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scope

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scope¹

  • /skəʊp/ UK
  • /skoʊp/ Canada, US
  • /skəʉp/ Australia
  • [skɐʉp] Australia
  • /skɐʉp/ New Zealand
  • /sko(ː)p/ Caribbean, India, Scotland

Rhymes with -əʊp

Where it comes from

From Italian scopo (“purpose”), from Latin scopus (“target”), from Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-. Etymologically related to skeptic and spectrum.

noun scopes

  1. countable, uncountable The breadth, depth or reach of a subject; the extent of applicability or relevance; a domain, purview or remit. Environmental impacts lie outside the scope of this report.

    Similar: compass, ambit

  2. countable, uncountable A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target. Coastie yanked her eye away from the night scope when those big lights were caught by it and amplified in intensity. Her entire view had gone white in an instant. “I can't see!” Temporarily blinded, she let touch become her primary sense, dropped the M40, and grabbed her alternate weapon, an M16 wit

    Similar: telescopic sight

  3. countable, uncountable Potential range of action; degree of freedom; opportunity. My job doesn't give me much scope for personal development.
  4. countable, uncountable The region of program source code in which a given identifier is meaningful, or a given object can be accessed. A variable's scope is the region of a program within which the variable can be referred to by its simple name. Secondarily, scope also determines when the system creates and destroys memory for the variable. Scope is distinct from visibility, which applies only to member variables and determines whe
  5. countable, uncountable The shortest sub-wff of which a given instance of a logical connective is a part.
  6. countable, uncountable The region of an utterance to which some modifying element applies. the scope of an adverb
  7. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of any word ending in -scope, such as endoscope, periscope, telescope, microscope, oscilloscope, and so on.
  8. colloquial, countable, uncountable Any medical procedure that ends in the suffix -scopy, such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc.

verb scopes · scoping · scoped

  1. informal, transitive To perform a cursory investigation of; scope out. We don't know, so let's scope the action before having another shoot out.
  2. colloquial To perform any medical procedure that ends in the suffix -scopy, such as endoscopy, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc. The surgeon will scope the football player's knee to repair damage to a ligament.
  3. To define the scope of something. Before scoping the investigation and developing a work plan, it is necessary to establish reasonable goals and objectives.
  4. To limit (an object or variable) to a certain region of program source code. If we locally scope the user's login name, it won't be accessible from outside this function.
  5. informal To examine under a microscope. The entomologist explained that he could not tell what species of springtail we were looking at without scoping it.
  6. informal To observe a bird using a spotting scope. `Maybe there was another darker bird and it had flown away before we could scope it?' `Yes there must have been,' came the grim-faced reply.

scope²

  • /skəʊp/ UK
  • /skoʊp/ Canada, US
  • /skəʉp/ Australia
  • [skɐʉp] Australia
  • /skɐʉp/ New Zealand
  • /sko(ː)p/ Caribbean, India, Scotland

Rhymes with -əʊp

noun scopes

  1. obsolete A bundle, as of twigs.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: reach, setting, ambit, background, telescope, oscilloscope, range, compass, orbit, cro, cathode-ray oscilloscope, extent, breadth, wide, broadness, extensiveness

Translations

Every language

noun breadth, depth or reach of a subject; extent of applicability or relevance

Españolámbito, rubro, escopo
中文範圍 /范围 fànwéi
Portuguêsâmbito, escopo
Françaisportée
DeutschUmfang, Bereich, Umgebung, Rahmen, Feld, Raum
Italianoambito, scopo, motivo, spazio, portata
Русскиймасшта́б masštáb, преде́л predél, разма́х razmáx, ра́мки rámki, сфе́ра sféra
العربيةحَيِّز ḥayyiz
עבריתהיקף heikef

noun potential range of action; degree of freedom

DeutschSpielraum, Bewegungsfreiheit, Raum, Handlungsspielraum, Betätigungsfeld, Aufgabenstellung

noun scope of an identifier

Españolalcance, ámbito
Françaisportée
DeutschGültigkeitsbereich, Geltungsbereich, Anwendungsbereich, Skopus, Gegenstandsbereich
Русскийобласть видимости oblastʹ vidimosti

verb To perform a cursory investigation

Deutschbetrachten, untersuchen, überblicken

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Cite this
MLA

"scope." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/scope. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

scope. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/scope

Chicago

"scope." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/scope.

BibTeX
@misc{scope_2026,
  title = {scope},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/scope},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}