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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

With the European Union's second-largest economy on the brink of recession and under pressure to rein in debt, the government has limited scope to appease student protesters through additional spending.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 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

She says: "In the birdwatching community, everyone is so friendly and happy to tell you they have something interesting in their scope or have seen something interesting."

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

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

She’d forced him into a six-month-long joint research effort that far exceeded the scope of the two-page paper the homework assignment had called for.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

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

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

Sewer scopes allow plumbers to get a clear visual all the way down in the pipes.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 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

"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

Some Russians who have the money to travel have already scoped out destinations for the next few months where they can wait out a potential mobilization.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 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

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

I scoped out the chicken house as far as I could see, but I didn’t spot my friend.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

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

He said this demonstrated the men "were scoping out not only the restaurant but also the victim, and must have noticed the watch or recognised it."

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 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

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

He couldn’t help himself— scoping out the tides, the depth, the wind direction, all the things that were important if you were hunting fish.

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen

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Related Words

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