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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
Marianne Williams, Southern Living, 2 Apr. 2024
Other key ingredients include bamboo extract, lavender, avocado oil, and rosemary to soothe, moisturize, and protect the skin, while salicylic acid keeps oil and breakouts at bay.
—Alexandra Domrongchai, Travel + Leisure, 29 Mar. 2024
The ingredient list also boasts hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, and pomegranate extract.
—Brigitt Earley, Glamour, 28 Mar. 2024
Skin Food is made from flower, fruit, and root extracts, minerals, and essential oils.
—Maya Polton, Parents, 27 Mar. 2024
Similar to another best-seller, the Earth Mama Belly Butter, this nourishing oil is chock-full of organic ingredients like jojoba seed oil, borage seed oil, and calendula flower extract.
—Brigitt Earley, Allure, 28 Feb. 2024
The conditioner spotlights rice protein, olive leaf and rosemary extracts to strengthen and protect hair from damage.
—Celia Shatzman, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
Pulsating with pumpkin extract, shea butter, and sensual cacao seed, the new scrub offers more than just a hushed bikini line.
—India Espy-Jones, Essence, 19 Mar. 2024
Often, other dairy products or flavorings like vanilla extract and cocoa powder are used, and sometimes, not all of the basics are even necessary.
—Genevieve Ko, New York Times, 18 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 18 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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