Definition of comprehensive in English:

comprehensive

See synonyms for comprehensive

Translate comprehensive into Spanish

adjective

1Complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something.
‘a comprehensive list of sources’
- ‘From a comprehensive list of nearly 1,600 daily newspapers, 500 newspapers were selected using standard interval sampling.’
- ‘The Guide contains a comprehensive list of businesses and services in the town and contains a very useful street map of Ballinrobe.’
- ‘Its Explore Kodiak guide has a comprehensive list of outfitters and free activities.’
- ‘More and more colleges and universities are developing comprehensive diversity plans to guide changes in campus policies and procedures.’
- ‘Currently the only possible source for a comprehensive list of travellers, as we've already established, lies in the carriers' passenger lists.’
- ‘The training videos contain comprehensive information on all aspects of good environmental practice at farm level, presented in an interesting and stimulating manner.’
- ‘It called for constituting a committee to conduct a comprehensive review of all aspects of the party's performance and make recommendations for future plan of action.’
- ‘That was one element within a comprehensive report.’
- ‘Both states signed their treaties claiming they were elements of a comprehensive peace.’
- ‘Though a large volume of literature is available on the issues discussed in the book it is a comprehensive treatise on related aspects of food and nutrition and the editors have taken pain to deal with every aspect.’
- ‘This comprehensive volume of nearly 600 poems, many accompanied by the Spanish original, bursts with evocative images.’
- ‘This will include the development of a comprehensive manual for all aspects of driver licencing including that of driving schools and instructors.’
- ‘The entire nightmare could have been avoided had he kept comprehensive documentation of his dealings with the plaintiffs.’
- ‘But these are unavoidable aspects of a comprehensive exposition of any subject.’
- ‘I thought he was fairly comprehensive in his coverage of various issues.’
- ‘The documentary shows its age, but it provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the legendary director.’
- ‘Seeing the problems his students faced, Mr. Silman has created the first comprehensive strategic guide in dictionary form.’
- ‘The result is the first comprehensive analysis of preventable patient deaths linked to infections within 5,810 hospitals nationally.’
- ‘Some sites offer links to others and through such links a reasonably comprehensive list can be obtained.’
- ‘Take a peek at our comprehensive guide to dining out in the city.’
diverse, diversified, wide, broad, broad-based, eclectic, indiscriminate
View synonyms
1. 1.1Of large content or scope; wide-ranging.
  ‘a comprehensive collection of photographs’
  ‘Its thorough research and comprehensive scope should prove invaluable for anyone seriously interested in the subject.’
  ‘The design phase is comprehensive in scope, tackling everything from content and design to functionality and user interface.’
  ‘The Senate Inquiry into mandatory sentencing was broad-ranging, thorough and comprehensive in terms of scope and evidence.’
  ‘This is a wide ranging and comprehensive survey of children and the experience of childhood.’
  ‘Making broad scope, comprehensive documentaries about an event the magnitude of World War II is a tall order, often with less than satisfactory results.’
  ‘Because it is comprehensive in scope and specific in detail, it can eliminate the ambiguities that exist in most partnerships.’
  ‘The volume does not cover all issues in detail and it was not intended to be comprehensive in scope.’
  ‘Sir Gawaine's British West Indies collection is part of a wider comprehensive collection of stamps from Great Britain and the British Empire.’
  ‘The authors make no claims for completeness, indeed are transparent about the gaps, yet this book is impressively comprehensive in scale, scope and analytical range.’
  ‘Yet, inevitably, the comprehensive scope of Ackroyd's book requires that he sometimes sacrifice elaboration for example, depth for breadth.’
  ‘Naval historians would do well to familiarize themselves with his style of narrative, his comprehensive coverage, and scope of research.’
  ‘Unbelievable in its comprehensive scope, the vast material supports a view of Africa as the archetypal artistic environment.’
  ‘Although debate on the measure was fairly abbreviated, the resulting measure was comprehensive in both its scope and design.’
  ‘Their collaborative research is quite comprehensive in its scope.’
  ‘It combines a comprehensive scope, concisely written entries and the best in current biblical scholarship.’
  ‘The Convention is extraordinarily comprehensive in scope.’
  ‘This presentation is comprehensive in scope but lacks much historical analysis.’
  ‘The Guardian's more comprehensive survey also came up with far higher job losses than the government admits.’
  ‘Their collaborative research is quite comprehensive in its scope.’
  ‘The volume does not cover all issues in detail and it was not intended to be comprehensive in scope.’
  inclusive, all-inclusive, complete
  View synonyms
2. 1.2(of automobile insurance) providing coverage for most risks, including damage to the policyholder's own vehicle.
  ‘comprehensive and collision insurance’
  ‘Some cost items will differ for different vehicle types, notably comprehensive insurance, but in the main it is reasonable to use fleet size.’
  ‘Is it possible to take out one insurance policy, preferably comprehensive, that would cover us all to drive either of the cars?’
  ‘The good news for motorists with fully comprehensive insurance is that they are covered if their car has water damage.’
  ‘He agreed only after ensuring that he was covered under the defendant's comprehensive car insurance policy.’
  ‘For example, a 56-year-old driving a 2001 Toyota Avensis received a quote of €735 from Axa for comprehensive insurance.’
  ‘He thought that all drivers should be made to have fully comprehensive insurance and that driving jobs should be given to local people.’
  ‘This insurance is designed to protect motorists from payout shortfalls that could arise between the original price paid for a car and the comprehensive insurance payout in the case of loss.’
  ‘It must be comprehensive insurance, because you're driving someone else's car.’
  ‘If you happen to own a posh motor, or are particularly accident-prone, then you might consider taking out fully comprehensive insurance.’
  ‘Motorists with fully comprehensive insurance mistakenly think they have insurance for the contents of their car along with the car itself.’
  ‘Even those who have fully comprehensive motor insurance while driving in the UK need to check, as most policies only offer third-party cover on the continent.’
  ‘The cost of comprehensive motor insurance has almost doubled, rising by 86%.’
  ‘A typical comprehensive and collision policy will usually only cover the fair market value for your car.’
3. 1.3US An examination testing a student's command of a special field of knowledge.
  ‘The reality of life in Wereilu and in Ethiopia is that few students are able to pass the comprehensive examinations with a high enough mark to continue with tertiary education.’
  ‘Currently in our program, a senior comprehensive examination is given, but is not required for either graduation or as eligibility to take a national certification examination.’
  ‘As an example, one student who by his own admission did not study for, nor pass the senior comprehensive examination, took a job that required that he have national certification.’
  ‘Unlike UMMC, 16 of the 40 respondents stated that passage of the comprehensive examination was a requirement for graduation.’
  ‘A master's degree usually involves one to two years of coursework, a comprehensive examination over that coursework, and in some cases, a thesis.’
  ‘One student in a special AAC&U Annual Meeting focus group told that she had even opted to take one of her comprehensive examinations in pedagogy.’
2 archaic Relating to understanding.

