extinction Hear it!

extinction Definition

ex·tinc·tion (ek stiŋk′s̸hən, ik-)

noun

  1. a putting out or being put out, as of a fire
  2. a destroying or being destroyed; annihilation; abolition
  3. the fact or state of being or becoming extinct; dying out, as a species of animal
  4. Physiol., Psychol. the weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response that is no longer being reinforced

Etymology: ME extinccioun < L exstinctio < exstinctus: see extinct

extinction Synonyms

extinction

n.

  1. Extinguishment

    quenching, drowning, putting out, blotting out, darkening, snuffing, turning out, turning off, smothering, stifling, dousing.

  2. Annihilation

    abolition, extermination, extirpation, dying out; see destruction 1, murder.

extinction Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • face: With a third of species facing extinction over the next fifty years your support has never been more vital.
  • threaten: And how did the instrumentalists themselves feel about the threatened extinction of their craft?
  • cause: Such an event is now widely believe to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.
  • prevent: Local Action Since the early 1990's, regional campaigns to prevent the extinction of red squirrel in Northern England have been in operation.
  • survive: Ferns survived the mass extinction which wiped out the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.

Converse of subject

  • threaten: All species of sea turtles are threatened by extinction.

Adjective modifier

  • Permian: I do not feel that enough information was made available in the article for the enormity of the Permian extinction to be appreciated.
  • Cretaceous: At present there are two theories popular with paleontologists who are interested in the end Cretaceous extinctions.
  • atmospheric: Atmospheric extinction Not included; good choice of telluric standards should minimize problems.
  • mass: Such an event might unleash a mass extinction not seen for the last 200 million years.
  • sixth: The destructive forces of capitalism are driving us headlong into the sixth great species extinction of the earth's 5 billion year history.
  • near: Whitman commented on the state of the near extinction of the Osprey in England.

Modifies a noun

  • coefficient: An estimate is also made of the value of the extinction coefficient k in the infrared wavelength transparent region of the thin film.

Noun used with modifier

  • boundry: Peter Harries Partial index: Re: Supernova causing P/T boundry mass extinctions?
  • dinosaur: What's the current state of debate on dinosaur extinction?
  • species: For the past 65 million years, the rate of species extinction has remained at about one species per million per year.
  • mass: The Triassic period begins in the wake of the greatest mass extinction of all time.

Preposition: of

  • dinosaur: Such an event is now widely believe to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.
  • specie: The extinction of one species has a ' knock-on effect on at least 16 other species, ' he says.
  • species: Otherwise, the trade may well have to be stopped altogether in a last ditch attempt to avoid the extinction of the species.
extinction Quotes

Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity.

—Pound, Ezra Loomis

How strange the stars have grown; The presage of extinction glows on their crests And they are beautied with impermanence.

—Scott, Duncan Campell

That sure extinction that we travel to And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

—Larkin, Philip Arthur