adjective
- in existence; still existing; not destroyed or lost: There are only three extant copies of the document.
- Archaic. standing out; protruding.
adjective
- still in existence; surviving
- archaic standing out; protruding
adj.1540s, “standing out above a surface,” from Latin extantem (nominative extans), present participle of extare “stand out, be visible, exist,” from ex- “out” (see ex-) + stare “to stand,” from PIE root *sta- “to stand” (see stet). Sense of “in existence” attested in English by 1560s.