extent or range of view, outlook, application, operation, effectiveness, etc..
an investigation of wide scope.
space for movement or activity; opportunity for operation.
to give one's fancy full scope.
extent in space; a tract or area.
length.
a scope of cable.
aim or purpose.
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.
(used as a short form of microscope, oscilloscope, periscope, radarscope, riflescope, telescopic sight, etc.)
opportunity for exercising the faculties or abilities; capacity for action
plenty of scope for improvement
range of view, perception, or grasp; outlook
the area covered by an activity, topic, etc; range
the scope of his thesis was vast
nautical slack left in an anchor cable
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 )
informal short for telescope microscope oscilloscope
archaic purpose or aim
See range.
First recorded in 1525–35; from Italian scopo, from Greek skopós “aim, mark to shoot at”; akin to skopeîn “to look at” ( see -scope)
< 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
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Past findings produced by Wada suggest micro-dosing could evade detection methods, and so the scope to cheat in professional sport remains, meaning all efforts must be taken to ensure nobody beats the system.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
She was one of many Black parents whose demands for their children’s freedom helped define the scope of the 13th Amendment’s ban on slavery after the Civil War.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Investors seem to be worried about the scope of the company’s spending on infrastructure and acquisitions to support the development of generative artificial intelligence technology.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
“It enabled us to expand the scope in ways that wouldn’t have been feasible before,” Sarandos said.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
The entire animal kingdom was beyond her scope; apparently she could resurrect only the cute dead.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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
On Friday, several groups of fans aimed their spotting scopes and binoculars at the nest from Dana Point Park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
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
“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
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
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
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
Seeing that Boeing employees were scoping him out gave Conrad confidence that he was in the running.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 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
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
I sat for a while scoping out the place, and slowly began dancing by myself in the corner of the dance floor.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
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.
