Definition of EXTEMPORIZE

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Extemporize means to say or do something on the spur of the moment, an appropriate meaning given the word's history. "Extemporize" was coined by adding the suffix -ize to Latin ex tempore, meaning "instantaneously" or "on the spur of the moment." "Ex tempore," in turn, was formed by combining "ex" and a form of the noun tempus, meaning "time." Incidentally, "ex tempore" was also borrowed wholesale into English (where it means "extemporaneously"). Other descendents of Latin ex tempore include the now rare "extemporal" and "extemporary" (both synonyms of "extemporaneous"), and, as you have no doubt guessed by now, "extemporaneous" itself.

Examples of extemporize in a Sentence

a good talk show host has to be able to extemporize the interviews when things don't go as planned

Recent Examples on the Web That meant players were able to extemporize, to take chances without being accused of departing too far from the team playbook. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Hansen has high hope as All Blacks coaching tenure nears end," 20 Sep. 2019 And they are exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s tendency to extemporize and the North Koreans’ long track record of duplicitous negotiation. — Jonathan Cheng, WSJ, "How a Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un Summit Scrambles the Calculus for Key Players," 9 Mar. 2018 Each presenter now has the freedom to extemporize on the warning — a nonnegotiable requirement of the program’s opening — but not by much. — Rory Smith, New York Times, "If You Don’t Want to Know What This Article Is About, Please Look Away Now," 14 Apr. 2017 Apparently the idea was to extemporize on some issues that had come up during the performance. — Sarah Lyall, New York Times, "Starring Me! A Surreal Dive Into Immersive Theater," 7 Jan. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'extemporize.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.