extrovert

Pluralextroverts

Formsextroverts, extroverting, extroverted

1. 1
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A person who is outgoing, sociable, and focused on the people and world around them.

   As a natural extrovert, he thrives in crowded offices and busy meetings.

   Extroverts tend to recharge their energy by spending time with other people.

   Oppositeintrovert

   Note

   The word began as psychology's term. It was earlier spelled extravert, from German Extravert, and was reshaped to extro- under the pull of its partner introvert. Phyllis Blanchard's 1918 "Psycho-Analytic Study of August Comte" helped spread it, presenting the pair as Jung's two psychological types. The noun still travels with introvert, and everyday speech uses it loosely as a label for sociable people rather than as a strict personality type.

2. 2
   adjectivecolloquial

   Alternative form of extroverted.

   An extrovert temperament can be an advantage in sales and other public roles.

   The coach valued his extrovert style during team meetings.

   Note

   Here the noun's own spelling does an adjective's job, as in an extrovert temperament or an extrovert style. It compares with more and most rather than taking -er: more extrovert, most extrovert. In its sociable sense it means the same as the longer extroverted. That longer form is the safer choice wherever a reader might take extrovert for a person rather than a quality.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To turn or thrust something outward, directing it away from the inside or center.

   A sea star can extrovert its stomach through its mouth and digest prey outside its body.

   The mechanism extroverts the panels when the satellite reaches orbit.

   Similarevert

   Oppositeintrovert, retract

   Note

   The literal sense is also the old one. John Webster's Metallographia (1671) already has sulfur "protruded and extroverted," long before the personality type entered psychology. The verb takes a direct object: something is extroverted. Its past participle, extroverted, is spelled exactly like the adjective for sociable people, so context decides whether a thing has been turned outward or a person is turned toward others.

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