scope

 
Pronunciation: /skəʊp/

noun

[mass noun]
  • 1the extent of the area or subject matter that something deals with or to which it is relevant: we widened the scope of our investigation such questions go beyond the scope of this book
  • 2the opportunity or possibility to do or deal with something: the scope for major change is always limited by political realities
  • archaic a purpose, end, or intention: Plato even maintains religion to be the chief aim and scope of human life
  • 3 informal a telescope, microscope, or other device having a name ending in -scope: infrared night scopes
  • 4 Nautical the length of cable extended when a ship rides at anchor.
  • 5 Linguistics & Logic the number of terms or arguments affected by an operator such as a quantifier or conjunction.

verb

[with object]
  • 1 (scope something out) assess or investigate something: they’d scoped out their market
  • set the scope of (a projected undertaking): it is important that a project is scoped correctly to ensure the budget can be accurately defined
  • 2North American informal look at carefully; scan: they watched him scoping the room, looking for Michael

Origin:

mid 16th century (in the sense 'target for shooting at'): from Italian scopo 'aim', from Greek skopos 'target', from skeptesthai 'look out'. scope (sense 3 of the noun) is derived from -scope