Word of the Day Archive
Saturday November 20, 1999
extempore \ik-STEM-puh-ree\ , adverb:
1. Without premeditation or preparation; on the spur of the moment.
adjective:
1. Done or performed extempore.
Kelso had already delivered his short paper, on Stalin and the archives, at the end of the previous day: delivered it in his trademark style--without notes, with one hand in his pocket, extempore, provocative.
-- Robert Harris, Archangel
Ruskin's Oxford lecture series ended up as a dismaying mix of extempore ramblings and calculated farce.
-- Valentine Cunningham, "A Victorian Renaissance Man", New York Times, May 14, 2000
Extempore is from the Latin phrase ex tempore, "out of the time," therefore "immediately, at the very time the occasion arises."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for extempore
