exhaustive

«exhaustive» in Mova's school dictionary: complete and thorough, covering every part or every… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (exhaustive; more exhaustive, most exhaustive)

meaning for a pupil

1) Something exhaustive is complete and thorough, covering every part or every possibility. tree →

2) In maths, an exhaustive list or search tries all the possible cases. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths and logic, an «exhaustive search» or «exhaustive list» means you have checked every possibility, for example listing all the ways to make 10p. In science and history, an exhaustive study leaves nothing out. Phrases: «an exhaustive list», «an exhaustive search», «exhaustive research».

examples

• The police made an exhaustive search of the woods. tree →
• This is not an exhaustive list, just some examples. tree →
• We made an exhaustive list of all the ways to make 5 with two dice. tree →
• The book is an exhaustive guide to British birds. tree →
• After exhaustive tests, the medicine was approved. tree →
• Her answer was exhaustive and covered every point. tree →

note

Trap: «exhaustive» means complete, not tiring; tiring is «exhausting». An exhaustive search can be exhausting! Adverb: exhaustively.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «exhaustive» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.