Wait: Do “expansive” and “extensive” mean the same thing? Which word is the better choice in legal contexts? Let’s investigate.
Table of contents
Expansive. I thought it meant growing larger, as in something is expanding. But apparently now it just means “big.” The word can also describe a generous, welcoming personality.
Is this word in your working vocabulary?
“Expansive” pops up frequently in all sorts of legal writing from website verbiage (“our expansive physical injury practice”) to statements of facts in appellate briefs. I never see plain old “big” anymore. I frequently see references to a physical space described as expansive. Was that room getting bigger? You mean it was spacious.
Let’s investigate.
Way Back When
The word derives from the Latin expandere, meaning to spread out. By the 1650s, the English word was used to mean “tending to expand.” By 1813, the usage meant comprehensive, embracing a large number of particulars.
My Dictionary Is Old
My 1988 physical dictionary sticks with “capable of expanding or tending to expand” as the primary definition. “Expand,” of course, is defined as “to increase in volume, size, or scope.” As in 1813, the secondary definition of expansive is “broad or comprehensive.”
Dictionary.com switches the emphasis of those definitions. There, the primary definition is “having a wide range or extent; comprehensive; extensive.”
Wait. What? Do “expansive” and “extensive” mean the same thing?
Maybe You Meant “Extensive”
Extensive means vast or far-reaching. The first use of the word can be traced to around 1600 to refer to immaterial things such as extensive knowledge. By 1700, the word was used to also describe material things stretching out or spreading. Gee, that sounds the same as expand. Synonyms include large, vast, ample and spacious.
The Britannica Dictionary defines extensive as large in size or amount: very full or complete. The dictionary provides these examples:
- An extensive [=comprehensive] reading list
- He’s had extensive [=considerable] training in this area.
- The storm caused extensive damage.
- Extensive repairs
- An extensive series of tests
Interestingly, none of these examples refers to expansion of a physical thing.
In the Immortal Words of Shania Twain
Words have specific meanings; people who use them correctly are powerful communicators. Writers and speakers who use a three-syllable word when a plainer one will do don’t impress me much.
If you mean “big,” “large” or “spacious,” say that. When I hear or read “expansive,” I never know what the user is trying to say. Unless the thing you’re talking about is getting bigger, avoid describing it as “expansive.”
In many situations, “extensive” is the better choice. When lawyers mean comprehensive or thorough, they mean extensive, not expansive.
Perhaps you did deep-dive research into a rapidly changing subject. You could accurately describe your research of the expansive subject as extensive.
More Writing Tips
Find more good ideas for improving your legal writing and communications skills in “Get to the Point” by Teddy Snyder.
Photo by iStockphoto
