extant

UK/ɛkˈstænt/US/ˈɛk.stənt/

adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,669 of 15,258mostly written

Extant means still in existence, said of something old. The extant manuscripts, no extant copies, still extant.

It is used almost only of documents, buildings and species, where the question of survival is a real one. Its opposite in biology is extinct, and in scholarship it is lost.

Definitions of extant

1adjectiveextantStill in existence, said of something old.C2
“Only two copies of the original map are still extant.”

extant is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin extans means standing out or existing, from ex plus stare, to stand.

Latin
extantem
English, today
extant

Built from

extō · Latin — to stand out, exist, be extant
ex- · Latin — out
stō · Latin — stand

First attested in 1545, from Latin extantem, extāns, present participle of extō (“to stand out, exist, be extant”), from ex- (“out”) + stō (“stand”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

extant in the wild

The extant genera are the snapping turtles, Chelydra and Macrochelys.
Chelydridae
The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Acts of Union 1800.
Peerage of Great Britain
In biology, for ranks such as genus or family, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate extant taxon.
Monotypic taxon
In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case in which a genus and a single extant species are simultaneously described.
Monotypic taxon
The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 extant species in around 2,700 genera, with around 3,300 fossil species.
Decapod

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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