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If you abridge a book or play, you make it shorter by making cuts to the original.
When something attenuates, it lessens in size or intensity; it becomes thin or weakened.
To augment something is to increase its value or effectiveness by adding something to it.
Something that is capacious has a lot of space and can contain a lot of things.
A cavernous space is very large and empty; it is both hollow and huge.
A commodious room or house is large and roomy, which makes it convenient and highly suitable for living.
A copious amount of something is a very large amount of it.
When there is a dearth of something, there is a scarcity or lack of it.
A person is diffuse when they write or speak at length.
A dispersal of something is its scattering or distribution over a wide area.
An exiguous amount of something is meager, small, or limited in nature.
A fissure is a narrow and long crack or opening, usually in a rock face.
Something gargantuan is extremely large.
A granule is a small particle or tiny grain of something.
Something infinitesimal is so extremely small or minute that it is very hard to measure it.
The adjective interstitial pertains to a narrow opening or a crack between two things.
A leviathan is something that is very large, powerful, difficult to control, and rather frightening.
A macrocosm is a large, complex, and organized system or structure that is made of many small parts that form one unit, such as a society or the universe.
Something minuscule is extremely small in size or amount.
An organization or system that is a monolith is extremely large; additionally, it is unwilling or very slow to change or adopt something new.
A palatial structure is grand and impressive, such as a palace or mansion.
Something that is paltry is practically worthless or insignificant.
A paucity of something is not enough of it.
A plethora of something is too much of it.
Something that is prodigious is very large, impressive, or great.
A profusion of something is a very large quantity or variety of it.
If something, such as warmth, color, or liquid, suffuses a material, it gradually spreads through or covers it; if you are suffused with a feeling, you are full of that feeling.
Something that is voluminous is long, large, or vast in size.
If something—such as power, influence, or feeling—wanes, it gradually becomes weaker or less important, often so much so that it eventually disappears.
Adj.
expansive
ik-SPAN-siv
Context
This park is expansive or huge—it seems to go on forever! It must be so much work to take care of all the sports fields and walking trails on such an expansive or widespread area. Most people like the expansive or extensive grounds because there are so many parts to explore. I enjoy the big park too, except for the time I got lost in the expansive or very large property!
Quiz:Try again!
What is something that is expansive?
ExtensivePansies The pansies in Marguerite's garden are so extensive that they cover an expansive area.
Examples
At the northern tip of the Philippine island of Luzon lies Callao Cave, an expansive, seven-chamber limestone warren.
—
Discover Magazine
The expansive but quickly melting ice sheets of Greenland, the North Pole and Antarctica are all that is left of our last glacial period, which reached its peak about 20,000 years ago.
—
TIME
An expansive new show featuring works by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, famous for mesmerizing polka dots, speckled pumpkins and fascination with the natural world, has opened at The New York Botanical Garden. . . . Visitors will want to wear their walking shoes; the show features multiple galleries, installations and gardens.
—
NBC New York
Caught up in the resulting west-to-northwest flow, troughs of low pressure rotate across the Great Lakes and Chicago, keeping an expansive area of lower stratocumulus clouds over the Midwest and Great Lakes.
—
Chicago Tribune
When something is expansive, it has “stepped out” or “spread out” into a large area.
Word Theater
YouTube: Brad Yates: Your Expansive Self Just as the Hoberman Sphere can be closed up or expansive, so can you be.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
Word Constellation
Click for an interactive map of this word
Related Words
augment ·
capacious+ ·
cavernous+ ·
commodious+ ·
copious ·
diffuse+ ·
dispersal ·
gargantuan+ ·
leviathan ·
macrocosm ·
monolith ·
palatial ·
plethora ·
prodigious ·
profusion ·
suffuse ·
voluminous+ ·
abridge ·
attenuate+ ·
dearth ·
exiguous+ ·
fissure+ ·
granule ·
infinitesimal ·
interstitial+ ·
minuscule ·
paltry ·
paucity ·
wane+ ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
expanse
n
→
a wide area or space
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.
