extinct
ex·tinct/ɪkˈstɪŋkt/adjective
extinct is spelled E-X-T-I-N-C-T, 2 syllables: ex·tinct. The wrong spelling people search most is extint: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Extinct is an adjective meaning “Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed”.
How many letters and syllables are in extinct?
| Letters | 7: E-X-T-I-N-C-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: ex·tinct |
| In writing | 4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, extint, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell extinct?
Extinct is spelled E-X-T-I-N-C-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 16 of the searches for extinct in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is extinct?
Extinct appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce extinct?
- US /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/
- US /ɪkˈstɪŋt/
- US /ɛk-/
Extinct has 2 syllables, split ex·tinct in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-extinct.wav, En-us-extinct.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of extinct
- extincts present, singular, he/she/it
- extincting participle, present
- extincted past, participle
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does extinct mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
archaicOf fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
- 2
Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
- 3
Of 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.
Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
- 4
Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants.
Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
- 5
Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
- 6
Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life.
- 7
obsoleteOf a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench.
- 2
obsoleteTo kill (someone).
- 3
obsoleteTo put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.
- 4
obsoleteTo cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct (adjective etymology 1 sense 2.3).
- 5
obsoleteTo suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench.
- 6
obsoleteTo abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a license, etc.).
noun
- 1
obsoleteSynonym of extinction (“the action of becoming or making extinct; annihilation”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Extinct in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | éteint , disparu |
| German | erloschen , ausgestorben , auslöschen |
| Portuguese | apagado, extinguido , extinto , obsoleto, ultrapassado |
| Spanish | extinto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does extinct come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).