Comprehensive

//ˌkɒm.pɹɪˈhɛn.sɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A comprehensive school. British

    "Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting."

  2. 2
    an intensive examination testing a student's proficiency in some special field of knowledge wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Broadly or completely covering; including a large proportion of something.

    "When there are diametrically opposing views on a big issue that concerns millions of people, doing comprehensive research just makes sense."

Adjective
  1. 1
    including all or everything wordnet
  2. 2
    broad in scope wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
exhaustiveinclusiveomnibusplenarypunctiliousabsolute

Example

More examples

"I gained comprehensive knowledge of God after reading the bible."

Etymology

Borrowed from late Middle French compréhensif, from Late Latin comprehēnsīvus, from Latin comprehendō.

Related phrases

comprehensive distancingcomprehensive school

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.