ek-STAWR-shuhn
/ɛkˈstɔɹʃən/
extortion is pronounced ek-STAWR-shuhn (/ɛkˈstɔɹʃən/). Extortion is the act of obtaining money, property, or services from another person through coercion, threats, or abuse of power. It involves leveraging fear or pressure to force compliance, often by implying or presenting harm or negative consequences. The term is typically used in legal or criminal contexts to describe a crime of coercive wealth extraction.
Extortion is the act of obtaining money, property, or services from another person through coercion, threats, or abuse of power. It involves leveraging fear or pressure to force compliance, often by implying or presenting harm or negative consequences. The term is typically used in legal or criminal contexts to describe a crime of coercive wealth extraction.
"The defendant was charged with extortion after threatening a business owner to pay protection money."
"Witnesses testified that the gang leader used threats to coerce victims into surrendering assets, constituting extortion."
"The police cracked down on extortion rings that preyed on vulnerable merchants in the neighborhood."
Pronounce it as /ɪkˈstɔːr.ʃən/. The stress sits on the second syllable: ex-TOR-tion. Start with a short /ɪ/ (as in ‘kit’), move to /k/ + a loose /stɔːr/ with the long ‘aw’ vowel, followed by /ʃən/ (shun). Tip: keep the /st/ cluster tight and the /ɔːr/ diphthong clear before the /ʃ/ sound. Listening to native pronunciation helps, especially the transition from /ˈstɔːr/ to /ʃən/.
Common mistakes include rendering /stɔːr/ too short or clipped (e.g., /ˈɛk.stɔr.ʃən/ with weak first syllable), confusing the /t/ and /d/ in the cluster, and softening the /ʃ/ into /ʒ/ in some dialects. To correct: ensure the /st/ cluster is released clearly, hold the /ɔː/ before the /r/, and articulate /ʃ/ crisply as /ʃ/ followed by /ən/ without inserting an extra vowel. Practicing the sequence ex-TOR-tion helps stabilize rhythm and voicing.
In US and UK rhotic varieties, you’ll hear /ɪkˈstɔːr.ʃən/ with an r-colored vowel /ɔːr/ before /ʃən/. US tends to retain r more prominently than some UK variants; UK can have slightly less rhotic coloring depending on region, but the /ɔː/ remains long. Australian English often features a broad /ɒ/ or /ɔː/ before /r/ and a relatively tighter /ʃən/. Across accents, the main differences are rhoticity and vowel duration before /ʃən/.
The difficulty lies in the consonant cluster /kst/ after the initial /ɪ/ plus the long vowel in /ɔːr/ before the /ʃ/ sound. The transition from the vowel to the /k/ release and then to /st/ plus /ɔːr/ is a timing challenge, and the /r/ can color the preceding vowel differently in rhotic accents. Keeping the sequence tight and ensuring the /ɪ/ doesn’t slide into /i/ helps maintain accuracy.
A unique feature is the stressed /ˈstɔːr/ syllable that contains a rhotic vowel before the /ʃ/ sound in American/Canadian and many UK accents. Practitioners should attend to the vowel length before the /r/ and ensure the /r/ is not swallowed by the following /ʃ/. Placing the tongue tip near the alveolar ridge for /t/ and curling the tip slightly for American rhotic /ɹ/ helps maintain accuracy.
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Extortion derives from the Latin extortio, extortion-, from extorquere meaning ‘to twist out, draw out by twisting’ or ‘to drag out forcefully.’ The Latin ex- ‘out of’ + torquere ‘to twist’ frames the sense of extracting something by pressure. In Middle English, extortien appeared with legal connotations of coercion and extracting payments by threats. Over time, the word narrowed to describe criminal coercion or coercive demands for money or valuables, typically under threat of harm, disgrace, or exposure. The modern legal usage centers on illicit demand under color of authority or influence, distinguishing extortion from legitimate taxation or bargaining. First known use in English appears in legal texts around the 14th century, with evolving definitions in criminal law through the 16th to 19th centuries as courts codified offenses involving coercion, bribery, and organized crime. Today, extortion is codified in many jurisdictions as a crime involving threats, force, or abuse of power to obtain money or property, with penalties increasing when violence or organized crime elements are involved.
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Words that rhyme with "extortion"
-ion sounds
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