extinction

[ik-stingk-shuh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR extinction ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the fact or condition of being extinguished or extinct.

suppression; abolition; annihilation: the extinction of an army.

Biology. the act or process of becoming extinct; a coming to an end or dying out: the extinction of a species.

Psychology. the reduction or loss of a conditioned response as a result of the absence or withdrawal of reinforcement.

Astronomy. the diminution in the intensity of starlight caused by absorption as it passes through the earth's atmosphere or through interstellar dust.

Crystallography, Optics. the darkness that results from rotation of a thin section to an angle (extinction angle) at which plane-polarized light is absorbed by the polarizer.

Origin of extinction

1375–1425; late Middle English extinccio(u)n < Latin ex(s)tinctiōn- (stem of ex(s)tinctiō). See extinct, -ion

Related formsnon·ex·tinc·tion, nounpre·ex·tinc·tion, nounself-ex·tinc·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for extinction

annihilation, elimination, destruction, obsolescence, death

Examples from the Web for extinction

Contemporary Examples of extinction

Pat Robertson wants to talk about the extinction of the gays.
No Gods, No Cops, No Masters
James Poulos
January 1, 2015
How might we resurrect a tradition threatened with extinction?
Can Baseball’s All-Star Game Be Saved?
Peter C. Bjarkman
July 15, 2014
And thanks to oil palm plantations springing up in Africa, chimpanzees are in danger of extinction.
Our Taste for Cheap Palm Oil Is Killing Chimpanzees
Carrie Arnold
July 11, 2014
Over this image we hear: “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.”
Rick Santorum’s Hobby Lobby Horror Movie
Dean Obeidallah
July 2, 2014
Even the Native Americans, who were massacred almost to the point of extinction, escaped the curse of race slavery.
Rand Paul’s Comments on GOP Voter-ID Laws Mark a Turning Point
James Poulos
May 13, 2014

Historical Examples of extinction

Thus manifestly a negligible factor, it is also one tending to extinction.
'Tis Sixty Years Since
Charles Francis Adams
If this holy fire be too much confined, it will be in danger of extinction.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II
Francis Augustus Cox
Warfare was on the road to extinction, threatened by its very excesses.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
Every race which does not understand this necessity ends in extinction.
The Sexual Question
August Forel
The Anglo-Saxon civilizes the other races or devotes them to extinction.
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851
Various

British Dictionary definitions for extinction

extinction

noun

the act of making extinct or the state of being extinct

the act of extinguishing or the state of being extinguished

complete destruction; annihilation

physics reduction of the intensity of radiation as a result of absorption or scattering by matter

astronomy the dimming of light from a celestial body as it passes through an absorbing or scattering medium, such as the earth's atmosphere or interstellar dust

psychol a process in which the frequency or intensity of a learned response is decreased as a result of reinforcement being withdrawnCompare habituation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for extinction

early 15c., from Latin extinctionem/exstinctionem (nominative extinctio/exstinctio), noun of action from past participle stem of extinguere/exstinguere (see extinguish). Originally of fires, lights; figurative use, of wiping out a material thing (a debt, a person, a family, etc.) from early 17c.; of species by 1784.

extinction in Medicine

extinction

[ĭk-stĭngk′shən]

n.

Progressive reduction in the strength of the conditioned response in successive conditioning trials during which only the conditioned stimulus is presented and the unconditioned stimulus is omitted.absorbance

extinction in Science