extinct
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪkˈstɪŋ(k)t/
ipa: /ɛk-/
rhymes: -ɪŋkt
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
text: Ah pleaſant proof! / That piety has ſtill in human hearts / Some place, a ſpark or tvvo not yet extinct.
ref: 1785, William Cowper, “Book VI. The Winter Walk at Noon.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 256:
text: 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.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 311:
antonyms: alight
burning
glosses: Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
examples: text: My breath is corrupt, my dayes are extinct, the graues are ready for me.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 17:1, column 2:
text: 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.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 43:15 and 17, column 1:
text: Conversation seemed nearly extinct, and yet neither offered to turn back.
ref: 1827, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XII, in Vivian Grey, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book V, page 236:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
examples: text: Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
text: The title became extinct when the last baron died.
text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1951 October, H[enry] C[yril] Casserley, “Crane Engines”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 660:
text: The ex-G.C. Class A5 4-6-2T, of which No. 69820 was one, is now extinct.
ref: 1961 January, Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, photograph caption, page 59:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: anachronistic
word: antediluvial
word: antediluvian
word: antiquated
word: antique
word: archaic
word: backward
word: backwards
word: behind the times
word: cobwebbed
word: cobwebby
word: dated
word: defunct
word: discontinued
word: disused
word: dootsie
word: elderly
word: extinct
word: expired
word: fossilized
word: Havishamesque
word: idle
word: Miss Havishamesque
word: obsolete
word: old
word: oldfangled
word: old-fashioned
word: old school
word: outdated
word: outmoded
word: out of date
word: out of fashion
word: outworn
word: parachronistic
word: passé
word: superannuated
word: superseded
word: unemployed
word: unoccupied
word: venerable
word: workless
antonyms: word: inextinct
word: unextinct
word: inactive
word: nondriven
word: quiet
word: restful
word: sleeping
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
text: 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; […]
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 331:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Introduction”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 6:
text: 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!
ref: 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3, Redwood City, Calif.: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, P.C., scene: Citadel:
text: Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenous languages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku.
ref: 2024 March 8, Antara, “11 Indigenous Languages Declared Extinct: Education Ministry”, in Jakarta Globe:
text: The result is essentially a hybrid species similar in appearance to its extinct forerunner.
ref: 2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
synonyms: word: beingless
word: extinct
word: inessential
word: inexistent
word: nonexistent
word: null
word: zilch
antonyms: word: extant
word: inextinct
word: living
word: nonextinct
word: unextinct
word: inexistent
glosses: Of an animal or plant species, a class of people, a family, etc.: having died out completely; no longer in existence.
examples: text: Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
text: They found the sites of extinct geysers.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
synonyms: word: asleep
word: at rest
word: cadaverous
word: clay-cold
word: deceased
word: resting
word: decomposed
word: defunct
word: departed
word: expired
word: extinct
word: fey
word: gone
word: good
word: inanimate
word: inert
word: kaput
word: late
word: lifeless
word: living impaired
word: low
word: no longer with us
word: no more
word: perished
word: reposing
word: six feet deep
word: six feet under
word: stiff
word: wasted
word: whilom
word: with God
antonyms: active
dormant
nonextinct
unextinct
glosses: Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
qualifier: nuclear physics
glosses: Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life.
examples: text: [H]e may at lybertie / Paſſe ſaue without hys ieopardy / Tyll that he be from vs extyncte / And clerely out of helles precincte
ref: [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:
glosses: Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
Derived terms: word: coextinct
word: extinctic
word: extinct language
word: extinctness
word: extinctor
word: extinctual
word: extincture
word: inextinct
word: nonextinct
word: pseudoextinct
word: semiextinct
word: unextinct
Related terms: distinct
extinction
extinctive
extinctively
extinguish
nonextinction
semiextinction