comprehensive

See also: compréhensive

English

WOTD – 27 August 2009

Etymology

Borrowed from late Middle French compréhensif, from Late Latin comprehēnsīvus, from Latin comprehendō.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒm.pɹɪˈhɛn.sɪv/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑm.pɹəˈhɛn.sɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Hyphenation: com‧pre‧hen‧sive

Adjective

comprehensive (comparative more comprehensive, superlative most comprehensive)

1. Broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something.

   When there are diametrically opposing views on a big issue that concerns millions of people, doing comprehensive research just makes sense.

   • 2023 August, Batchimeg Togoobat, Nan Wu, Xifeng Wang, Mengji Cao, Zhongtian Xu, “Viromic approach reveals differences in the composition, diversity and relative abundance of pumpkin viruses across main growing regions of China”, in Virology, volume 585, →DOI, pages 61-71:

     Nevertheless, the comprehensive comparative analysis of pumpkin viromes across various geographic regions by NGS remains deficient.

   • 2025 October 15, Vitali Vitaliev, “The recipe for Swiss bliss”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 68:

     So what is it that makes SBB (Swiss national railways) tick? In my humble opinion, two things. Firstly, a comprehensive and set-in-stone integrated timetable (incorporating trains, ferries, cable cars and buses, including the world-famous yellow 'post-autos'), compiled four years in advance and which gets tested twice before it becomes operational.

Synonyms

• (broadly or completely covering): exhaustive, thorough, all-encompassing, wide-ranging, sweeping

Antonyms

• incomprehensive

Derived terms

• comprehensive distancing
• comprehensively
• comprehensiveness
• comprehensivisation
• comprehensivity
• comprehensivization
• comprehensivize
• noncomprehensive
• uncomprehensive

Related terms

• comprehend
• comprehensible
• comprehension

Translations

broadly or completely covering

• Arabic: شَامِل m (šāmil), شَامِلَة f (šāmila)
• Armenian: սպառիչ (hy) (spaṙičʻ), համապարփակ (hy) (hamaparpʻak)
• Bulgarian: обши́рен (bg) (obšíren), подро́бен (bg) (podróben), обсто́ен (bg) (obstóen), схватли́в (bg) (shvatlív)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 全面的 (zh) (quánmiàn de), 綜合的 / 综合的 (zh) (zōnghé de)

• Czech: obsáhlý (cs), komplexní (cs), zevrubný (cs)
• Danish: fyldestgørende, omfattende
• Dutch: omvattend (nl), alomvattend (nl), uitgebreid (nl), diepgaand (nl)
• Esperanto: ampleksa, kompleksa
• Faroese: umfatandi
• Finnish: laaja (fi), kattava (fi)
• French: complet (fr), exhaustif (fr)
• Galician: completo (gl) m
• Georgian: სრული (sruli), ყოვლისმომცველი (q̇ovlismomcveli)
• German: umfassend (de), umfangreich (de)
• Hindi: विस्तृत (hi) (vistŕt), व्यापक (hi) (vyāpak)
• Hungarian: átfogó (hu), komprehenzív
• Indonesian: komprehensif (id)
• Italian: esaustivo (it), completo (it), complessivo (it)
• Japanese: 包括的な (ほうかつてきな, hōkatuteki-na)
• Korean: 포괄적인 (pogwaljeogin)
• Norwegian: grundig (no), omfattende
• Polish: wszechstronny (pl), kompleksowy (pl), obszerny (pl)
• Portuguese: abrangente (pt)
• Romanian: cuprinzător (ro), multilateral (ro) m
• Russian: всесторо́нний (ru) (vsestorónnij), по́лный (ru) (pólnyj), всеобъе́млющий (ru) (vseobʺjémljuščij), исче́рпывающий (ru) (isčérpyvajuščij), всеохва́тный (ru) (vseoxvátnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: опсежан, обухватан, исцрпан, свеобухватан m

  Roman: opsežan (sh), obuhvatan (sh), iscrpan (sh), sveobuhvatan (sh)

• Slovak: vyčerpávajúci, podrobný, obsiahly
• Spanish: abarcativo m, abarcador (es), englobante, completo (es), exhaustivo (es), comprensivo (es) m
• Swedish: omfattande (sv), uttömmande (sv)
• Tamil: விசாலமான (vicālamāṉa)
• Thai: รอบด้าน
• Turkish: şamil (tr), kapsayici, kapsamlı (tr), şümullü (tr) (archaic)
• Ukrainian: всебі́чний (vsebíčnyj), всеося́жний (vseosjážnyj), по́вний (póvnyj), виче́рпний (vyčérpnyj)

Noun

comprehensive (plural comprehensives)

1. (British) A comprehensive school.
   • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

     Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

Latin

Adjective

comprehēnsīve

1. vocative masculine singular of comprehēnsīvus