The complete disappearance of a species, family, or larger group of living things, so that no members are left alive. It can also mean the ending or dying out of something such as a tradition or way of life.
From Latin *extinctio* ‘a quenching, putting out’, from *extinguere* ‘to put out (a fire), wipe out’. It originally described putting out flames and later came to mean wiping out entire species.
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