extort

/ɪkˈstɔː(ɹ)t/

extort verb: to take or seize from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity.

Verb

extort (third-person singular simple present extorts, present participle extorting, simple past and past participle extorted)

(transitive) To take or seize from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity.
- to extort contributions from the vanquished
- to extort confessions of guilt
Synonyms:

wrench away, to tear away, to wring, to exact
(transitive) To obtain by means of the offense of extortion.
- Weirdly, Renton doesn’t look too much older and the same also goes for Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), who has exchanged heroin for cocaine and nowadays runs an escort-and-blackmail business, secretly videoing clients and extorting money, working with his female business partner, Veronika (Anjela...2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian
(intransitive, transitive) To twist outwards.

Adjective

extort (not comparable)

(obsolete) Extorted; obtained by extortion.
- Hauing great Lordships got and goodly farmes,
  Through strong oppression of his powre extort.1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

extort meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

extort in Hindi

to wrest from an unwilling person by undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity: ऐंठना a͠iṭhnā
to obtain by means of the offense of extortion: ऐंठना a͠iṭhnā

extort in Tamil

மிரட்டுதல், மிரட்டிப்பணம் பறித்தல்

extort in Marathi

to extort: पिळणे piḷṇe

extort in Urdu

لوٹنا, نچوڑنا

More languagesFewer languages

extort in Bengali: জোরপূর্বক আদায় করা
extort in Malayalam: പിഴിയുക piḻiyuka
extort in Kannada: ಹೆದರಿಸಿ ಸುಲಿ, ಕಸಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳು
extort in Pashto: لوشل lwašal
extort in Thai: ไถ tǎi, รีดไถ rîit-tǎi

Examples of extort in a sentence

Such diversion as Podson could extort from his isolation was soon vitiated by repetition.
For the right labyrinth, however, both vertical semicircular canals produce clockwise slow phases (ipsilateral eye intorts, contralateral eye extorts).
US experts believe the Iraqi intelligence service will set the plots in motion, then recruit or extort amateurs to do the dirty work.

All 12 example sentences with extort

Synonyms of extort

wrench away
to tear away
to wring
to exact

Forms of extort

third-person singular present	extorts
present participle	extorting
past participle	extorted
past	extorted

Past tense of extort: extorted

Origin of extort

Borrowed from Latin extortus, past participle of extorquere (“to twist or wrench out, to extort”); from ex (“out”) + -tort, from torqueō (“twist, turn”).

Words formed from extort

Words that rhyme with extort

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about extort

What does extort mean?: Extort means to take or seize from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity.
What is extort in Hindi?: Extort in Hindi is ऐंठना (a͠iṭhnā). See Extort meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is extort?: Extort can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce extort?: Extort is pronounced /ɪkˈstɔː(ɹ)t/.
What is the past tense of extort?: The past tense of extort is extorted.

Words near extort in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-extort.wav.

Cite this entry: “extort.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/extort. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.