extinct
English
Etymology
Recorded since 1432; borrowed from Latin extīnctus, the past participle of extinguere (“to put out, destroy, abolish, extinguish”), corresponding to ex- + stinguere (“to quench”)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/, /ɛkˈstɪŋkt/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪŋkt
Adjective
extinct (not comparable)
- (dated) Extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc.)
- Antonym: burning
- Poor Edward's cigarillo was already extinct.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Isaiah 43:17:
- Which bringeth foorth the charet and horse, the armie and the power: they shall lie downe together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as towe.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 311:
- Most of the lamps were extinct, but they glittered golden in the morning light, and in some few a pale white flame yet struggled with day.
- No longer used; obsolete, discontinued.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:obsolete
- The title became extinct when the last baron died.
- Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
- 1961 January, Trains Illustrated, page 59, photo caption:
- The ex-G.C. Class A5 4-6-2T, of which No. 69820 was one, is now extinct.
- 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 5, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 275:
- Indeed the very fact that the English spelling system writes in there as two words but therein as one word might be taken as suggesting that only the former is a productive syntactic construction in Modern English, the latter being a now extinct construction which has left behind a few fossil remnants in the form of compound words such as thereby.
- (of a group of organisms, as a species) No longer in existence; having died out.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inexistent
- Antonyms: extant; see also Thesaurus:existent
- The dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
- 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], OCLC 1029641431:
- I am fully convinced that species are not immutable; but that those belonging to what are called the same genera are lineal descendants of some other and generally extinct species, in the same manner as the acknowledged varieties of any one species are the descendants of that species.
- 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, OCLC 962368035, PC, scene: Citadel:
- Wrex: And before you die, I want you to know I'm calling off our support for Earth! If my people go extinct, so do yours!
- (geology) No longer active.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dead
- Antonyms: active, dormant
- Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
- They found the sites of extinct geysers.
Derived terms
- extinct language
Related terms
- extinction
- extinctive
- extinguish
- distinct
Translations
extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc.)
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no longer used; obsolete, discontinued
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having died out
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no longer erupting
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
extinct (third-person singular simple present extincts, present participle extincting, simple past and past participle extincted)
- (transitive) To make extinct; to extinguish or annihilate.
- Antonym: (biology) de-extinct
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i], page 316, column 2:
- Make loues quicke pants in Deſdemonaes Armes, / Giue renew'd fire to our extincted Spirits.
- 2013, Steven A. LeBlanc; Katherine E. Register, Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN:
- Paleontologists determine which animal species were extincted, and geomorphologists can find cycles of soil erosion.
Further reading
- extinct at OneLook Dictionary Search
- extinct in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- extinct in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911