Pronunciation

comprehensive

/ˌkämprəˈhensiv/ /ˌkɑmprəˈhɛnsɪv/

noun

British

in full comprehensive schoolA secondary school catering to children of all abilities from a given area.
‘he trained as an accountant after leaving the local comprehensive’
- ‘when I was 14 I was at comprehensive’
- ‘About 12,000 pupils went on to study at the same 400 selective grammar schools or top-rated comprehensives.’
- ‘The majority of these producers did not attend fee-paying schools; more went to grammar schools or comprehensives.’
- ‘City academies - independent comprehensives part-funded by the private sector - and specialist schools will not be introduced north of the Border.’
- ‘The snuffing out of that option, by the ideologically driven determination to replace grammar schools with comprehensives, was a quite explicit piece of social engineering.’
- ‘All but one of the top 26 state schools nationally were comprehensives.’
- ‘Some of us were going to private schools or comprehensives, so we didn't have to take it.’
- ‘In England they have been transforming failed comprehensives into specialist schools and city academies.’
- ‘We do not argue that public comprehensives jettison their professional and technical programs.’
- ‘‘There is no point at which grammar schools exceed the performance of comprehensives at teaching able pupils,’ he said at the time.’
- ‘In the latest set of school league tables, comprehensives are getting results as good as or higher than grammar schools in the ‘value added’ part of the table.’
- ‘As today's exclusive survey shows, a massive gulf separates Bradford's highest-flying comprehensives from those with lower scores.’
- ‘People power has forced councillors to rethink plans to change school catchment areas and bar scores of pupils from their local comprehensives.’
- ‘About half went to fee-paying schools and the rest to state grammars and comprehensives.’
- ‘A Guardian leak suggests that one of the most scandalous proposals, letting ‘public’ schools take over comprehensives, may be restricted to London.’
- ‘Plans to rebuild two other comprehensives - Beckfoot and Grange Technology College - plus new special schools will be included in a ‘second wave’ bid to be put in over the next few weeks.’
- ‘We should be defending mixed local comprehensives.’
- ‘Laidlaw has given assurances that his schools would remain comprehensives and would take everyone from the catchment area.’
- ‘More recently, he has declared opposition to comprehensives and support for the return of grammar schools.’
- ‘More than one in five teachers who taught some maths in comprehensives had nothing better than an A-Level in the subject, and the proportion fell to just over half in the case of RE.’
- ‘Instead, many went to council-run comprehensives and attended newer universities or none.’