extender

From extend + -er.

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extender (plural extenders)

1. One who extends.
   • 1983 June 2, “'PHYSICIAN EXTENDERS' READY TO FILL A GAP THAT DIDN'T DEVELOP”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The public has learned to accept the services of physician extenders as a substitute for a qualified medical doctor, but the medical profession itself will, I daresay, continue to erect substantial barriers to any policy or effort that directly affects income.

   • 2010 November 10, John Caramanica, “Monopoly by Marc Jacobs”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     [Marc Jacobs] is a colonialist, an extender of brands, and in very good shape.

2. Any of various substances designed to extend any of several properties of a material.
   • 2018 November, Deborah Blum, “When Milk Was Full of Calf Brains”, in The Atlantic‎^[3]:

     “Flour” routinely contained crushed stone or gypsum as a cheap extender.

3. Any of various components designed to extend the length of a device.
4. Any substance added to food to bulk it out, with a higher protein content than a filler.

   Soy protein is used as a meat extender.

5. (climbing) A runner, or quick-draw.
6. (linguistics) A phrase that extends an expression to include further members of a set, e.g. "and stuff", "or something".

• re-extend, reextend, reëxtend

• Hyphenation: ex‧ten‧der

extender (first-person singular present extendo, first-person singular preterite extendi, past participle extendido)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of estender; now a common misspelling
   • 1938, Graciliano Ramos, “O mundo coberto de pennas [The world covered in feathers]”, in Vidas Seccas [Barren Lives]‎^[4], Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio Editora, page 175:

     Não conseguiria nunca extender os ossos numa cama, o unico desejo que tinha.

     She would never be able to stretch her bones on a bed, her only wish.

This spelling coexisted with estender.

Borrowed from Latin extendere, or modified from the Old Spanish estender, which may have been inherited.

• IPA^(key): /eɡstenˈdeɾ/ [eɣ̞s.t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]
• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: ex‧ten‧der

extender (first-person singular present extiendo, first-person singular preterite extendí, past participle extendido)

1. to extend, to expand

   Synonym: expandir

2. to spread
3. to expand on
4. to stretch

   Synonym: estirar

• desplegar
• estirar

• “extender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025