extract
Americanverb (used with object)
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extracts,
present (3rd person singular)
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extracted,
past participle, past
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extracting
present participle
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to get, pull, or draw out, usually with special effort, skill, or force.
to extract a tooth.
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to deduce (a doctrine, principle, interpretation, etc.).
He extracted a completely personal meaning from what was said.
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to derive or obtain (pleasure, comfort, etc.) from a particular source.
He extracted satisfaction from the success of his sons.
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to take or copy out (matter), as from a book.
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to make excerpts from (a book, pamphlet, etc.).
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to extort (information, money, etc.).
to extract a secret from someone.
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to separate or obtain (a juice, ingredient, etc.) from a mixture by pressure, distillation, treatment with solvents, or the like.
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Mathematics.
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to determine (the root of a quantity that has a single root).
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to determine (a root of a quantity that has multiple roots).
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noun
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extracts
plural
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something extracted.
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a passage taken from a book, article, etc.; excerpt; quotation.
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a solution or preparation containing the active principles of a drug, plant juice, or the like; concentrated solution.
vanilla extract.
- Synonyms:
- distillation, decoction
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a solid, viscid, or liquid substance extracted from a plant, drug, or the like, containing its essence in concentrated form.
beef extract.
verb
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to withdraw, pull out, or uproot by force
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to remove or separate
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to derive (pleasure, information, etc) from some source or situation
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to deduce or develop (a doctrine, policy, etc)
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informal to extort (money, etc)
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to obtain (a substance) from a mixture or material by a chemical or physical process, such as digestion, distillation, the action of a solvent, or mechanical separation
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to cut out or copy out (an article, passage, quotation, etc) from a publication
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to determine the value of (the root of a number)
noun
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something extracted, such as a part or passage from a book, speech, etc
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a preparation containing the active principle or concentrated essence of a material
beef extract
yeast extract
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pharmacol a solution of plant or animal tissue containing the active principle
Usage
Extract is sometimes wrongly used where extricate would be better: he will find it difficult extricating (not extracting ) himself from this situation
Synonym Usage
Extract, exact, extort, wrest imply using force to remove something. To extract is to draw forth something as by pulling, importuning, or the like: to extract a confession by torture. To exact is to impose a penalty, or to obtain by force or authority, something to which one lays claim: to exact payment. To extort is to wring something by intimidation or threats from an unwilling person: to extort money by threats of blackmail. To wrest is to take by force or violence in spite of active resistance: The courageous minority wrested power from their oppressors.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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extractabilitynoun
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extractibilitynoun
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overextractverb (used with object)
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preextractverb (used with object)
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extractableadjective
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extractibleadjective
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nonextractableadjective
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nonextractedadjective
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nonextractibleadjective
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unextractableadjective
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unextractedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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extractsimple
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extractssimple
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have extractedperfect
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has extractedperfect
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am extractingprogressive
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are extractingprogressive
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is extractingprogressive
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have been extractingperfect progressive
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has been extractingperfect progressive
Past
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extractedsimple
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had extractedperfect
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was extractingprogressive
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were extractingprogressive
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had been extractingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of extract
First recorded in 1475–1500; from Latin extractus (past participle of extrahere ). See ex- 1, tract 1
Explanation
When you extract something, you remove it from a larger whole. You can extract a passage from a book, or a liquid essence from a vanilla bean—vanilla extract. Ex- means out of, and when you extract, you draw something out of something else. When listening to a complicated and long-winded story, it can be difficult to extract the truly meaningful details.
Vocabulary lists containing extract
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 12–15
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Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Press firmly on the peaches with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid, color and flavor as possible.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Just like all young professionals, Fin spent hours every day trying to extract as much performance as possible.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The quality of oil that energy companies extract can be just as important as the quantity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
“Sen. Tillis has been unafraid to use his vote to extract concessions from the Trump administration,” said Brest, who is now president of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal nonprofit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
I tried to extract us from the nest without waking Songololo, but that would have been hard enough in a bed, even worse in an improvised hammock that tipped and rocked with every movement.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
In tests involving oral samples from patients, extracts from the gum sharply reduced one virus and two types of bacteria linked to the disease.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
It's a far cry from basin depths in Silesia -- a historic coal mining region in southern Poland where he still extracts the ore.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
“They use the words ‘credit repair,’ but what’s really happening here is a negative option that extracts fees from people with the assumption that most people wanted this.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
"We will face up to the big challenges and we will make the big arguments," he is expected to say, according to extracts released by Downing Street.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
From her purse, she extracts a folded paper map and hands it to me.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Asked about the lawsuit during questioning, Turner said, “We’re working on that right now,” then shifted to a brown lunch bag pulled from the lectern from which he extracted several items.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
The mint also uses recycled silver, some of it extracted from old radios supplied by British hospitals.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
Reporters programmatically extracted compensation tables, footnotes and other explanations of perquisites mentioned in the filings and fed the results to an LLM which parsed the amount, type and beneficiary of each perk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Recycling aluminium, which can be done infinitely, means less is being extracted from bauxite mines, which have huge impacts on communities and the environment from habitat destruction, contamination of soil and harm to human health.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
In Bobby’s exhumation, a fragment of bone from his left small toe was extracted, in addition to seven tissue samples—enough for a binding test.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Farmers source additional water for their crops and livestock over summer from a combination of stored winter rainfall on site, and by extracting it from natural sources - a process called abstraction.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
While its emissions are lower, drilling and extracting it causes the leakage of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and the main component of natural gas.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
“For these guys,” Banks said, the goal “is extraction,” and “what they’re extracting is not just our money, but our data.”
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
By extracting more computing power from conventional hardware, the approach could expand the range of quantum dynamics problems scientists can study.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
They were wedged together so tightly that Ron had difficulty extracting his arm to put it around Hermione’s shoulders.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
