MEANING
Still in existence, especially after other material from the same period has disappeared.
Use it for
identifying surviving documentary evidence; limiting conclusions to records that remain available; distinguishing preserved material from lost materialIdentifies surviving evidence without implying that it is complete, reliable, or representative. Academic functions: Evidence, Qualification / Uncertainty.
Words that belong together
- extant manuscripts
- extant records
- the earliest extant account
On the page
The earliest extant account was written decades after the event it describes.
The historian compares the extant records while acknowledging that missing correspondence may alter the interpretation.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- extant
Usage notes
Adjective: extant records; the manuscript is extant. Normally non-gradable because existence is categorical. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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