Definitions for extinction

• Definition
• Anagrams (203)

extinction ex·tinc·tion

Spelling: [ik-stingk-shuh n]

IPA: /ɪkˈstɪŋk ʃən/

Extinction is a 10 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 19 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 22 points.

You can make 203 anagrams from letters in extinction (ceiinnottx).

Definitions for extinction

noun

1. the act of extinguishing.
2. the fact or condition of being extinguished or extinct.
3. suppression; abolition; annihilation:
4. Biology. the act or process of becoming extinct; a coming to an end or dying out:
5. Psychology. the reduction or loss of a conditioned response as a result of the absence or withdrawal of reinforcement.
6. Astronomy. the diminution in the intensity of starlight caused by absorption as it passes through the earth's atmosphere or through interstellar dust.
7. 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

Examples for extinction

Every race which does not understand this necessity ends in extinction.

The Anglo-Saxon civilizes the other races or devotes them to extinction.

Over this image we hear: “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.”

Warfare was on the road to extinction, threatened by its very excesses.

And thanks to oil palm plantations springing up in Africa, chimpanzees are in danger of extinction.

How might we resurrect a tradition threatened with extinction?

Pat Robertson wants to talk about the extinction of the gays.

Thus manifestly a negligible factor, it is also one tending to extinction.

If this holy fire be too much confined, it will be in danger of extinction.

Even the Native Americans, who were massacred almost to the point of extinction, escaped the curse of race slavery.