means The extent or range of what something covers, addresses, or can reach — the boundary that defines what's in and what's left out.

from From Greek skopos, 'a target, a watcher, one who aims' — tied to the verb skopein, 'to look at, examine.' That same root telescopes through scientific names everywhere: a telescope looks far, a microscope looks small, a stethoscope listens to the chest. Italian borrowed it as scopo, 'aim or purpose,' and English took 'scope' in the 1500s meaning the goal you aimed at — only later did it widen to mean the whole field of view, the range over which your aim can travel.