Wiktionary:Word of the day/2024/September 1

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extinct adj

(dated) Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched. (figurative) Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed. Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, 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. (chiefly biology) Of an animal or plant species, a class of people, a family, etc.: having died out completely; no longer in existence. (geology) Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting. (nuclear physics) Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life. (obsolete) Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others. [...] Martha, thought to be the last passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), died on this day 110 years ago in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. The eradication of this species, chiefly through habitat destruction and hunting, is a striking example of extinction caused by humans.

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