unextinct

English

Etymology 1

From un- +‎ extinct (adjective).

Adjective

unextinct (not comparable)

1. Not extinct; still living.
   • 1902, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Luella Miller:

     There was only one person in the village who had actually known Luella Miller. That person was a woman well over eighty, but a marvel of vitality and unextinct youth.

Synonyms

• extant

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ extinct (verb).

Verb

unextinct (third-person singular simple present unextincts, present participle unextincting, simple past and past participle unextincted)

1. (transitive) To make not extinct; especially, to return an extinct species to existence.

   Synonym: de-extinct

   • 2007, Richard Greene, 'Shroom!, page 428:

     Removing graffiti.
     Unextincting the dodo bird.

   • 2012, Jasper Fforde, The Woman Who Died a Lot:

     He was a resequenced neanderthal named Stiggins and soon to be, I assumed, divisional head of SO-13, the department that policed all unextincted creatures.

   • 2017, Padraic Fogarty, Whittled Away:

     The good news is that, with the exception of the giant auk which will only return if genetic cloning can find a way to 'unextinct' it, there are ways of getting our wildlife out of the intensive care unit.

2. (astronomy) To correct, or otherwise account for the extinction of an astronomical object.

Related terms

• unextinction