de-extinct
de-extinct verb: to return an extinct species back into the world.
Verb
de-extinct (third-person singular simple present de-extincts, present participle de-extincting, simple past and past participle de-extincted)
- To return an extinct species back into the world.
- In 2012, Australian researchers briefly de-extincted an amphibian they dubbed ‘the Lazarus frog’ (Rheobatrachus silus), an unusual creature with one hell of a party trick (to find out what it was, you’ll have to read Chapter 5).2016, Helen Pilcher, Bring Back the King: the new science of de-extinction, Bloomsbury Sigma, →ISBN, page 16
- From a technical perspective, de-extincting a Neanderthal would be the easiest task of all, for human reproduction is extremely well understood, and the Neanderthal genome is known.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 308
- Synonyms:
- unextinct
Examples of de-extinct in a sentence
- Revive & Restore, a branch of the Long Now Foundation, is currently attempting to de-extinct the passenger pigeon in a project called The Great Comeback.2020, “Life Finds A Way”, in Jonathan Elmore, editor, Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN:
- A species of wolf that died out some 12,500 years ago lives again as the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal,” according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences.2025 April 7, Katie Hunt, “Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf”, in CNN:
Synonyms of de-extinct
Forms of de-extinct
| third-person singular present | de-extincts |
|---|---|
| present participle | de-extincting |
| past participle | de-extincted |
| past | de-extincted |
Origin of de-extinct
From de- + extinct.
Questions about de-extinct
- What does de-extinct mean?
- De-extinct means to return an extinct species back into the world.
- How do you use de-extinct in a sentence?
- Revive & Restore, a branch of the Long Now Foundation, is currently attempting to de-extinct the passenger pigeon in a project called The Great Comeback.
- What part of speech is de-extinct?
- De-extinct is a verb.
- What is the past tense of de-extinct?
- The past tense of de-extinct is de-extincted.
Words near de-extinct in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: de-extinct (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “de-extinct.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/de-extinct. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.