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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

Should the matter proceed to litigation, a central question will be whether Bianco was acting within the scope of his duties as sheriff when he seized the ballots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026

At the same time, SLB said its data-center-solutions business continues to accelerate, with revenue up 23% sequentially, driven by growing demand, a broader scope of services and geographic expansion in Asia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

The French aerospace-and-defense group had expected sales this year to grow between 6% and 7% organically, a closely watched rate that shows performance at constant scope and exchange rates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

During the conversation he makes an immense effort to convince Tangen of the size, scope and speed of the AI revolution which he thinks is beyond the capacity of most people to fathom.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

An archaic sociologist living 20,000 years ago, who had no knowledge of events following the Agricultural Revolution, might well have concluded that mythology had a fairly limited scope.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Meanwhile, night-vision rifle scopes paired with cutting-edge thermal-imaging binoculars open the night woods to hunting in ways that were impossible just a few years ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026

Reporting begins in 2026 on scopes 1 and 2 and in 2027 on scope 3.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025

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

With my cloaking device engaged, I selected the nearest instance of the city and landed the Vonnegut just outside the wall of its dome, watching my scopes for other ships.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

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

Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who lives in Los Angeles and is a preeminent sports surgeon, doesn’t currently count Vonn among his current patients but he has scoped her knee twice to remove scar tissue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026

More than a decade ago, Honnold scoped out Taipei 101 for a National Geographic special, but the project never materialized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

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

The scoping study said assembly members had given examples of constituents "who have experienced significant unexplained increases in service charges that were crippling in their effect".

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

He is in Norway this month scoping out locations to add to his company’s itineraries.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 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

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

Alec was shining the face of the workpad in different directions, scoping out the area.

From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner

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Related Words

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