extemporaneous
/ɪksˌ-/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Canada/əksˌtɛmpɚˈeɪni.əs/
extemporaneous adjective: with inadequate preparation or without advance thought; offhand.
Adjective
extemporaneous (comparative more extemporaneous, superlative most extemporaneous)
- With inadequate preparation or without advance thought; offhand.
- My speeches in Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not always have been so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should have been. I was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years from slavery.1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC
- “Who the devil is there in Ramilly County,” muttered Amory aloud, “who would deliver Verlaine in an extemporaneous tune to a soaking haystack?”1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Young Irony”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 241
- Synonyms:
- off-the-cuff, extemporal, improvised, extempore, ad lib, extemporary, extemporized, gash, impromptu, improviso
extemporaneous meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Indonesian
extemporaneous in Tamil
- ஆயத்தமோ, ஒத்திகையோ இன்றிச் செய்த, உடன் நிகழ்த்திய
extemporaneous in Bengali
- পূর্বপ্রস্তুতি ছাড়া তৎক্ষণাৎ বলা, করা
extemporaneous in Indonesian
- without preparation
- ekstemporan, impromptu
Synonyms of extemporaneous
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of extemporaneous
| comparative | more extemporaneous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most extemporaneous |
Origin of extemporaneous
From Late Latin extemporāneus, from Latin ex tempore (“impromptu”).
Words formed from extemporaneous
Words that rhyme with extemporaneous
Questions about extemporaneous
- What does extemporaneous mean?
- Extemporaneous means with inadequate preparation or without advance thought; offhand.
- What is extemporaneous in Tamil?
- Extemporaneous in Tamil is ஆயத்தமோ, ஒத்திகையோ இன்றிச் செய்த, உடன் நிகழ்த்திய. See Extemporaneous meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is extemporaneous?
- Extemporaneous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce extemporaneous?
- Extemporaneous is pronounced /ɪksˌ-/ (UK).
Words near extemporaneous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: extemporaneous (page history and authors); extemporaneous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); extemporaneous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-extemporaneous.wav.
Cite this entry: “extemporaneous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/extemporaneous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
