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Word of the Day Archive
Friday July 2, 1999

extant \EK-stunt; ek-STANT\, adjective:
Still existing; not destroyed, lost, or extinct.

Why, then, did the joint House-Senate committee insert a maximum? The lack of extant records of the committee's deliberations requires us to speculate.
-- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights

The fossil record shows clearly that ancient life was very different from extant life.
-- Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle

Extant comes from Latin exstare, "to stand out, to project, hence to be prominent, to be visible, to exist," from ex-, "out" + stare, "to stand."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for extant

 

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