Word.ws English Dictionary

open-ended

open-ended adjective: unrestricted by definite limits.

Adjective

open-ended (not comparable)

  1. Unrestricted by definite limits.
    • There will be an open-ended discussion.
    • This short list represents but a few items of an extensive and open-ended list of untreated Indian English lexis.2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 302
  2. Adaptable to change.
    • The topic is definitions, but is open-ended really.
  3. Permitting a spontaneous or unstructured response.
    • I'll ask you an open-ended question.
  4. Of a straight draw, made up of four consecutive cards, thus able to be completed by either of two ranks of card.
    • The flop of 3-6-Q gave Brunson an open-ended straight draw with his 4-5 of hearts.

Words formed from open-ended

Phrases with open-ended

Questions about open-ended

What does open-ended mean?
Open-ended means unrestricted by definite limits.
What part of speech is open-ended?
Open-ended is an adjective.

Words near open-ended in the dictionary

  1. open-eared
  2. open-earedness
  3. open-end fund
  4. open-end funds
  5. open-end spinning
  6. open-ended
  7. open-ended contract
  8. open-ended contracts
  9. open-ended question
  10. open-ended questions
  11. open-endedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open-ended (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)-Flame, not lame-open-ended.wav.

Cite this entry: “open-ended.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/open-ended. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.