outreach

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   organized efforts to contact and provide information or services to people who might otherwise lack access

   The clinic expanded its outreach to families in remote communities.

2. 2
   noun

   the act or extent of reaching outward

   The program's outreach now extends across the entire region.

3. 3
   verb

   dated or literary: to reach farther than or surpass

   The new telescope can outreach the older instrument's range.

Formed from out- + reach. The verb originally meant to extend beyond or surpass; the now-common noun developed from the act of reaching outward and became especially associated with services offered beyond an institution's usual boundaries.

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