extinction
noun
Simple meaning
The fading of a conditioned response over time if it is not reinforced.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkstingkshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪksˈtɪŋkʃən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The action of making or becoming extinct; annihilation.
astronomy
The reduction of the intensity of radiation as a consequence of absorption and radiation
psychology
The fading of a conditioned response over time if it is not reinforced.
astronomy
The absorption or scattering of electromagnetic radiation emitted by astronomical objects by intervening dust and gas before it reaches the observer.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The fading of a conditioned response over time if it is not reinforced.
Used this way, extinction is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- experimental extinction , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use extinction
- “They think a meteor cause the extinction of the dinosaurs.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The angle from its axis that a crystal must be rotated before appearing maximally dark when viewed in polarized light.
A conditioning process in which the reinforcer is removed and a conditioned response becomes independent of the conditioned stimulus.
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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.