comprehensiveadj.
/kɒmprɪˈhɛnsɪv/ 1.
a. gen. Characterized by comprehension; having the attribute of comprising or including much; of large content or scope.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > condition or state of being inclusive > [adjective] > inclusive or comprehensive
largea1400
wide1534
capable1592
inclusive1604
comprehensive1614
all-comprehensive1650
complexive1654
diffused1658
comprehensional1673
perileptic1678
all-encompassing1805
unexcluding1822
widish1845
all-embracing1847
unexclusive1852
all-inclusive1858
broad1872
embracive1897
periscopic1912
wide-angle1932
umbrella1949
1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor Pref. Then is the Ciuilians definition of it enough comprehensiue.
1628 T. Spencer Art of Logick 213 The comprehensiue whole, is parted betweene the things comprehended therein.
1701 Acct. Life in T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) Introd. sig. a2 His Aim is more Comprehensive.
1709 G. Berkeley Ess. New Theory of Vision Ded. xi The most Noble, Pleasant, and Comprehensive of all the Senses.
1818 S. T. Coleridge Friend (new ed.) I. 57 Happiness (or, to use a..more comprehensive term, solid well-being).
1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. Introd. 1 The reply was as concise as it was comprehensive—‘know what you have to do, and do it’.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues III. 228 A comprehensive survey of the philosophy of Plato.
b. Inclusive of; embracing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > condition or state of being inclusive > [adjective]
comprising1603
including1611
including1648
suscipient1655
comprehensivea1657
subsumptive1770
inclusionist1854
inclusionary1930
a1657 R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 244 [A] Tongue..comprehensive of such rich and rational expressions.
1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 115 Plant thee Orchards..in such order as may be..most comprehensive of Plants.
1720 T. Gordon & J. Trenchard Independent Whig No. 22 Charity it self, which is comprehensive of all the Vertues.
1845 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 131 O Heaven..comprehensive of all life.
c. Sometimes with the enlarged sense: Containing much in small compass, compendious.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > non-fiction > summary or epitome > [adjective] > compendious
compendious1388
compendiary1609
comprehensive1662
polymicrian1829
capsule1938
1662 S. Pepys Diary 17 Aug. (1970) III. 168 The Lord's Prayer..‘In whose comprehensive words we sum up all our imperfect desires’.
1684 Earl of Roscommon Ess. Translated Verse 4 But who did ever in French Authors see The Comprehensive, English Energy?
d. Designating a secondary school or a system of education which provides for children of all levels of intellectual and other ability (see quots.). Also elliptical as n., a school of this kind or (occasionally) a pupil attending one.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > place of education > school > [noun] > secondary school
high schoolc1417
academyc1550
real school1765
central school1794
secondary school1809
real scholar1822
lyceum1827
Realschule1833
gymnasium1834
continuation-school1837
college1841
lycée1865
middle school1870
high1871
senior school1871
senior high1909
secondary modern school1943
comprehensive1947
secondary1962
community college1967
multilateral1967
sec-mod1968
society > education > place of education > school > [adjective] > secondary
gymnasic1834
gymnasial1852
multilateral1938
comprehensive1947
society > education > learning > learner > one attending school > [noun] > pupils of other types of school
softa1603
gymnasiast1828
Philanthropinist1842
public school boy1844
minder1864
lycéen1883
polytechnician1904
comprehensive1947
outward-bounder1961
1947 Min. of Educ. Circular No. cxliv. 1/2 Combinations of two or more types of secondary education are often referred to as bilateral, multilateral or comprehensive.
1947 Min. of Educ. Circular No. cxliv. 2/1 A comprehensive school means one which is intended to cater for all the secondary education of all the children in a given area without an organisation in three sides.
1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 13 The L.C.C. had adopted the educational policy of the so-called comprehensive school, where all, whatever their standards, were to be educated together up to the age of 15.
1955 Times 20 May 11/5 A comprehensive school is intended to recruit all the boys, or girls, from a given area at the age of 11 and of these not more than one in five will be of grammar school standard.
1958 Spectator 27 June 833/1 Comprehensives, scrubbed and solemn in suits.
1958 Observer 30 Nov. 19/5 Pupils shunted off to the posh new comprehensives.
1959 Punch 16 Sept. 169/2 His son is at a Public School..His younger daughters both attend The local Comprehensive.
1965 New Statesman 9 Apr. 567/1 As for the public schools, you can't even suggest that the grammar schools be merged with the comprehensives without losing all the marginal seats in Bristol.
2. Characterized by mental comprehension:
a. that grasps or understands (a thing) fully.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > [adjective] > comprehending
apprehensive1611
comprehensivea1631
realizing1656
apprensive1689
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1956) VIII. 235 A comprehensive knowledge of God it [sc. our knowledge] cannot be.
a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) 27 Comprehensive knowledge..is no part of our Indowments.
1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iv. 294 Comprehensive knowledge is that whereby the whole of an object, so far as it is intelligible, is knowen.
1785 W. Cowper Task v. 251 A comprehensive faculty that grasps Great purposes with ease.
b. Embracing many things, broad in mental grasp, sympathies, or the like.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > large amount of knowledge > [adjective]
universal1549
encyclopaedical1651
pansophical1651
comprehensive1700
pantological1808
encyclopaedial1818
encyclopaedic1824
encyclopaediacal1836
encyclopaedian1837
cyclopaedica1843
pancyclopaedica1859
pantologic1861
cyclopaediac1877
pansophic1882
encyclopaediac1886
1700 J. Dryden Fables Pref. sig. *C He [Chaucer] must have been a Man of a most wonderful comprehensive Nature.
1721 Lett. from Mist's Jrnl. (1722) II. 126 These very philosophical comprehensive Men.
1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India I. Pref. p. xvii (note) The superiority of the comprehensive student over the partial observer.
1838 R. Southey Inscriptions xxvii, in Poet. Wks. III. 139 One comprehensive mind All overseeing and pervading all.
3. Logic. Intensive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical classification > [adjective] > relating to logical intension
comprehensive1725
intensive1798
intensional1883
intensionalist1948
1725 I. Watts Logick i. vi. 194 (heading) Of a Comprehensive Conception of Things, and of Abstraction.
1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers v. i, in Wks. 390/2 It is an axiom in logic—that the more extensive any general term is, it is the less comprehensive.
1850 T. S. Baynes Ess. New Analytic 72 (note) [The reasoning] is comprehensive or intensive, for it proceeds from the concrete to the abstract, from a greater totality of attribute to a less.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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adj.1614