Exterminate vs. Extirpate — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Exterminate and Extirpate
ADVERTISEMENT
Compare with Definitions
Exterminate
To get rid of by destroying completely
Exterminated the termites that were weakening the wall.
Extirpate
Eradicate or destroy completely
Timber wolves were extirpated from New England more than a century ago
Exterminate
(transitive) To kill all of (a population of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.
We'll use poison to exterminate the rats.
Extirpate
To destroy totally; kill off
An effort to reintroduce wildlife that had been extirpated from the region.
Exterminate
To bring a definite end to; finish completely.
The public school failed to exterminate truancy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Extirpate
To render absent or nonexistent
"No society ... is devoid of ... religion, even those ... which have made deliberate attempts to extirpate it" (Roy A. Rappaport).
Exterminate
To drive out or away; to expel.
They deposed, exterminated, and deprived him of communion.
Extirpate
To pull up by the roots.
Exterminate
To destroy utterly; to cut off; to extirpate; to annihilate; to root out; as, to exterminate a colony, a tribe, or a nation; to exterminate error or vice.
To explode and exterminate rank atheism.
Extirpate
To remove by surgery.
Exterminate
To eliminate, as unknown quantities.
Extirpate
To clear an area of roots and stumps.
Exterminate
Kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many;
Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and homosexuals of Europe
Extirpate
(transitive) To pull up by the roots; uproot.
Exterminate
Destroy completely, as if down to the roots;
The vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted
Extirpate
(transitive) To destroy completely; to annihilate, to cause to go extinct locally.
The cougar was extirpated across nearly all of its eastern North American range in the two centuries after European colonization.
Extirpate
(transitive) To surgically remove.
Extirpate
To pluck up by the stem or root; to root out; to eradicate, literally or figuratively; to destroy wholly; as, to extirpate weeds; to extirpate a tumor; to extirpate a sect; to extirpate error or heresy.
Extirpate
Destroy completely, as if down to the roots;
The vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted
Extirpate
Pull up by or as if by the roots;
Uproot the vine that has spread all over the garden
Extirpate
Surgically remove (an organ)
Share Your Discovery
Previous Comparison
Embodied vs. DisembodiedNext Comparison
Northeast vs. Southeast