extinct
/ɪkˈstɪŋkt/
"extinct" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“extinct” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,889. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,889
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
Corpus desk
Index EN-extinct · extinct · English
extinct · rank #11,889 · 11 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,889
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH forbid
Nearest frequency peer: forbid (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “extinct”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- erase
erase
88,115 corpus weight
- evacuated
evacuated
88,114 corpus weight
- extinct
extinct
88,112 corpus weight
- forbid
forbid
88,111 corpus weight
- forgiven
forgiven
88,110 corpus weight
- freezer
freezer
88,109 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “extinct” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | extinct |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #11,889 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “extinct” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around extinct (IPA /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #11,889 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for extinct, with forms such as "etxinct", "exitnct", and "exticnt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "extract", "extent", "extant", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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;… The correct English form is extinct, spelled E-X-T-I-N-C-T.
Definition
- 1Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
- 2Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
- 3Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, languages, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it.
- 4Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants.
- 5Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
- 6Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life.
- 7Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how extinct appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
Ah pleaſant proof! / That piety has ſtill in human hearts / Some place, a ſpark or tvvo not yet extinct.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- etxinct
- exitnct
- exticnt
- extincct
- extinctt
- extinnct
- extintc
- extnict
- exttinct
- exxtinct
- xetinct
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of extinct - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "extinct", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "extinct". Here's where to go from here.
- "extinct" maps to 3 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "extract". View pair
- 11 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #11,889 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "E" letter cohort. E–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.