Extinct Meaning
/ɪkˈstɪŋkt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Definition
adjOf fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
adjOf feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
Sentence Examples
Word Origin & History
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.