different between sextant vs extant

English

Etymology

From Latin sext?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?kst?nt/

Noun

sextant (plural sextants)

1. (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

     For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.

2. (geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
3. (dentistry) One of six groups of adjacent teeth, excluding the wisdom teeth. The front sextants go from canine to canine, and there are sextants on the right and left of these. See w:Periodontal examination.

Translations

See also

• octant
• quadrant
• Wikipedia article on Sextant

Anagrams

• exstant

Czech

Noun

sextant m

1. sextant

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?k.st??/

Noun

sextant f (plural sextants)

1. sextant

Further reading

• “sextant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French sextant.

Noun

sextant m (plural sextan?i)

1. sextant

Declension

English

Etymology

First attested in 1545, from Latin extans, present participle of ext?, from ex- (“out”) + st? (“stand”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??kst?nt/, /?k?stænt/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?stænt/, /??kst?nt/
• Rhymes: -ænt, -?kst?nt

Adjective

extant (not comparable)

1. Still in existence.
   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

2. Currently existing; not having disappeared.
3. Still alive; not extinct.
4. (obsolete) Standing out, or above the rest.
   • 1665, Robert Boyle, New Experiments and Observations upon Cold

     […] great Quantities of Ice, for whereas in small fragments or plates, the Ice, though it sink not to the bottom of the water, will of?tentimes sink so low in it, as scarce to leave any part evidently extant above the surface of the water, in vast quantities of Ice, that extancy is sometimes so conspicuous, that Navigators in their Voyages to Island, Greenland, and other frozen Regions, complain of meeting with lumps, or rather floating rocks of Ice, as high as their main Masts.

Synonyms

• (still in existence): existent, existing; see also Thesaurus:existent
• (still alive): alive and kicking, living, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive

Antonyms

• (still alive): extinct

Derived terms

• then-extant

Translations

Latin

Verb

extant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of ext?