extant — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Still in existence; not having disappeared.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Synonyms

   existentexisting

   Antonyms

   inextant

   Examples

   extant manuscripts of the Old Testament

   More examples (2)

   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[…]

   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?

   There are many narrow-gauge systems still extant.

   More examples (2)

   Demetreius of Phalerum, a peripatetic philosopher of the fourth century B.C., wrote an amatory treatise entitled Eroticus - no longer, however, extant.

   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.

2. Still alive; not extinct.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Synonyms

   alive and kickinglivingvital

   Antonyms

   extinct

   Examples

   birds are the only extant dinosaurs

   More examples (1)

   I reckon that this one Duke of Weimar did more for the Culture of his Nation than all the English Dukes and Duces now extant, or that were extant since Henry the Eighth gave them the Church Lands to eat, have done for theirs![…]

3. Standing out, or above the rest.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • Obsolete

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   [W]hereas in ſmall fragments or plates, the Ice, though it ſink not to the bottom of the water, will oftentimes ſink so low in it, as ſcarce to leave any part evidently extant above the ſurface of the water, in vaſt quantities of Ice, that extancy is ſometimes ſo conſpicuous, that Navigators in their Voyages to Iſland, Greenland, and other frozen Regions, complain of meeting with lumps, or rather floating rocks of Ice, as high as their main Maſts.

Adjective

1. still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost

   Antonyms

   extinct

   Examples

   extant manuscripts