Words / E / General

extirpate

verb/ˈɛkstəpeɪt/

C2CEFR level
80/100Rarity: very rare
FormalRegister

To root out and destroy something completely.

The regime set out to extirpate every trace of organised resistance.

Similar: eradicate, exterminate, annihilate

Origin: From Latin extirpare 'to root out', from stirps 'root'.

Topic: destruction in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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