Search the Dictionary

Including much; comprising many things; having a wide scope or a full view. A very comprehensive definition. Bentley. Large and comprehensive idea. Channing.

In a comprehensive manner; with great extent of scope.

The quality of being comprehensive; extensiveness of scope. Compare the beauty and comprehensiveness of legends on ancient coins. Addison.

Not comprehensive; not capable of including or of understanding; not extensive; limited. -- In*com`pre*hen"sive*ly, a. Sir W. Hamilton. -- In*com`pre*hen"sive*ness, n. T. Warton.

Unable to comprehend. Narrow-spirited, uncomprehensive zealots. South.

A comprehensive maxim or principle expressed in a few words; a sharply defined sentence relating to abstract truth rather than to practical matters. The first aphorism of Hippocrates is, "Life is short, and the art is long." Fleming.

Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged. The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case. D. Daggett. In a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way. E. Everett.

or evangelical, party. The term has been applied to otherbodies of men holding liberal or comprehensive views of Christian doctrine and fellowship. Side by side with these various shades of High and Low Church, another party of a different character has always existed in the Church of England. It is called by different…

To make broad or broader; to render more broad or comprehensive.

Capacious; large; comprehensive. [Obs.] Shak.

or qualified to make large views of things, as in obtaining knowledge or forming designs; comprehensive; liberal. "A capacious mind." Watts.

In a capacious manner or degree; comprehensively.

The power of receiving and holding ideas, knowledge, etc.; the comprehensiveness of the mind; the receptive faculty; capability of undestanding or feeling. Capacity is now properly limited to these [the mere passive operations of the mind]; its primary signification, which is literally room for, as well as its employme…

A comprehensive division of animals including all Vertebrata together with the Tunicata, or all those having a dorsal nervous cord.

A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects, grouped together on account of their common characteristics, in any classification in natural science, and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, gemera, etc.

A comprehensive group equivalent to the true Coelenterata, i.e., exclusive of the sponges. They are so named from presence of stinging cells (cnidae) in the tissues. See Coelenterata.

A comprehensive group of Invertebrata, mostly marine, comprising the Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, and Ctenophora. The name implies that the stomach and body cavities are one. The group is sometimes enlarged so as to include the sponges.

A natural group of orders of plants, less comprehensive than a class.

A short, comprehensive prayer, adapted to a particular day, occasion, or condition, and forming part of a liturgy. The noble poem on the massacres of Piedmont is strictly a collect in verse. Macaulay.

, brighter, more bright, or less bright. Comparative sciences, those which are based on a comprehensive comparison of the range of objects or facts in any branch or department, and which aim to study out and treat of the fundamental laws or systems of relation pervading them; as, comparative anatomy, comparative physio…