as in to improvise
to perform, make, or do without preparation
a good talk show host has to be able to extemporize the interviews when things don't go as planned
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Recent Examples of extemporize
The future, instead, seems to belong to the teams and coaches who are willing to be a little more flexible and see their role as providing a platform on which their players might extemporize.
—
Rory Smith, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2023
Friends said he was talented and could extemporize about anything.
—Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 24 Jan. 2023
Feel free to extemporize, enthuse and connect with people, rather than overwork the data.
—Palena Neale, Forbes, 26 Oct. 2021
In public appearances, Emanuel likes to extemporize, cajole, and find a connection.
—Connie Bruck, The New Yorker, 19 Apr. 2021
The Trump that appeared in the East Room of the White House to honor the singers was not the same figure who likes to crack jokes and extemporize freely when rubbing shoulders with superstars.
—Rob Crilly, Washington Examiner, 15 Jan. 2021
That meant players were able to extemporize, to take chances without being accused of departing too far from the team playbook.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Sep. 2019
And they are exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s tendency to extemporize and the North Koreans’ long track record of duplicitous negotiation.
—Jonathan Cheng, WSJ, 9 Mar. 2018
Each presenter now has the freedom to extemporize on the warning — a nonnegotiable requirement of the program’s opening — but not by much.
—Rory Smith, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2017
Rory Smith, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2023
Friends said he was talented and could extemporize about anything.
—Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 24 Jan. 2023
Feel free to extemporize, enthuse and connect with people, rather than overwork the data.
—Palena Neale, Forbes, 26 Oct. 2021
In public appearances, Emanuel likes to extemporize, cajole, and find a connection.
—Connie Bruck, The New Yorker, 19 Apr. 2021
The Trump that appeared in the East Room of the White House to honor the singers was not the same figure who likes to crack jokes and extemporize freely when rubbing shoulders with superstars.
—Rob Crilly, Washington Examiner, 15 Jan. 2021
That meant players were able to extemporize, to take chances without being accused of departing too far from the team playbook.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Sep. 2019
And they are exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s tendency to extemporize and the North Koreans’ long track record of duplicitous negotiation.
—Jonathan Cheng, WSJ, 9 Mar. 2018
Each presenter now has the freedom to extemporize on the warning — a nonnegotiable requirement of the program’s opening — but not by much.
—Rory Smith, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extemporize
Verb
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Zoning, including single-family-exclusive zoning, first spread across the US in the early 20th century (before that, development was far more freewheeling and improvised).—
Marina Bolotnikova,
Vox,
7 July 2025
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Measuring himself against the legendary Orson Welles (whose 1938 radio broadcast of Conrad’s story was an influence) meant that Coppola would dare combine personal fears and national hubris (even improvising a reenactment of the My Lai massacre).—
Armond White,
National Review,
4 July 2025
Verb
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This ignores a fundamental problem of innovation and inventiveness, which is that many of the innovative geniuses who devised transformative inventions failed to profit financially from their own ingenuity while more aggressive, entrepreneurial bystanders claimed credit and profit.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
10 July 2025
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The breath-freshener smell that Marks had devised was a combination of laurel leaves—peculiar to the modern sensibility, but not off-putting—and musk.—
Margaret Talbot,
New Yorker,
10 July 2025
Verb
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For its 86th summer season, Del Mar has concocted a schedule filled with food-centric festivities, sips, handicapping and tips, blended in with world-class thoroughbred racing.—
Kelley Carlson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
5 July 2025
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At the end of the semester, Domokos asked him to concoct a simple algorithm to explore how tetrahedra balance.—
Elise Cutts,
Quanta Magazine,
25 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Extemporize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extemporize. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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