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:
She said she was summoned to a court hearing by police, but decided not to go because she feared officials wanted to use the meeting to extract a bribe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
His accuracy and ability to extract movement have seen him take 23 wickets this summer at a remarkable average of 8.3.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
This mathematical detour allowed the scientists to extract information about critical collapse that had previously been extremely difficult to obtain analytically.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
Some 350 workers and residents have been brought to safety from the tunnel, he added, but efforts were ongoing to extract more than 100 people trapped in the same area.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
I try to extract myself from Otto’s fierce grip, but he won’t let go.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
The company is most known for its camera network, which extracts data about cars from photographs and allows operators to search for vehicles by description or license plate number.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
This capability could power a continuous measurement engine that extracts useful energy directly from the monitoring process.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
Waste Management has access to a vast above-ground mine of valuable commodities but wants to improve how it extracts them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Carney and Smith cleared a key hurdle toward a new pipeline on Friday by signing a deal on industrial carbon pricing, a system that extracts a fee from large‑scale CO2 emitters.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
With relief he peels back the foil covering his breakfast, extracts the silverware from its sealed plastic packaging, asks the British Airways stewardess for a glass of orange juice.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Sea salt, meanwhile, refers to salt extracted from ocean water or lakes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
When Boeing bought the company it was preserving its own supply chain, and for that Spirit extracted a large premium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
“The complaint alleges that Amazon’s scheme has likely extracted tens of billions of dollars from its unwitting advertising customers,” the FTC said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
"It's undoubtedly better than before. Before, this oil wasn't being extracted; if no one extracts it, no one pays royalties, and no one profits from it," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
These I steeped in hot water, and so from the whole of these appliances extracted one cup of I don’t know what for Estella.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
He wants the government to help local miners establish safer and more effective ways of finding and extracting the gold.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 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
Rather than manually extracting proteins and peptides from tissues and then using methods such as mass spectrometry to identify huge numbers of molecules, the researchers created a computer algorithm called Peptide Predictor.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 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
Rekh motioned for him to kneel on the mat and, extracting a mallet from the tool rack attached to the table, handed it to him.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
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.
