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extinct

adjective

Simple meaning

Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihkstingkt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪksˈtɪŋkt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. figurativebiology

    Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants.

  2. figurative

    Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, languages, 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.

  3. figurativegeology

    Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.

  4. figurative

    Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (biology) Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants.

Used this way, extinct is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Science
  • Academic writing
  • Technical/specialist writing
  • Family/home

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use extinct

  • “An extinct species of fish.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Animal / longer

extinct speciesextinct animal

Customs / geological

nearly extinctextinct volcano

Other combinations

now extinctbecoming extinctextinct volcanoesextinct race

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.