Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Spoken, done, or composed with little or no preparation or forethought.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Composed, performed, uttered, or applied without previous study or preparation: as, an extemporary sermon.
- Made or procured for the occasion or for the present purpose; extemporaneous.
- Synonyms See
extemporaneous .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Extemporaneous.
- adjective obsolete Made for the occasion; for the time being.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Extemporaneous .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective with little or no preparation or forethought
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Not always, not by every one, come these inspirations; too often what is called extemporary prayer is but a form, differing from the liturgy of the church only in being poorer and colder.
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Exercise I have of late withdrawn my self: three Hours by the Clock he prays extemporary, which is, for National and Household Blessings: For the first -- 'tis to confound the Interest of the King, that the Lard wou'd deliver him, his Friends, Adherers and Allies, wheresoever scatter'd about the Face of the whole Earth, into the Clutches of the
The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume I Aphra Behn 1664
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Tom o 'the Gleam standing up and delivering a kind of extemporary oration, while his rough cap, under the pilotage of Bill Bush, was being passed round the table in the fashion of a collecting plate.
The Treasure of Heaven A Romance of Riches Marie Corelli 1889
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Consequences were her most frequent choice; for, as she had a ready invention, and a happy turn of sprightliness, which was often mistaken for wit, nobody shone more in this kind of extemporary sallies than herself.
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“My spirits were all in arms, and I played a kind of extemporary prelude.
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"My spirits were all in arms, and I played a kind of extemporary prelude.
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"My spirits were all in arms, and I played a kind of extemporary prelude.
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"My spirits were all in arms, and I played a kind of extemporary prelude.
Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 1778
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"My spirits were all in arms, and I played a kind of extemporary prelude.
Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 1778
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He stunned Parliament as a young MP in the 1770s with his extemporary oratory and dandyish clothes.
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