Word of the day: Extant

Extant

[EK-stənt]

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, mid-16th century

Especially of a document) Still in existence; surviving.

Examples of extant in a sentence

"Since the original document was no longer extant, the team settled for secondary sources."

"Unfortunately, there was a very small amount of extant work in Jessica’s chosen field."

About Extant

Extant developed from the Latin word "exstant" ("being visible or prominent, existing"), from the verb "exstare" — a combination of "ex" ("out") and "stare" ("to stand").

Did you Know?

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is the largest library in the world, with more than 170 million items, including a large collection of extant materials, such as original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the U.S. Constitution. The LOC displays these documents out of storage only for very short periods at a time.