To extract means to remove or take something out, often with effort or care. A dentist extracts a problem tooth. Scientists extract DNA from cells to study it. When you extract a splinter from your finger, you're carefully pulling it out.

The word often involves skill, difficulty, or precision in the removal process. You might extract juice from an orange by squeezing it, or extract information from a complicated book by reading carefully. Miners extract valuable minerals like gold or copper from deep underground. When you extract the main ideas from a long article for a book report, you're identifying and pulling out the most important points.

An extract (as a noun) is something that has been removed or concentrated from a larger whole. Vanilla extract comes from vanilla beans and adds powerful vanilla flavor to cookies and cakes. A newspaper might publish an extract from a new book, giving readers a taste of the full story.