extinction

[ ik-stingk-shuhn ]

/ ɪkˈstɪŋk ʃən /

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See synonyms for extinction on Thesaurus.com

noun

the act of extinguishing.

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.

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Origin of extinction

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

OTHER WORDS FROM extinction

non·ex·tinc·tion, nounpre·ex·tinc·tion, nounself-ex·tinc·tion, noun

Words nearby extinction

exterofective, exterritorial, extima, extinct, extinct in the wild, extinction, extinctive, extine, extinguish, extinguishant, extinguisher

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use extinction in a sentence

Given that the coronavirus is a novel virus, we need to ensure that our at-risk wild animal and sea life populations do not experience massive die-offs or suffer extinctions because we failed to act to protect them.
Everything we know—and don’t know—about human-to-animal COVID transmission|jakemeth|September 4, 2020|Fortune
But, there’s still the chance that humans played their part in knocking the animals into extinction, as a sort of one-two punch.
Climate change probably contributed to the woolly rhino’s rapid demise|Sara Kiley Watson|August 25, 2020|Popular-Science
Based on the new study, he says, “there is no evidence so far of human hunting being a deciding factor in woolly rhino extinction.”
Climate change, not hunters, may have killed off woolly rhinos|Bruce Bower|August 13, 2020|Science News
How or whether volcanic activity in India around the same time as the impact exacerbated the climate change and mass extinction remains controversial.
How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)|Howard Lee|July 21, 2020|Quanta Magazine

It came after the mass extinction that finished off the dinosaurs.
Saber-toothed anchovy relatives were once fearsome hunters|Carolyn Wilke|June 11, 2020|Science News For Students
Pat Robertson wants to talk about the extinction of the gays.
No Gods, No Cops, No Masters|James Poulos|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Your existence contributes to over-population, climate change, and species extinction.
Keep Christmas Commercialized!|P. J. O’Rourke|December 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
How might we resurrect a tradition threatened with extinction?
Can Baseball’s All-Star Game Be Saved?|Peter C. Bjarkman|July 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
Poor brutes, they deserved a better fate than the cruel method of extinction which Turkish rule administered.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland|Joseph Tatlow
With the extinction of the lights on the other boat came at last deeper night to her aid.
The Amazing Interlude|Mary Roberts Rinehart
I am bored to death, to extinction; my thoughts are the colour of that water which flows over yonder, brackish and heavy.
The Nabob|Alphonse Daudet
You must remember that the next war between France and Germany must mean extinction for one.
Ways of War and Peace|Delia Austrian
Further difficulties now arose which led finally to the extinction of the company.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3|Various

British Dictionary definitions for extinction

extinction

/ (ɪkˈstɪŋkʃən) /

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

Medical definitions for extinction

extinction

[ ĭk-stĭngk′shən ]

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

Scientific definitions for extinction

extinction

[ ĭk-stĭngk′shən ]

The fact of being extinct or the process of becoming extinct. See more at background extinction mass extinction.

A progressive decrease in the strength of a conditioned response, often resulting in its elimination, because of withdrawal of a specific stimulus.

Cultural definitions for extinction

extinction

The disappearance of a species from the Earth.

notes for extinction

The fossil record tells us that 99.9 percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct.

extinction

Origin of extinction

OTHER WORDS FROM extinction

Words nearby extinction

Words related to extinction

How to use extinction in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for extinction

Medical definitions for extinction

Scientific definitions for extinction

Cultural definitions for extinction

notes for extinction