extinction

From late Middle English, borrowed from Latin extinctio (“extinction, annihilation”), from extinguere, past participle extinctus (“to extinguish”); see extinguish.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈstɪŋkʃ(ə)n/

extinction (countable and uncountable, plural extinctions)

1. The action of making or becoming extinct; annihilation.
   • 2012 January 1, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 70:

     Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.

2. (astronomy) The absorption or scattering of electromagnetic radiation emitted by astronomical objects by intervening dust and gas before it reaches the observer.
3. (pathology) The inability to perceive multiple stimuli simultaneously

• extinct
• extinguish
• hemiextinction

• extinction in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• extinction in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• ctenitoxin

Borrowed from Latin extinctiō, extinctiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.stɛ̃k.sjɔ̃/

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extinction f (plural extinctions)

1. extinction

• éteint

• “extinction” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).