# extinct
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ɪkˈstɪŋ(k)t/, /ɛk-/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪŋkt
* Hyphenation: ex‧tinct

### Etymology 1

* PIE word
* *h₁eǵʰs
From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”), from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus (“extinguished, quenched; destroyed, killed; made extinct”), the perfect passive participles of extinguō, exstinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench; (figurative) to abolish; to destroy, kill”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + stinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench”) (from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push”)). The Middle English word displaced Middle English aqueint, aquenched (“extinct; extinguished”). Doublet of extinguish.

#### Adjective

extinct (not comparable)
* (dated) Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
    Antonyms: alight, burning
    Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
** 1785, William Cowper, “Book VI. The Winter Walk at Noon.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 256:Ah pleaſant proof! / That piety has ſtill in human hearts / Some place, a ſpark or tvvo not yet extinct.
** 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 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.
* (figurative)
** Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
*** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:1, column 2:My breath is corrupt, my dayes are extinct, the graues are ready for me.
*** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 43:15 and 17, column 1:I am the Lord, your holy one, the Creatour of Iſrael, your King. […] 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.
*** 1827, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XII, in Vivian Grey, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book V, page 236:Conversation seemed nearly extinct, and yet neither offered to turn back.
*** 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 19:I knew at Paris a criminal condemned to die by the halter, […] He was cut down, and given to his friends before life was extinct, and I had the good fortune to recover him.
** Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:obsolete
    Antonyms: (archaic) inextinct, unextinct; see also Thesaurus:active
    Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
    The title became extinct when the last baron died.
*** 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Edward the First, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 23, page 652, column 2:[King Edward] as being deſcended of the eldeſt Daughter of Dauid, Earle of Huntingdon, a yonger ſonne of [Henry of] Scotland; vvhoſe iſſue (the line of the elder brother being extinct) vvas to inherite, vvithout queſtion.
*** 1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Warrantie”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 3, section 733, folio 384, verso:[I]f the father bee infeoffed with warrantie to him and his heyres, the father infeoffeth his eldeſt ſon with warrantie and dieth, the Law giueth to the ſonne aduantage of the Warrantie made to his father, becauſe by act in Law the Warrantie betweene the father and the ſonne is extinct.
*** 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Those Things that Weaken, or Tend to the Dissolution of a Common-wealth”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 174:[W]hen the Povver of an Aſſembly is once ſuppreſſed, the Right of the ſame periſheth utterly; becauſe the Aſſembly it ſelfe is extinct; and conſequently, there is no poſſibility for the Soveraignty to re-enter.
*** 1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Ecclesiastical Censures, and the Division thereof”, in Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC, page 156:An Eccleſiaſtical Cenſure is tvvofold; the one inflicted by Lavv; and the other inflicted by Man. […] Some ſay, That a Cenſure ab Homine, ceaſes on the Death of the Perſon, that pronounced the ſame; but a Cenſure inflicted à Jure continues, tho' ſuch Lavv be extinct, or the Lavv-giver removed from his Office.
*** 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter V, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 36:The hatred with which he [George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys] was regarded by the people of Somersetshire has no parallel in our history. […] When he had been many years dead, when his name and title were extinct, his granddaughter, the Countess of Pomfret [Henrietta Louisa Fermor], travelling along the western road, was insulted by the populace, and found that she could not safely venture herself among the descendants of those who had witnessed the bloody assizes.
*** 1951 October, H[enry] C[yril] Casserley, “Crane Engines”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 660:The withdrawal in past months of the former North London Railway locomotive from Bow, and one of the three ex-Great Eastern engines from Stratford works, indicates that the crane locomotive will soon be extinct on British Railways.
*** 1961 January, Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, photograph caption, page 59:The ex-G.C. Class A5 4-6-2T, of which No. 69820 was one, is now extinct.
*** 1988, Andrew Radford, “Other Phrases”, in Transformational Grammar: A First Course (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 1989, →ISBN, 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.
** (chiefly biology) Of an animal or plant species, a class of people, a family, etc.: having died out completely; no longer in existence.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inexistent
    Antonyms: extant, (archaic) inextinct, living, nonextinct, unextinct; see also Thesaurus:existent
    Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
*** 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 331:I vvent dovvn aftervvards into Yorkſhire; but my Father vvas dead, and my Mother, and all the Family extinct, except that I found tvvo Siſters, and tvvo of the Children of one of my Brothers; […]
*** 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 312:[M]any breeds, now extinct or rare, both of quadrupeds and birds, were still common. The fox, whose life is, in many counties, held almost as sacred as that of a human being, was considered as a mere nuisance.
*** 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Introduction”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 6: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, Redwood City, Calif.: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, P.C., 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) Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dead
    Antonyms: active, dormant, nonextinct, unextinct
    Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
    They found the sites of extinct geysers.
** (nuclear physics) Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life.
** (obsolete) Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
*** [1545?], John Heywood, The Playe Called The Foure PP […], London: […] Wyllyam Myddylton, →OCLC; reprinted as John S. Farmer, editor, The Play Called The Four PP […] (The Tudor Facsimile Texts), London; Edinburgh: […] T. C. & E. C. Jack, […], 1908, →OCLC, signature D.iii., recto:[H]e may at lybertie / Paſſe ſaue without hys ieopardy / Tyll that he be from vs extyncte / And clerely out of helles precincte

