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I'm looking for a word that means roughly "almost comprehensive" or "nearly comprehensive."

The context: I've created an app that does a fairly complete suite of jobs (given its purpose), but clearly does not do all possible jobs that the app could do or that one might want it to do.

  • In other words, it does a suite of tasks that would be "complete" for most users, but surely some users might find certain abilities to be missing.
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    Most advertising copy writers would cheerfully use comprehensive even if they knew perfectly well it wasn't quite that all-embracing. But if you're worried about getting sued for making false claims when you promote your app, just say it has extensive functionality. You want to emphasise how much it does do, not call attention to the (hopefully small) number of things it doesn't do. Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 17:54
  • A phrase like most tasks or all commonly required jobs would do. I would agree with @FumbleFingers though, comprehensive doers not need to mean all, nearly all would be sufficient for many people.
    – Lee Leon
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 19:31
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    Maybe you like one of those: Near-comprehensive, near-exhaustive, extensive, ample, broad, wide, detailed, sweeping, thorough, thoroughgoing, far-reaching, large-scale, of wide scope.
    – Richard Z
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 0:45

2 Answers 2

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Having thought more about this, I think FumbleFingers comment above is probably the best approach.

Extensive (i.e., having broad extent) appropriately defines "near-comprehensive" and still carries a strongly inclusive connotation.

Using comprehensive in a not-fully comprehensive way is likely also ok in most instances to emphasize the extensive quality of something.

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exhaustive TFD

adj. 1. Treating all parts or aspects without omission; thorough: an exhaustive study.

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    I don't think "exhaustive" is the word the OP is looking for. Exhaustive means, in part, no stone is un-turned. For example, the difference between a comprehensive concordance of words in the Bible, which includes the most salient words, and an exhaustive concordance (e.g., Strong's Exhaustive Concordance), is that the latter includes every single word found in the Bible (yes, every "a," "and," and "the" !). The OP's app is closer to being comprehensive than exhaustive, since s/he admits the app does not do all the possible jobs it could do or that a user could want it to do. Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 3:21

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