1
a
: currently or actually existing
the most charming writer extant—
G. W. Johnson
G. W. Johnson
b
: still existing : not destroyed or lost
extant manuscripts
2
archaic
: standing out or above
Examples of extant in a Sentence
There is, he reports, no extant copy of the Super Bowl I television broadcast; nobody bothered to keep the tapes.
—Joe Queenan, New York Times Book Review, 1 Feb. 2009
First produced in the spring of 472 BC, Persians is noteworthy in the corpus of the thirty-two extant Greek tragedies in that it is the only classical Greek drama that dramatizes an actual historical event.
—Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review, 21 Sept. 2006
[George] Lucas' brain teemed with plots and characters, exotic creatures, worlds to be spun out of the words and sketches in his notebooks. Also, by numbering the extant episodes IV, V and VI, he was implicitly promising a prequel trilogy …
—Richard Corliss, Time, 9 May 2005
There are few extant records from that period.
one of the oldest buildings still extant
Joe Queenan, New York Times Book Review, 1 Feb. 2009
First produced in the spring of 472 BC, Persians is noteworthy in the corpus of the thirty-two extant Greek tragedies in that it is the only classical Greek drama that dramatizes an actual historical event.
—Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review, 21 Sept. 2006
[George] Lucas' brain teemed with plots and characters, exotic creatures, worlds to be spun out of the words and sketches in his notebooks. Also, by numbering the extant episodes IV, V and VI, he was implicitly promising a prequel trilogy …
—Richard Corliss, Time, 9 May 2005
There are few extant records from that period.
one of the oldest buildings still extant
Recent Examples on the Web
Landscape architects Harriett Wimmer and Joe Yamada were based for many years in the Design Center and probably the most prominent local landscape design practice, which is another extant legacy firm.
—Michael James Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2025
Few extant movie studios have properties that go back as far or play as rich as Warner Bros.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2025
The report didn’t specify whether that increase comes from ultra-wealthy people moving to New York, extant residents joining the ranks of the ultra-wealthy or both.
—Megan Sauer, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2025
Aside from these extant benchmarks, experts have long debated what an ideal demonstration would look like.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for extant
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Michael James Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2025
Few extant movie studios have properties that go back as far or play as rich as Warner Bros.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 23 Oct. 2025
The report didn’t specify whether that increase comes from ultra-wealthy people moving to New York, extant residents joining the ranks of the ultra-wealthy or both.
—Megan Sauer, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2025
Aside from these extant benchmarks, experts have long debated what an ideal demonstration would look like.
—Matthew Hutson, IEEE Spectrum, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for extant
Cite this Entry
“Extant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extant. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
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