##### Derived terms

* coextinct
* extinctic
* extinct language
* extinctness
* extinctor
* extinctual
* extincture
* inextinct (archaic)
* nonextinct
* pseudoextinct
* semiextinct
* unextinct

##### Related terms

* distinct
* extinction
* extinctive
* extinctively
* extinguish
* nonextinction
* semiextinction

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English extincten (“to extinguish or put out (a fire, light, etc.); to destroy, kill; (figurative) to suppress (an uprising); (law) to quash or stop (legal proceedings); to cancel (a privilege, title, etc.); (medicine) to eliminate or reduce (inflammation, an ulcer, etc.)”), from extinct (adjective) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).

#### Verb

extinct (third-person singular simple present extincts, present participle extincting, simple past extincted, past participle extincted or (obsolete) extinct) (transitive)
* Synonym of extinguish
** (obsolete) To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench.
*** 1610 October, John Foxe, “The Eighth Persecution”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. […], 6th edition, volume I, London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC, book I, page 66, column 2:[…] Eugenia […] was put in the hot baths, which were extincted, and ſhe preſerued: […] At laſt the ſtorie ſaith, ſhée was with the ſword beheaded.
** (obsolete, figurative) To kill (someone).
** (obsolete, figurative) To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.
*** 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “Of Them that be Baptised in Priuate Houses in Tyme of Necessitie”, in The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC, folio viii, recto:Graunt that al ſinne & vice here maie bee ſo extinct: that thei neuer haue power to raigne in they ſeruaũtes. Amẽ.
*** 1610 October, John Foxe, “The Eighth Persecution”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. […], 6th edition, volume I, London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC, book I, page 63, column 2:[…] Almes doe deliuer from all ſinne and from death; […]. Not from that (ſaith Cyprian) which the blood of Chriſt hath once extincted, and from which the wholeſome grace of our baptiſme, and of our redeemer hath deliuered vs, but from that death which afterwards creepeth in by ſinne, &c.
*** (specifically, biology) To cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct (adjective sense 2.3).
    Antonym: de-extinct
**** 2003, Steven A. LeBlanc, Katherine E. Register, “Was there Ever an Eden?”, in Constant Battles: Why We Fight, 1st St. Martin’s Griffin edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published August 2004, →ISBN, page 34:Paleontologists determine which animal species were extincted, and geomorphologists can find cycles of soil erosion. […] The first settlers were living along the coast of this very large island off Africa [Madagascar], but in about seven hundred years they had spread across the entire island and in the process extincted almost all large game, including hippos, tortoises, giant lemurs—some two dozen species in all.
** (obsolete, figurative) To suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench.
*** 1556, John Heywood, chapter 7, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC, page 50:It is more hard, loue to our ſelues to extinkt, / Then hate to other, to plucke from tharts preſinkt, / Thus, of iuſtice no let ledeth intrupcion, / Like this loue (name ſelfe loue) growne of corrupcion.
*** 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, [Act II, scene i], page 316, column 2:Great Ioue, Othello guard, / And ſvvell his Saile vvith thine ovvne povvrefull breath, / That he may bleſſe this Bay vvith his tall Ship, / Make loues quicke pants in Deſdemonaes Armes, / Giue renevv'd fire to our extincted Spirits.An adjective use.
