extorts

present tense third-person singular of extort
as in exacts
to get (as money) by the use of force or threats a school bully who was used to extorting lunch money from weaker kids

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for extorts
Verb
  • Ali then exacts his revenge, pumping several rounds into Alamo's chest as the antagonistic figure falls for good.
    Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 1 June 2026
  • Shrinking lake ice exacts its price Depending on how much greenhouse gases warm the planet in the coming years, the average lake could lose up to 10 to 28 days of ice cover by the end of the century, says Sapna Sharma, a global change biologist at York University in Canada.
    Berly McCoy, NPR, 2 Mar. 2026
Verb
  • With electric vehicles continuing to gain share, that further squeezes European carmakers.
    Neil Winton, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026
  • At one point, the SUV squeezes past a traffic cone while making a left turn and narrowly avoids colliding with a large truck.
    Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 17 June 2026
Verb
  • However, the rotation of this filament clearly dominates how the galaxies within it spin, perhaps by funneling hydrogen gas along the dark-matter filament and onto the galaxies in a way that coerces their spin while providing further fuel for star formation.
    Keith Cooper, Space.com, 4 Dec. 2025
  • Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor, coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance.
    Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 14 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • Similarly, the cast wrings some poetry out of the prosaic, often aphoristic dialogue.
    Robert Lloyd, Houston Chronicle, 1 May 2026
  • Barkin, who was dating Levinson at the time of the film’s production, gamely strives to anchor the odd, histrionic film with her performance and wrings real pathos out of Lynn’s brittle and wounded demeanor.
    Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 10 Apr. 2026
Verb
  • Like everything else that works here, Brie’s performance wrests the last scraps of freshness from a mode of filmmaking this movie knows is played out, but doesn’t have the particular strength to reinvent.
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 2 June 2026
  • Here, the director wrests a radioactive joy from observing Godard generate ideas with his ensemble, even as others pull their hair out around him.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Extorts.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extorts. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.

More from Merriam-Webster on extorts

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster