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extinguir

to extinguish, to put out

verb ehs-teen-GEER Rare
Body & Health Medicine

Origin: Latin extinguere.

Also means

to wipe out, to eliminate

Usage Note

Extinguir is used for putting out fires (extinguir un incendio), but also for wiping out populations or eliminating debts (extinguir una deuda). The reflexive extinguirse means to die out or go extinct — la especie se extinguió (the species became extinct). Note the spelling: the gu before i keeps the hard 'g' sound, but before a or o it becomes extinga/extingo.

Examples

"Los bomberos tardaron horas en extinguir el incendio."

Natural Translation

The firefighters took hours to put out the fire.

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