Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Carried out or performed with little or no preparation; impromptu: an extemporaneous piano recital.
- adj. Prepared in advance but delivered without notes or text: an extemporaneous speech.
- adj. Skilled at or given to unrehearsed speech or performance: an accomplished extemporaneous speaker.
- adj. Provided, made, or adapted as an expedient; makeshift: an extemporaneous policy decision.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Made, done, furnished, or procured at the time, without special preparation; resulting from or provided for the immediate occasion; unpremeditated: as, an extemporaneous address or performance; extemporaneous support or shelter.
- Synonyms Extemporaneous, Unpremeditated. There is now some disposition to apply extempore and extemporaneous to that which is unpremeditated only in form. Extemporaneous speaking or preaching is, by this view, carefully prepared in thought, arrangement, etc., only the choice of words and phraseology being left to the inspiration of the moment. Extemporary has not this sense. Unpremeditated is thus opposed to premeditated, and extemporaneous to written or recited.
- In pharmacy, noting a preparation which is compounded at the time it is ordered, in distinction from a ready-made, or officinal preparation.
Wiktionary
- adj. without preparation or advanced thought; offhand
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment, or without previous study; unpremeditated; off-hand; ad-lib; extempore; extemporary.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. with little or no preparation or forethought
Etymologies
- From Late Latin extemporāneus, from Latin ex tempore. (Wiktionary)
- From Late Latin extemporāneus, from Latin ex tempore; see extempore. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“His former style is what we call extemporaneous, but we do not wish to convey the idea that he spoke without preparation.”
“Finding that in extemporaneous speech she could only speak at one time of a few points, she determined to write out the most important part of what she wished to say.”
“Pigeons are still more useful in extemporaneous cooking than fowls, as, being smaller, they are sooner cooked.”
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
“A Greek bride, on leaving her father's house, takes leave of her friends and relatives frequently in extemporaneous verse.”
“Considering she’s supposed to be an attorney and all who excells in extemporaneous speaking conditions.”
Think Progress » Hagel: Military Strike on Iran is ‘Not a Viable, Feasible, Responsible Option’
“It has indeed been maintained, even in recent times, and by ministers of the National Church, that "the idea of extemporaneous prayer as an appropriate vehicle of public devotion was one quite unknown to the Reformation.”
The Scottish Reformation Its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics
“The man was most conscientious and had a beautiful contempt for the so-called extemporaneous speaker.”
“Elvira must have been what may be called extemporaneous acting.”
“Spontaneity, innovation, the kind of extemporaneous flourish that Springsteen, Bono, or Chris Martin have mastered, and that grants those idols access to a stratosphere the Killers are yet to pierce.”
“An enormous party - a kind of extemporaneous Spring Faire in advance of the actual date - had invaded the house and the lawns and gardens of all the neighbors around it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘extemporaneous’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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Words I Used to Know
Words that make you go "I know that word...what the heck does it mean?!?
pulchritude, sanguine, trenchant, picaresque, gloaming, perfidious, confabulation, epiphany, importune, fulminate, efficacious, maladroit and 111 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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INTERP - speeches can be...
adequate, adroit, blunt, blurred, committed, divisive, exacerbating, fitting, hollow, lengthy, murky, pronounced and 123 more...
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Double Dactyls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_dactyl
http...antediluvian, incontrovertible, incontrovertible, gubernatorial, microanatomy, higgledy piggledy, valedictorian, lexicographical, animadversional, labiovelarize, sesquipedalian, fan-fucking-tastical and 96 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Vocabulary
shibboleth, verboten, jejune, ostensible, multifarious, quintessence, purportedly, tangential, vacillate, quagmire, wanton, onerous and 74 more...
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humpty's list
detrimental, hedonism, exonerate, extemporaneous, labyrinth, diffidence, brazen, celerity, alacrity, bigotry, phantasmagorical, sardonic and 14 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for extemporaneous.
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