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.
Origin of extinction
1375–1425; late Middle English extinccio(u)n<Latin ex(s)tinctiōn- (stem of ex(s)tinctiō). See extinct, -ion
Given that the coronavirus is a novel virus, we need to ensure that our at-risk wild animal and sea life populations do not experience massive die-offs or suffer extinctions because we failed to act to protect them.
Everything we know—and don’t know—about human-to-animal COVID transmission|jakemeth|September 4, 2020|Fortune
But, there’s still the chance that humans played their part in knocking the animals into extinction, as a sort of one-two punch.
Climate change probably contributed to the woolly rhino’s rapid demise|Sara Kiley Watson|August 25, 2020|Popular Science
Based on the new study, he says, “there is no evidence so far of human hunting being a deciding factor in woolly rhino extinction.”
Climate change, not hunters, may have killed off woolly rhinos|Bruce Bower|August 13, 2020|Science News
How or whether volcanic activity in India around the same time as the impact exacerbated the climate change and mass extinction remains controversial.
How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)|Howard Lee|July 21, 2020|Quanta Magazine
It came after the mass extinction that finished off the dinosaurs.
Saber-toothed anchovy relatives were once fearsome hunters|Carolyn Wilke|June 11, 2020|Science News For Students
How might we resurrect a tradition threatened with extinction?
Can Baseball’s All-Star Game Be Saved?|Peter C. Bjarkman|July 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And thanks to oil palm plantations springing up in Africa, chimpanzees are in danger of extinction.
Our Taste for Cheap Palm Oil Is Killing Chimpanzees|Carrie Arnold|July 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Over this image we hear: “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.”
Rick Santorum’s Hobby Lobby Horror Movie|Dean Obeidallah|July 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Even the Native Americans, who were massacred almost to the point of extinction, escaped the curse of race slavery.
Rand Paul’s Comments on GOP Voter-ID Laws Mark a Turning Point|James Poulos|May 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the animal is “teetering on the brink of extinction.”
Borana Joins the Fight to Save Kenya’s Rhinos…and Wants You to Help Too|Joanna Eede|February 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The rapid and lucid working of the mind to the instant of extinction, is the marvel that still astonishes me.
Thirty Years' View (Vol. II of 2)|Thomas Hart Benton
Preventive medicine has achieved no other work comparing in magnitude and importance with the extinction of the plague in Europe.
A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I|Various
Now you may go and rescue Madge from the major, who has been 'H'm-ha-ing' her to extinction for the last half-hour.
The King of Arcadia|Francis Lynde
And does not the same law of advance or extinction apply to man?
The Whence and the Whither of Man|John Mason Tyler
Well, sir, it matters little which of us is to witness the extinction of this Plutocracy.
Davenport Dunn, Volume 1 (of 2)|Charles James Lever
British Dictionary definitions for extinction
extinction
/ (ɪkˈstɪŋkʃən) /
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
physicsreduction of the intensity of radiation as a result of absorption or scattering by matter
astronomythe 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
psychola process in which the frequency or intensity of a learned response is decreased as a result of reinforcement being withdrawnCompare habituation
Progressive reduction in the strength of the conditioned response in successive conditioning trials during which only the conditioned stimulus is presented and the unconditioned stimulus is omitted.absorbance