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Extinct vs Extirpate - What's the difference?

extinct | extirpate |

As an adjective extinct

is (dated) extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc).

As a verb extirpate is

(obsolete) to clear an area of roots and stumps.

extinct

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (dated) Extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc.)
  • Poor Edward's cigarillo was already extinct .
  • No longer used; obsolete, discontinued.
  • * Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
  • *
  • Indeed the very fact that the English spelling system
    writes in there'' as two words but ''therein'' as one word might be taken as suggest-
    ing that only the former is a productive syntactic construction in Modern
    English, the latter being a now extinct construction which has left behind a
    few fossil remnants in the form of compound words such as ''thereby
    .
  • No longer in existence; having died out.
  • The dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
  • (vulcanology) No longer actively erupting.
  • Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct .

    Synonyms

    * dead

    Antonyms

    * (no longer alight) burning * (having died out) extant * active, dormant

    extirpate

    English

    Verb

    (extirpat)
  • (obsolete) To clear an area of roots and stumps.
  • To pull up by the roots; uproot.
  • To destroy completely; to annihilate.
  • To surgically remove.
  • Synonyms

    * (to pull up by the roots) uproot, eradicate, extricate, deracinate * (to destroy completely) annihilate, destroy, eradicate, exterminate * (to surgically remove) excise * See also