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extinction
[ ik-stingk-shuhn ]
noun
- the act of extinguishing.
- the fact or condition of being extinguished or extinct.
- suppression; abolition; annihilation:
the extinction of an army.
- Biology. the act or process of becoming extinct; a coming to an end or dying out:
the extinction of a species.
- Psychology. the reduction or loss of a conditioned response as a result of the absence or withdrawal of reinforcement.
- Astronomy. the diminution in the intensity of starlight caused by absorption as it passes through the earth's atmosphere or through interstellar dust.
- Crystallography, Optics. the darkness that results from rotation of a thin section to an angle extinction angle at which plane-polarized light is absorbed by the polarizer.
extinction
/ ɪˈɪŋʃə /
noun
- the act of making extinct or the state of being extinct
- the act of extinguishing or the state of being extinguished
- complete destruction; annihilation
- physics reduction of the intensity of radiation as a result of absorption or scattering by matter
- astronomy the dimming of light from a celestial body as it passes through an absorbing or scattering medium, such as the earth's atmosphere or interstellar dust
- psychol a process in which the frequency or intensity of a learned response is decreased as a result of reinforcement being withdrawn Compare habituation
extinction
- The fact of being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.
- See more at background extinction
- A progressive decrease in the strength of a conditioned response, often resulting in its elimination, because of withdrawal of a specific stimulus.
Notes
Other Word Forms
- ԴDze·پԳtDz noun
- e·پԳtDz noun
- -·پԳtDz noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of extinction1
Example Sentences
Earlier this month conservationists warned that some of the UK's rarest wildlife is being "torched alive" and pushed closer to extinction after weeks of intense grass fires.
Colossal dismisses the professional questioning over whether it truly has resurrected the dire wolf from extinction as a distraction from its scientific goals and achievement.
The “lack of research on visually unremarkable and unfamiliar birds may ultimately result in their ‘societal extinction,’” researchers warn.
Once a sport that packed out stadiums across the country, greyhound racing is facing extinction in Scotland.
The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 after Nixon called on Congress for stronger legislation to prevent the extinction of species.
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