expanse
Americannoun
-
expanses
plural
noun
-
an uninterrupted surface of something that spreads or extends, esp over a wide area; stretch
an expanse of water
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expansion or extension
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of expanse
1660–70; < New Latin expānsum, noun use of neuter of Latin expānsus, past participle of expandere to expand
Explanation
An expanse is a huge area you can look at all at once. If you climb to the top of a mountain, suggest that your fellow climbers take time to admire the expanse of trees below. Expanse looks like the word expand. Both come from the Latin word expandere, meaning "to spread out, unfold." But where did expandere come from? Ex- means "out" and pandere means "spread or stretch." So an expanse is something that seems to unfold before your eyes, or to put it another way, something that stretches out as far as the eye can see.
Vocabulary lists containing expanse
The Giver
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A vast open space, where some 50 of Be’eri’s most desirable houses stood, is an empty expanse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
One of the most memorable photographs on view was taken by Jeanne-Claude, printed large and picturing a wide expanse of landscape, with cows grazing near the fence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
“Not everything is a playoff, championship or otherwise high-profile sports event that we will naturally scour the viewing expanse we call television to find,” Corbelli said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
The flat expanse of Winnipeg, Canada, where it was filmed, makes a good topographical match for east Kansas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Beyond and above spread an expanse of sky, dark blue as at twilight: rising into the sky was a woman’s shape to the bust, portrayed in tints as dusk and soft as I could combine.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Elordi, who hails from Brisbane, is a little more hopeful about the future of the climate in the context of the film - pointing to other parts where you can see lush expanses of greenery.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
"What makes this pattern so fascinating is that evolution keeps arriving at similar cooperative solutions in very different groups and across vast expanses of time," says Dorus.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
But its endless expanses have been swept by panic since an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, which was declared a national disaster in February.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Nowhere does that make more sense than in the frozen expanses of the Arctic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
He had never seen those great shining white expanses of ice and snow.
From "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
