to extemporize

Examples

• All

• During the meeting, he had to extemporize his presentation due to the last-minute changes.

• She had to extemporize during her speech when the power went out unexpectedly.

• We'll have to extemporize and experiment with what it is, when it is.

  Lincoln (2012)

• All in costumes," he said, extemporizing now.

  Fiction book (2002)

• I was merely extemporizing, heh.

  Action Jackson (1988)

• The shift is all the more important in that it coincides with the point in the address where King abandoned his written text and extemporized.

  Academic text (2003)

• All right, ladies and gents, comical poems suitable for the occasion, extemporized and thought up before your very eyes.

  Mary Poppins (1964)

• It has been more than twenty years since that day when MENC conference goers extemporized almost an hour of music.

  Academic text (1991)

• He knew much Hebrew and extemporized from the little Haggadahs that each person had, the booklets that came free from Maxwell House Coffee.

  Fiction book (1995)

• He'd even fully orchestrated one or two passages, although he'd known even at the time he was doing them that he was simply playing at composition, producing something he could show visitors and extemporize around on the piano.

  Fiction book (1995)

Synonyms

I

to improvise

vsto extemporize

141 4.0

Do something without planning, using what you have

is a more formal term for doing that without prior preparation

W

to wing it

vsto extemporize

• Informal

28 6.1

Do something without planning or preparation and improvise

is a more formal expression for doing things without preparation

M

to make it up as one goes along

vsto extemporize

• Informal

11 6.6

Decide or think of things during a situation without planning ahead

is a more formal phrase for that spontaneous invention

A

to ad-lib

vsto extemporize

8 6.8

To say or act without preparation

is a more formal word used for any unprepared doing or creating

I

to improv

vsto extemporize

• Informal

3 6.2

To perform without a script, making scenes or music on the spot

is used more widely beyond performance contexts and in formal style

Antonyms

P

to prepare

∞ 1.0

Make something ready for use or an event

R

to rehearse

131 3.5

Practice a play, music, or speech before showing it to people

How Prepared

to prepare

∞ 1.0

to rehearse

131 3.5

to extemporize

1 9.0

to improvise

141 4.0

to wing it

• Informal

28 6.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology