extractive

American  

[ik-strak-tiv] / ɪkˈstræk tɪv /

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.

extractive British  

/ ɪkˈstræktɪv /

adjective

1. tending or serving to extract

2. of, involving, or capable of extraction

---

noun

1. something extracted or capable of being extracted

2. the part of an extract that is insoluble

Other Word Forms

• nonextractive
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of extractive

First recorded in 1590–1600; extract + -ive

Example Sentences

Mr. Dasgupta recommends not a return to empire—he exposes China’s exploitative, extractive relationships with African nations as little more than reheated Western colonialism—but what he calls a “new theology.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

States that depend heavily on extractive industries such as mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction tended to offer fewer protections for insects and arachnids.

From Science Daily • Mar. 14, 2026

Traxys signed a $1 billion framework agreement, a new mining training center was announced with the Colorado School of Mines, and McKinsey finalized a strategy to modernize the country’s extractive sector.

From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025

Shoshana Zuboff’s “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” describes the perfect storm of extractive profit-seeking and privacy erosion that drives so much of contemporary life.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2025

In addition to a bitter extractive principle, they yield about 2% of a volatile liquid, which on its first extraction is of a pale blue colour, but becomes a yellowish brown on exposure to light.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various