extractive

[ik-strak-tiv]

adjective

1. tending or serving to extract, or based upon extraction.

   coal, oil, copper, and other extractive industries.

2. capable of being extracted, as from the earth.

   extractive fuels.

3. of, relating to, or involving extraction.

   extractive surgery.

4. of or of the nature of an extract.

noun

1. something extracted.

Other Word Forms

• nonextractive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of extractive¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; extract + -ive

Example Sentences

"The West dropped the ball – that's the reality. And China was in for the long run – it saw the benefit and was willing to invest in it," says Jacques Eksteen, chair for extractive metallurgy at Curtin University.

From BBC

"There is the issue of climate change, that it doesn't rain anymore, but the main impact has been caused by extractive mining," he says.

From BBC

Their fear-based leadership mirrors the behavior of real-world extractive villains like bankers foreclosing on homes and billionaires profiting off crises, whereas the goonies embody a fundamentally different ethic of trust, creativity and abundance.

From Salon

I don’t see a way out for Alice Coltrane other than through the extractive and back into the quiet.

From Los Angeles Times

Among other things, the mandate’s drafters imagine a Christian nationalist state in which our legal and other social institutions are aligned with fundamentalist Christian dogma, a social hierarchy built around patriarchy and white supremacy, and an economy that is extractive and heavily stratified in structure.

From Slate