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Do you exact or extract revenge?
The verb exact (as in, "exacting revenge" or "exacting a promise") is not as commonly encountered as the adjective exact, (as in "an exact copy" or "exact measurements"). Sometimes people will mistakenly use the more common verb extract when they really want exact. Extract can refer to removing something by pulling or cutting or to getting information from someone who does not want to give it. While both words refer to getting something they are used in different ways. You extract a tooth, but you exact revenge.
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The Crisscrossing Histories of Abstract and Extract
Abstract is most frequently used as an adjective (“abstract ideas”) and a noun (“an abstract of the article”), but its somewhat less common use as a verb in English helps to clarify its Latin roots. The verb abstract is used to mean “summarize,” as in “abstracting an academic paper.” This meaning is a figurative derivative of the verb’s meanings “to remove” or “to separate.”
We trace the origins of abstract to the combination of the Latin roots ab-, a prefix meaning “from” or “away,” with the verb trahere, meaning “to pull” or “to draw.” The result was the Latin verb abstrahere, which meant “to remove forcibly” or “to drag away.” Its past participle abstractus had the meanings “removed,” “secluded,” “incorporeal,” and, ultimately, “summarized,” meanings which came to English from Medieval Latin.
Interestingly, the word passed from Latin into French with competing spellings as both abstract (closer to the Latin) and abstrait (which reflected the French form of abstrahere, abstraire), the spelling retained in modern French.
The idea of “removing” or “pulling away” connects abstract to extract, which stems from Latin through the combination of trahere with the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “away from.” Extract forms a kind of mirror image of abstract: more common as a verb, but also used as a noun and adjective. The adjective, meaning “derived or descended,” is now obsolete, as is a sense of the noun that overlapped with abstract, “summary.” The words intersected and have separated in modern English, but it’s easy to see that abstract applies to something that has been summarized, and summarized means “extracted from a larger work.”
Synonyms
Examples of extract in a Sentence
Charlie Wood, WIRED, 14 Apr. 2024
One of the biggest concerns is the tailings basin where the waste is stored after copper is extracted from the ore.
—Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 10 Apr. 2024
This starch is extracted from the roots of cassava plants.
—Samantha Lauriello, Health, 8 Apr. 2024
Either way, a One-AI strategy is the best way to ensure an organization can adapt while simultaneously extracting the most value from all sorts of AI technologies.
—David Zuluaga Martínez, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2024
His semen is extracted into vials that will then be flown by helicopter to a field lab to be gradually frozen.
—Matjaž Krivic, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Apr. 2024
People 18 and older in Florida are also allowed to buy CBD products, including oils and topicals, from authorized sellers if the product has 0.3% or less of THC and was extracted from the hemp plant.
—Michelle Marchante, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2024
Most of the oil windfall available in its treasury is going to construct roads and other infrastructure, most notably a 152-mile pipeline to carry ashore natural gas, released while extracting oil from Exxon Mobil’s fields, to generate electricity.
—Gaiutra Bahadur Keisha Scarville, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2024
Residents say some roads have become a patchwork of fiefdoms run by armed groups, each wanting to extract payments from passing traffic.
—Katharine Houreld, Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2024
Kathleen Suico, Allure, 13 Apr. 2024
Today, in the tech world, words like RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), a technique for enhancing the accuracy and reliability of generative AI models, ETL engines (extract, transform, and load), and Large Language Model (LLM) are quite common.
—Tyler Shepherd, USA TODAY, 12 Apr. 2024
Chocolate bars infused with premium mushroom extracts are more than your ordinary chocolate candy.
—Sponsored Content, The Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2024
Cans of imitation crab still include a small percentage of shellfish such as King Crab meat, and additional flavors or extracts of crab and lobster.
—Erin Hooker, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Apr. 2024
Known for its high-quality hemp extracts, free from harmful chemicals, pesticides, and heavy metals, Lazarus Naturals CBD Oil is a trusted brand in the market, with many people swearing by its benefits.
—Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 3 Apr. 2024
Hot & Spicy Chicken Wings, $5.99 With notes of vinegar, cayenne pepper, and chile pepper extract, Trader Joe’s wings pack a punch with just the right amount of kick.
—Kara Peeler, Sunset Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Blueberry-Lemon Cake Variations To give this blueberry-lemon cake a unique twist, consider these variation ideas:
Flavorings: Swap the vanilla extract in the cake batter for almond, orange, or lemon extract.
—Pam Lolley, Southern Living, 30 Mar. 2024
Plus, these potent plant extracts help define curls, moisturize the scalp, seal split ends, and help retain length.
—Jenn Barthole, Glamour, 29 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'extract.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near extract
Cite this Entry
“Extract.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extract. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
extract
1 of 2 verb
extract
2 of 2 noun
Medical Definition
extract
1 of 2 transitive verb
extract
2 of 2 noun
Legal Definition
extract
noun
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