Expansion

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspænʃən/

Definitions

1. The act of increasing in size, volume, scope, or range, or the state of being enlarged
2. The process of growing larger in size or scope, including the increase in area, volume, or the overall extent of something
3. An occurrence of becoming greater in dimension or capacity, which may refer to physical, conceptual, or structural growth

Etymology: Latin "expandere" meant "to spread out," built from "ex-" ("out") and "pandere" ("to spread"), a root that also gave English "pandemic" through its Greek cousin "pan-" and a far more obvious relative in "patent," something spread open for all to see. The noun "expansiō" was the act of spreading out, and it passed into French as "expansion" before reaching English. Its Latin core of spreading was physical and literal long before it described anything abstract. English took the word from French, so it arrived already shaped by that intermediate step. The sense of enlargement in size and volume came first, and the extension to scope and range followed naturally, so that a growing empire, a business or a theory could all be said to undergo expansion.

Synonyms: growth, increase, extension, development, amplification

Antonyms: contraction, reduction, decrease, diminution, shrinkage