallant, Gallant, gas plant, grandaunt, houseplant, ice plant, implant, incant, jade plant, land grant, leadplant, levant, Levant, musk plant, pieplant, pissant, plainchant, pourpoint, preplant, recant, red ant, replant, savant, seed plant, snow plant, supplant, transplant, white ant
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