COMPREHENSIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does comprehensive mean? 

• COMPREHENSIVE (noun)
  The noun COMPREHENSIVE has 1 sense:

1. an intensive examination testing a student's proficiency in some special field of knowledge

  Familiarity information: COMPREHENSIVE used as a noun is very rare.

• COMPREHENSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective COMPREHENSIVE has 2 senses:

1. including all or everything

2. broad in scope

  Familiarity information: COMPREHENSIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPREHENSIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An intensive examination testing a student's proficiency in some special field of knowledge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

comp; comprehensive; comprehensive examination

Context example:

she took her comps in English literature

Hypernyms ("comprehensive" is a kind of...):

exam; examination; test (a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge)

• COMPREHENSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Including all or everything

Context example:

a comprehensive education

Similar:

encyclopaedic; encyclopedic (comprehensive in scope or content (as an encyclopedia))

umbrella (covering or applying simultaneously to a number of similar items or elements or groups)

super (including more than a specified category)

statewide (occurring or extending throughout a state)

schoolwide (occurring or extending throughout a school)

spaciotemporal; spatiotemporal (existing in both space and time; having both spatial extension and temporal duration)

plenary (full in all respects)

omnibus (providing for many things at once)

large (having broad power and range and scope)

door-to-door; house-to-house (omitting no one; from the door of one house to that of the next)

cosmopolitan; ecumenical; general; oecumenical; universal; world-wide; worldwide (of worldwide scope or applicability)

countrywide; nationwide (occurring or extending throughout a country or nation)

countywide (occurring or extending throughout a county)

citywide (occurring or extending throughout a city)

all-around; all-round; well-rounded (many-sided)

across-the-board; all-embracing; all-encompassing; all-inclusive; blanket; broad; encompassing; extensive; panoptic; wide (broad in scope or content)

Also:

complete (having every necessary or normal part or component or step)

general (applying to all or most members of a category or group)

broad; wide (having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other)

Attribute:

comprehensiveness; fullness (completeness over a broad scope)

Antonym:

noncomprehensive (not comprehensive)

Derivation:

comprehend (include in scope; include as part of something broader; have as one's sphere or territory)

comprehensiveness (completeness over a broad scope)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Broad in scope

Context example:

a comprehensive survey of world affairs

Similar:

inclusive (including much or everything; and especially including stated limits)

Derivation:

comprehend (include in scope; include as part of something broader; have as one's sphere or territory)

comprehensiveness (the capacity to understand a broad range of topics)

 Context examples 

It became an NCI-designated cancer center in 1974 and a comprehensive center in 1990.

(Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University, NCI Thesaurus)

A subdiscipline of nursing focusing on general and comprehensive nursing care directed to adults.

(Adult Health Nursing, NCI Thesaurus)

After some minutes spent in this way, Miss Bertram, observing the iron gate, expressed a wish of passing through it into the park, that their views and their plans might be more comprehensive.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Comprehensive Cancer Centers also give cancer information to health care professionals and the public.

(Comprehensive cancer center, NCI Dictionary)

The scientists developed a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive model that simulates how environmental factors, including increasing ocean temperatures and overfishing, affect levels of methylmercury in fish.

(Mercury levels in fish are on the rise, National Science Foundation)

The first medicine must first undergo comprehensive testing and will first be available for patients in five years at the earliest.

(Discovery Can Pave the Way for More Effective Cholesterol Medicine, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The results provide the most comprehensive map of breast cancer risk variants to date.

(Detailed genetic study provides most comprehensive map of risk to date of breast cancer risk, University of Cambridge)

Using less costly alternatives such as peritoneal dialysis or comprehensive conservative care – support in managing the disease without dialysis or a transplant – may be preferable in places with limited resources.

(Managing diabetes key to lowering kidney disease, SciDev.Net)

A comprehensive narrated account of a document.

(Document Detailed Description, NCI Thesaurus)

A comprehensive set of standards for communications between medical imaging devices, including handling, storing and transmitting information in medical imaging.

(DICOM, NCI Thesaurus)