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• scope
  scope

  noun

  extent or range of view, outlook, application, operation, effectiveness, etc..
• -scope
  -scope

  a combining form meaning “instrument for viewing,” used in the formation of compound words.

scope

¹ American  

[skohp] / skoʊp /

noun

• scopes
  plural

1. extent or range of view, outlook, application, operation, effectiveness, etc..

   an investigation of wide scope.

2. space for movement or activity; opportunity for operation.

   to give one's fancy full scope.

   Synonyms:

   liberty, room, sweep, reach, range, extent, breadth, ambit

3. extent in space; a tract or area.

4. length.

   a scope of cable.

5. aim or purpose.

6. Linguistics, Logic. the range of words or elements of an expression over which a modifier or operator has control.

   In “old men and women,” “old” may either take “men and women” or just “men” in its scope.

7. (used as a short form of microscope, oscilloscope, periscope, radarscope, riflescope, telescopic sight, etc.)

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verb (used with object)

scoped, scoping

1. Slang. to look at, read, or investigate, as in order to evaluate or appreciate.

verb phrase

1. scope out

   1. to look at or over; examine; check out.

      a rock musician scoping out the audience before going on stage.

   2. to master; figure out.

      By the time we'd scoped out the problem, it was too late.

-scope ² American  

1. a combining form meaning “instrument for viewing,” used in the formation of compound words.

   telescope.

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scope ¹ British  

/ skəʊp /

noun

1. opportunity for exercising the faculties or abilities; capacity for action

   plenty of scope for improvement

2. range of view, perception, or grasp; outlook

3. the area covered by an activity, topic, etc; range

   the scope of his thesis was vast

4. nautical slack left in an anchor cable

5. logic linguistics that part of an expression that is governed by a given operator: the scope of the negation in PV– ( q ∧ r ) is –( q ∧ r )

6. informal short for telescope microscope oscilloscope

7. archaic purpose or aim

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verb

1. informal to look at or examine carefully

-scope ² British  

combining form

1. indicating an instrument for observing, viewing, or detecting

   microscope

   stethoscope

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Synonym Usage

See range.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• scopeless
  adjective
• -scopic
  combining form

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• scopes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of scope¹

First recorded in 1525–35; from Italian scopo, from Greek skopós “aim, mark to shoot at”; akin to skopeîn “to look at” ( see -scope)

Origin of -scope²

< New Latin -scopium < Greek -skopion, -skopeion, equivalent to skop ( eîn ) to look at (akin to sképtesthai to look, view carefully; cf. skeptic) + -ion, -eion noun suffix

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Explanation

Business people like to use the word scope because it specifies the extent of their responsibilities. Once you know the scope of a project, you can decide if you're qualified and how much time it will take to do it. If your boss gives you a new task and you don't want to do it, tell him or her it's not within the scope of your duties. A scope is also a device used to see something in the distance. You'll find one on shotguns, submarines, radars and the like. You can use scope as a verb meaning "to look out or around." When you and your friends go out, you probably scope out a few places to see where the action is.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scope scopes scoped scoping

The scope of the heist was not immediately known, but blockchain analytics company Chainalysis said its "current estimate on amount stolen is approx $5.912B at time of theft."

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

And a separate report for lenders said the airport moved to revise the scope of the project so that the solar panel system would not be a prerequisite to opening the train for service.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

Kim said the scope of customers who are interested in multi-year contracts is expanding beyond hyperscalers and server makers to those with mobile, automotive and network needs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

But a large and unexplored scope exists for improving society’s collective thinking processes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

I move up in the line and scope out the photographer’s setup.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina

The employees worked at faster paces, took on broader scopes of tasks and ended up working more hours.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

In the years since, Williams has consistently appeared in film and TV, accepting parts of all sizes and scopes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2024

He said those delays would put Orsted in "a situation where we would need to go out and recontract all or very large scopes of the project at expectedly higher prices."

From Reuters ● Nov. 3, 2023

Vitale, on social media Tuesday, said he will have two scopes within the next five days to determine if his 35 radiation treatments “wiped out” his vocal cord cancer.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 11, 2023

“Well, I ain’t babysitting you all night, so you better do something,” Kenya says, and scopes the room.

From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy meanwhile scoped the industry out for a possible partner for Spirit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

It said residents and workers suffered while the council "dither around a deal already scoped out at conciliation service Acas".

From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2026

Those goals, he argued, were "scoped and reasonable objectives that can be attained."

From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026

Washington’s broadly scoped My Health My Data Act gives individuals more control over their biometric data.

From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2024

He’d scoped out a place he knew she’d love—and she did; if she could live here under one of the tables forever, she’d be perfectly content to do just that.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

Federal prosecutors allege that the 35-year-old Alfozan had spent weeks scoping out an executive conference room inside an OpenAI office building where top-secret meetings about industry-leading AI models and products took place.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

But if Harrison's strategy was scoping out the competition on the start line, Katie's was a lot more practical.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026

The Treasury appeared to be scoping out the possibility of buying yen, which would raise the value of the Japanese currency against the U.S. dollar.

From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026

Published under the title "Microplastics and Global Warming: A Hidden Climate Threat Uncovered in a New Perspective," the study provides a scoping review of existing research.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 17, 2026

There’s a woman standing next to her, scoping out the scene like she’s a member of the Secret Service.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina

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