expanse

[ ik-spans ]

noun

1. an uninterrupted space or area; a wide extent of anything:

   an expanse of water.

   Synonyms: stretch, range, reach, sweep

2. something that is spread out, especially over a relatively large area:

   that great expanse, the sky.

3. expansion; extension:

   the wide expanse of scientific knowledge.

expanse

/ ɪkˈspæns /

noun

1. an uninterrupted surface of something that spreads or extends, esp over a wide area; stretch

   an expanse of water

2. expansion or extension

Word History and Origins

Origin of expanse¹

1660–70; < New Latin expānsum, noun use of neuter of Latin expānsus, past participle of expandere to expand

Word History and Origins

Origin of expanse¹

C17: from New Latin expansum the heavens, from Latin expansus spread out, from expandere to expand

Example Sentences

I looked around at the expanse of dunes below me, their proportions and distances distorted by the harsh sun.

From Outside Online

Finally, I looked out my window into a beautiful little valley with what seemed to be the perfect expanse of wetland.

From Popular-Science

These strikes caused dozens of fires from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay, a forested, mountainous expanse, and came to be known as the CZU Lightning Complex fire.

From Outside Online

Meanwhile, SkyCool Systems of Mountain View, California, has developed essentially high-tech mirrors that can cast heat into the cold expanses of space, taking advantage of a natural phenomenon known as radiative cooling.

From MIT Technology Review

Advocates decry the amount, saying it’s too low compared with the profit SDG&E makes off the vast expanse of electric poles, wires and natural gas lines each year.

From Voice of San Diego

Kim Novak runs away from James Stewart, across an expanse of field.

From The Daily Beast

The party sequence in Notorious begins with a wide shot from high above the top of the stairs, all glittering expanse below.

From The Daily Beast

Tokyo Bay is “a black expanse where gulls wheeled above drifting shoals of white Styrofoam.”

From The Daily Beast

Using UpToDate as the ur-text, though, gets into a vast expanse of gray zone, with some assertions evidence-based but many not.

From The Daily Beast

To the north lay the wide expanse of Samburu land, and its mighty Ewaso Ngiro river.

From The Daily Beast

When it cleared, the valley was a solid expanse of white, and the stars shone out as if in an Arctic sky.

From Project Gutenberg

The expanse, apparently so limitless, open to her view, invited her fancy to a range equally boundless.

From Project Gutenberg

Here a palace with low portals extended its ponderous expanse; it was the palace of King Loc.

From Project Gutenberg

This in turn will go through its process of retreat until the former expanse of waters disappears.

From Project Gutenberg

What more natural term, then, to apply to a spot of land standing alone in the midst of an expanse of water than an eye of land?

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• plain
• stretch
• tract
• wilderness