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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

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

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

As Chancellor, Rachel Reeves tweaked her so-called fiscal rules on debt and borrowing but Nowak said he believes the scope this provided for extra investment hasn't been maximised.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

President Trump modified the scope of some existing tariffs on Canada, and has now imposed 50% levies on some all-terrain vehicles and boats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

The scope of the problem is difficult to measure, because its most important effects are invisible—though the data we have suggest it is getting worse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

He sees scope for the company to report cloud revenue growth of 63% relative to a year earlier.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026

Possible reasons lie beyond the scope of this discussion, except to note that this in no way implies some deficiency in Egyptian genius or language.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

The agency set up a relay connecting radar scopes to the Long Island facility, more than 100 miles away.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

He scopes out how players look in the batting cages, stepping in with a quick pep talk or look of reassurance when needed.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 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

"You could be a famed courtier. Only having to worry about dresses and gossip and landing in the scopes and papers."

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

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

From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026

By then the third team, most likely, was laying low in the Coromandel Peninsula town of Thames, a spot scoped out by Christine Cabon months before.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025

Giovanni Garcia pulled up to a dusty intersection in South Gate and scoped the scene.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2025

I scoped across the water and remembered again that we lived on an actual island.

From "The Stars Beneath Our Feet" by David Barclay Moore

Firstly, metallurgical testwork returned materially higher recoveries of precious and base metals than previously assumed in an April scoping study.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

The bicycles caught the eye of project director Giovanna Araujo as she was scoping out the basement for sites to bore holes for geotechnical testing.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 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

Ardern and her husband were seen scoping out properties for sale in Sydney's beachside northern suburbs of Freshwater and Curl Curl, property website realestate.com.au said.

From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026

Maybe he’s scoping out our town to see if they should shoot an episode here.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

Related Words

• breadth
• capacity
• extension
• opportunity
• outlook
• purview
• sphere