** (obsolete, figurative, chiefly law) To abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a licence, etc.).
*** c. 1596 (date written), Francis Bacon, “Maxims of the Law. Regula IX. Quod remedio destituitur ipsa re valet, si culpa absit.”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume VII, London: Longman, Green, and Co.; […], published 1859, →OCLC, page 353:So if I have a rent charge, and grant it upon condition; now, though the condition be broken, the grantee's estate is not defeated till I have made my claim: but if after any such grant my father purchase the land, and it descend to me; now, if the condition be broken, the rent ceaseth without claim. But if I had purchased the land myself, then I had extincted mine own condition, because I had disabled myself to make my claim.
*** 1746, Christopher St. Germain, “The Fifth Question of the Student”, in Doctor and Student: Or Dialogues between a Doctor of Divinity, and a Student in the Laws of England, […], In the Savoy [London]: […] Henry Lintot, (assignee of Edward Sayer, Esq), →OCLC, page 74:And foraſmuch as the ſaid Statute vvas ordained to give a Certainty of Title in the Lands and Tenements compriſed in the Fine, it ſeemeth that the Fine extincteth the Title of all other, as vvell in Conſcience, as it doth in the Lavv.

##### Usage notes

Sense 1.3.1 (“to cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct”) is the only sense that is current.

##### Derived terms

* extincted (adjective) (obsolete)
* extincting (noun) (obsolete)
* extincture (obsolete)

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

Either:
* from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus, a noun use of the perfect passive participle of extinguō, exstinguō (see etymology 1); or
* from the verb (see etymology 2).

#### Noun

extinct (uncountable)
* (obsolete) Synonym of extinction (“the action of becoming or making extinct; annihilation”)
** 1606, I. F. [i.e., John Ford], “To the Right Honorable the Earle of Pembroke. Third Position. Faire Ladie was Neuer False.”, in Honor Triumphant. Or The Peeres Challenge, by Armes Defensible, at Tilt, Turney, and Barriers. […], London: […] [George Eld] for Francis Burton, →OCLC, signature [D2], verso:[W]ho is he […] as vvould not euen in the glas of Lucreſias perſeuerãce (euẽ to the vttermoſt extinct of life) ſe the vvõder of bevvty, matched vvith the indiuiduat adiũt vnſoyled conſtancy.[W]ho is he […] as would not even in the glass of Lucretia’s perseverance (even to the uttermost extinction of life) see the wonder of beauty, matched with the individuate adjunct unsoiled constancy.
** 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Ethelred Commonly Called the Unreadie, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book VII ([The Saxons] […]), paragraph 30, page 360, column 1:[W]ee have cauſe to feare the loſſe of our Kingdome, and you the extinct of the Engliſh nations renovvne; […]

### References

* ↑ “extinct, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Compare “extinct, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “extinct, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “extincten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “† extinct, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
* ↑ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “† extinct, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.

### Further reading

* extinction on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* extinct radionuclide on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “extinct”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* “extinct”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “extinct”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.