extinct

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   No longer existing, with no living members left.

   Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.

2. 2
   adj

   Of a volcano: no longer active and unlikely ever to erupt again.

   Most of the volcanoes on this island are now extinct.

3. 3
   adj

   No longer existing or used, as of customs, ideas, or languages.

   Such old-fashioned ideas are now extinct in modern science.

From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”), from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus (“extinguished, quenched; destroyed, killed; made extinct”), the perfect passive participles of extinguō, exstinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench; (figurative) to abolish; to destroy, kill”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + stinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench”) (from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push”)). The Middle English word displaced Middle English aqueint, aquenched (“extinct; extinguished”). Doublet of extinguish.

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