Word.ws English Dictionary

extemporize

extemporize verb: to perform or speak without prior planning or thought; to act in an impromptu manner; to improvise.

Verb

extemporize (third-person singular simple present extemporizes, present participle extemporizing, simple past and past participle extemporized)

  1. (intransitive) To perform or speak without prior planning or thought; to act in an impromptu manner; to improvise.
    • "Will you please tell me whose music you have been playing?" . . .
      "It's nobody's, miss."
      "Do you mean you have been extemporizing all this time?"1881, George MacDonald, chapter 35, in Mary Marston
    • But while some of his predecessors liked to extemporize, Obama prefers the message to be just so.2009 March 5, Peter Baker, “The (very) scripted president”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Nov 2011
  2. (transitive) To adapt, improvise, or devise action or speech in an impromptu or spontaneous manner.
    • As the music came fresher on their ears, they danced to its cadence, extemporizing new steps and attitudes.1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Marble Faun
    • The small jelly-speck, which we call the amoeba, has no organs save what it can extemporize as occasion arises.1879, Samuel Butler, chapter 5, in Evolution, Old & New

extemporize meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Persian

extemporize in Tamil

முன் ஆயத்தமின்றிப் பேசு

extemporize in Malayalam

improvise, ad lib, play it by ear
മുൻകൂട്ടിതയ്യാറെടുക്കാതെ ചെയ്യുക, തൽക്ഷണം രചിക്കുക, പരാപേക്ഷകൂടാതെ ചെയ്യുക, കെട്ടിച്ചമയ്ക്കുക, മുന്നൊരുക്കമില്ലാതെ പ്രസംഗിക്കുക, തത്സമയപ്രഭാഷണം നടത്തുക

extemporize in Persian

to act, particularly to perform or speak, without prior planning or thought
سرهمبندی کردن sar-ham-bandi kardan, بالبداهه گفتن belbedâhe goftan

Examples of extemporize in a sentence

  • The wine runs into pitchers, washing-basins, shards, chamber- vessels, and other extemporized receptacles.1906, Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts, Part Second, Act Third:
  • His most famous words — "I have a dream" — were extemporized.2003 August 25, Emily Eakin, “How King Shaped The Dream”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Nov 2011:

Synonyms of extemporize

Forms of extemporize

third-person singular presentextemporizes
present participleextemporizing
past participleextemporized
pastextemporized
alternative Commonwealthextemporise

Origin of extemporize

From extempore + -ize.

Words formed from extemporize

Questions about extemporize

What does extemporize mean?
Extemporize means to perform or speak without prior planning or thought; to act in an impromptu manner; to improvise.
What is extemporize in Tamil?
Extemporize in Tamil is முன் ஆயத்தமின்றிப் பேசு. See Extemporize meaning in Tamil.
How do you use extemporize in a sentence?
The wine runs into pitchers, washing-basins, shards, chamber- vessels, and other extemporized receptacles.
What part of speech is extemporize?
Extemporize is a verb.
What is the past tense of extemporize?
The past tense of extemporize is extemporized.

Words near extemporize in the dictionary

  1. extemporisers
  2. extemporises
  3. extemporising
  4. extemporization
  5. extemporizations
  6. extemporize
  7. extemporized
  8. extemporizer
  9. extemporizers
  10. extemporizes
  11. extemporizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: extemporize (page history and authors); extemporize (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); extemporize (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Cite this entry: “extemporize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/extemporize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.