extant

adjective

ex·​tant ˈek-stənt How to pronounce extant (audio) ek-ˈstant How to pronounce extant (audio)
ˈek-ˌstant
1
a
: currently or actually existing
the most charming writer extantG. W. Johnson
b
: still existing : not destroyed or lost
extant manuscripts
2
archaic : standing out or above

Examples of extant in a Sentence

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
There are few extant records from that period. one of the oldest buildings still extant
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
There are four versions of Gray’s instrument extant. Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 18 May 2025 The goal should be to complement extant altruism without supplanting it. John Werner, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025 Those samples could have told us about possible conditions for ancient, or even extant, life on the once-watery world—potential knowledge that will now be lost. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 May 2025 But the elephant bird made even the ostrich – which holds the title as the world’s largest extant bird – look petite. Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 11 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for extant

Word History

Etymology

Latin exstant-, exstans, present participle of exstare to stand out, be in existence, from ex- + stare to stand — more at stand

First Known Use

1545, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of extant was in 1545

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Extant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extant. Accessed 28 May. 2025.

Kids Definition

extant

adjective
: existing at the present time : not destroyed or lost

More from Merriam-Webster on extant

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!