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
Those senior managers would then use extant performance-review procedures to more quickly and aggressively weed out unsatisfactory employees.
—Jon D. Michaels, Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024
The writers wanted to dramatize what happened once a group of Red Tails found themselves behind the wire at Stalag Luft III, ten months into Buck and Bucky’s imprisonment there, relying on extant historical sources.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
Looking into the idea of life on Mars, ancient or extant, is clearly a critical scientific goal for NASA with potentially immense significance for all of humanity.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2023
The Pew Research Center finds that 38% of the pages extant in 2013 were no longer accessible in October 2023 and that a quarter of the pages that were online at some point over that period have now vanished.
—Rob Pegoraro, PCMAG, 20 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for extant 
Jon D. Michaels, Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024
The writers wanted to dramatize what happened once a group of Red Tails found themselves behind the wire at Stalag Luft III, ten months into Buck and Bucky’s imprisonment there, relying on extant historical sources.
—Chris Klimek, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
Looking into the idea of life on Mars, ancient or extant, is clearly a critical scientific goal for NASA with potentially immense significance for all of humanity.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 30 Oct. 2023
The Pew Research Center finds that 38% of the pages extant in 2013 were no longer accessible in October 2023 and that a quarter of the pages that were online at some point over that period have now vanished.
—Rob Pegoraro, PCMAG, 20 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for extant
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'extant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near extant
Cite this Entry
“Extant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extant. Accessed 28 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share