de-extinct en · VERB
Etymology
From de- + extinct.
Meanings
-
(neologism, transitive) To return an extinct species back into the world.
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: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: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: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:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| de-extincted | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| de-extincted | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| de-extincting | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| de-extincts | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |