extorts

verb

present tense third-person singular of extort
as in exacts
to get (as money) by the use of force or threats a school bully who was used to extorting lunch money from weaker kids

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for extorts
  1. exacts
  2. squeezes
  3. coerces
  4. wrings
  5. wrests
Verb
  • The determination to do so sometimes exacts a great price, as Gettysburg attests.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Onshoring hasn’t taken off as a runaway trend even as the current political administration exacts punishing duties on offshore production markets far and wide.
    — Kate Nishimura, Footwear News, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of exacts
Verb
  • That wrestling match itself, however, makes for compelling theater about as often as the camel squeezes through the needle.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026
  • The jobs market has been resilient even as stubbornly high inflation squeezes businesses and households.
    — Damian J. Troise, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of squeezes
Verb
  • However, the rotation of this filament clearly dominates how the galaxies within it spin, perhaps by funneling hydrogen gas along the dark-matter filament and onto the galaxies in a way that coerces their spin while providing further fuel for star formation.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 4 Dec. 2025
  • Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor, coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 14 Nov. 2025
Definition of coerces
Verb
  • Bass wrings both roteness and refinement out of examining the road to the altar.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2026
  • The intensity of the crowds vary from stop to stop (Czech came ready to rage at Rock for People in June), but Halsey persistently wrings herself out.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of wrings
Verb
  • If New England somehow wrests the divison away from Buffalo, Vrabel gets serious consideration.
    — Darren Cooper, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026
  • Like everything else that works here, Brie’s performance wrests the last scraps of freshness from a mode of filmmaking this movie knows is played out, but doesn’t have the particular strength to reinvent.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 2 June 2026
Definition of wrests
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

extortionists
extorts
extra
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Cite this Entry

“Extorts.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extorts. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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