extant
Americanadjective
-
in existence; still existing; not destroyed or lost.
There are only three extant copies of the document.
-
Archaic. standing out; protruding.
adjective
-
still in existence; surviving
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archaic standing out; protruding
Usage
Extant is sometimes wrongly used simply to say that something exists, without any connotation of survival: plutonium is perhaps the deadliest element in existence (not the deadliest element extant )
Other Word Forms
- nonextant adjective
Etymology
Origin of extant
1535–45; < Latin ex ( s ) tant- (stem of ex ( s ) tāns ) standing out, present participle of exstāre, equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + stāre to stand
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Five more projects that were realized are no longer extant.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
Yet many musicians long considered the roughly 220 extant cantatas of J.S.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026
"So I placed the nematodes in the established collective group genus Vetus, which was established in 1935 for fossil nematodes that could not be placed in any known extant family."
From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2024
You could see details in saddles and costumes, and the building were still extant.
From Salon • Jun. 3, 2024
It was also during that time that a starving young artist, who had been given lodging in the house out of pity, paid for his stay by painting the only extant portrait of Clara.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
