Extortion

How to spell extortion

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce extortion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does extortion mean?

1. nounThe crime of obtaining money, property, or services from someone through threats, force, or abuse of authority.

Extortion in a sentence

• The gang demanded weekly payments from shop owners, a clear case of extortion.

• The official was charged with extortion after taking bribes to approve permits.

Where does extortion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Extortion comes from the Latin verb extorquere, which literally meant 'to twist out' or 'to wrench away', formed from ex- meaning 'out' and torquere meaning 'to twist' or 'to wring'. The image is vivid and physical: something is forcibly twisted out of a person's grip, which is exactly how the modern sense of squeezing money or favours out of someone by threat developed. The Latin noun extortio passed into English through Old French in the 1300s, originally describing the unlawful taking of money by officials who abused their position. The same torquere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'torture', 'torment', 'contort', and 'distort', all of which share that core idea of twisting. Keeping that 't-o-r-t' twist in mind helps explain the spelling, since the trap is the unstressed ending '-tion' that sounds like 'shun'.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• tort (twist, from Latin torquere)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)