extirpate
verb · adjective
Simple meaning
Destroy completely, as if down to the roots.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehksterpaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛkstɚpeɪt
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.
verb
Destroy completely, as if down to the roots
transitive
To destroy completely; to annihilate.
Pull up by or as if by the roots
biology
To cause a population to go extinct in a particular region, but not across the entire range of the species or subspecies.
transitive
To surgically remove.
adjective
as a participial adjective
Rooted out, extinct, utterly destroyed.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Destroy completely, as if down to the roots
Used this way, extirpate is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: destroy completely or as if down to the roots
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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.