as in expansions
a wide space or area
the great explorers who crossed the vast expanses of the seven seas in small ships
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Recent Examples of expanses
But wide expanses of undeveloped land offer developers the chance to build new subdivisions — prime real estate for new home buyers.
—
Alexandra Glorioso, Miami Herald, 29 Jan. 2026
Unmanned aircraft systems of various sizes and designs are proving resilient at performing reconnaissance over large expanses of ocean, with range and endurance exceeding human limitations.
—Zita Ballinger Fletcher, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
Much of the production is supremely pleasant to listen to, but just as hazy and confused as the plot, splitting between spacey expanses of synth and dramatic eruptions.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 Jan. 2026
For two years in the late 1990s, the Danish elite special forces soldier patrolled the vast, frozen expanses of Greenland’s uninhabited northeastern corner, often with only eleven dogs and one fellow soldier for company.
—Lisa Abend, Time, 18 Jan. 2026
In the follow-up to his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders again uses the liminal space between life and death — and a specter nostalgic for life as a guide — to examine grief, guilt, and the expanses and limitations of empathy.
—Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026
The fifty-seven-year-old king, Frederik X, appears to be genuinely fond of Greenland’s icy expanses, its culture, and its people.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 11 Jan. 2026
Large expanses of seats were unused during the third-bottom home side’s 2-1 defeat to Forest, who are in 17th place, on Tuesday.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2026
Trudging across six lanes of highway, and expanses of parking lot, to reach Soldier Field never had many fans, but there is zero romance in this new spot.
—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan. 2026
Alexandra Glorioso, Miami Herald, 29 Jan. 2026
Unmanned aircraft systems of various sizes and designs are proving resilient at performing reconnaissance over large expanses of ocean, with range and endurance exceeding human limitations.
—Zita Ballinger Fletcher, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
Much of the production is supremely pleasant to listen to, but just as hazy and confused as the plot, splitting between spacey expanses of synth and dramatic eruptions.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 Jan. 2026
For two years in the late 1990s, the Danish elite special forces soldier patrolled the vast, frozen expanses of Greenland’s uninhabited northeastern corner, often with only eleven dogs and one fellow soldier for company.
—Lisa Abend, Time, 18 Jan. 2026
In the follow-up to his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders again uses the liminal space between life and death — and a specter nostalgic for life as a guide — to examine grief, guilt, and the expanses and limitations of empathy.
—Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026
The fifty-seven-year-old king, Frederik X, appears to be genuinely fond of Greenland’s icy expanses, its culture, and its people.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 11 Jan. 2026
Large expanses of seats were unused during the third-bottom home side’s 2-1 defeat to Forest, who are in 17th place, on Tuesday.
—Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2026
Trudging across six lanes of highway, and expanses of parking lot, to reach Soldier Field never had many fans, but there is zero romance in this new spot.
—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for expanses
Noun
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Calls for a global wealth tax, massive new aid commitments, or other significant expansions of state redistribution often rest on the premise that trade and free enterprise have failed to deliver shared gains.—
Chelsea Follett,
Oc Register,
1 Feb. 2026
-
The complex of industrial structures grew steadily, with several expansions between the turn of the last century and 1955.—
Paula Allen,
San Antonio Express-News,
31 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Outside of a brief overlap in Ring of Honor in 2004, the matchup never happened, despite Punk’s runs in WWE and AEW and Styles’ defining stretches in TNA, NJPW, and eventually a decade-long run in WWE.—
Rob Wolkenbrod,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
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Medieval Europeans, to take one example, cleared enormous stretches of woodland—up to seventy per cent in parts of France and England by the fourteenth century—for farming, fuel, and timber.—
Margaret Talbot,
New Yorker,
26 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Plants grow naturally in a wide range of habitats, from moist coastal plains, wetlands, and stream banks to drier sand dunes, hillsides, and upland forests.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
29 Jan. 2026
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Its silvery surface is scarred by dark regions known as lunar maria, where molten lava once flooded enormous impact basins before hardening to create enormous basaltic plains.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Instead of dotting the same black scrim, like pinholes in a two-dimensional theater backdrop, the stars were scattered through space at dramatically varying distances, a vast swarm of them filling every last corner of an even vaster, more numinous, and emphatically three-dimensional darkness.—
Michael Pollan,
The Atlantic,
26 Jan. 2026
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Next the team wants to infer the various distances of the structures that the researchers have glimpsed and to use them to make the map more dynamic and three-dimensional.—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
25 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The boys begin testing this presumed interloper, going to extreme lengths to prove her wrong, despite her protestations.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Jan. 2026
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Today’s leading chips, like Apple’s A17 Pro and M4 processors built on TSMC’s 3 nm process, feature transistors with gate lengths below 15 nm.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Upon looking at their preference sheets, the crew is immediately on edge.—
Rafaela Bassili,
Vulture,
3 Feb. 2026
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Late drama is nothing new at the Merseyside club, who required deal sheets to sign Merlin Rohl over the summer and to complete Carlos Alcaraz’s initial loan from Flamengo last January.—
Patrick Boyland,
New York Times,
3 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Expanses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/expanses. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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