extortionate
/ɛkˈstɔɹʃənət/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.32 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, related to, or typifying extortion (“the practice of obtaining money or other property by the use of force or threats”).
adj
Greatly exceeding what is moderate or reasonable; exorbitant.
Example Sentences
- "Now it is certain the Roman prieſts are not only ſeemingly very religious and really very extortionate, but are extortionate by means of religion, and make their prayers and maſſes the grand pretence for their exactions."
- "It is said the daily increase in opium is owing to the negligence of officers in enforcing the interdicts? The laws and enactments are the means which extortionate underlings and worthless vagrants employ to benefit themselves; and the more complete the laws are, the greater and more numerous are the bribes paid to the extortionate underlings, and the more subtle are the schemes of such worthless vagrants."
- "English travellers who have visited Jerash may remember a handsome but extortionate and insolent Arab sheikh at Sûf, who demanded, and always with success, an extortionate sum as blackmail, for which he gave them an escort and protection during their visit to the ruins."
- "As regards food for police, it is much more satisfactory, in a new district, to have them fed by Government and not given money or trade goods in lieu of rations, as is often done. If they are allowed to buy their own food from the natives they will impose on the raw savage, and frequently abuse their authority by making extortionate demands under threat of punishment."
- "The moneylenders – sometimes so extortionate that people pledged their slaves and sacred relics – were Uighurs from the west."
- "Interrogational torture of the sort envisaged in the last paragraph—where P's close relatives are subject to brutal mistreatment to impel P to disclose some desired information—is itself a specimen of extortionate torture."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɛkˈstɔɹʃənət/
- British English: /ɛkˈstɔːʃənət/
Inflected Forms
more extortionate (comparative)
most extortionate (superlative)