extinct
pronunciation
How to pronounce extinct in British English:
UK [ɪkˈstɪŋkt]
How to pronounce extinct in American English:
US [ɪkˈstɪŋkt]
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- Adjective:
- no longer in existence; lost or especially having died out leaving no living representatives
- of e.g. volcanos; permanently inactive
- of a fire; being out or having grown cold
Word Origin
- extinct
- extinct: [15] Latin stinguere appears originally to have meant ‘prick, stick’ (a sense revealed in the derivative from which English gets distinct), but in historical times the only record of it we have is in the later, and rather remote metaphorical meaning ‘quench’. With the addition of the prefix ex- ‘out’ it became extinguere ‘put out’, whence English extinguish [16]. Extinct comes from its past participle, extinctus, and originally meant ‘put out, no longer alight’: ‘That fire was extinct’, Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon 1432– 50.Its modern use, ‘having died out’, dates – in relation to species, families, etc – from the late 17th century.=> distinct, extinguish
- extinct (adj.)
- early 15c., "extinguished, quenched," from Latin extinctus/exstinctus, past participle of extinguere/exstinguere "to put out, quench; go out, die out; kill, destroy" (see extinguish). Originally of fires; in reference to the condition of a family or a hereditary title that has "died out," from 1580s; of species by 1768. Shakespeare uses it as a verb. Compare extinction.
Example
- 1. Here one is shown attacking the extinct new zealand moa .
- 2. Mass-market advertising , he says , will become " extinct " .
- 3. He says most living things eventually go extinct .
- 4. Our zoos will most likely fill with animals that are now extinct .
- 5. Scientists , cavers and wildlife film-makers have ventured inside the extinct mount bosavi volcano in papua new guinea in search of rare species