We study the extended genus field of an abelian extension of a rational function field. We follow the definition of Anglès and Jaulent, which uses the class field theory. First, we show that the natural definition of extended genus field of a cyclotomic function field obtained by means of Dirichlet characters is the same as the one given by Anglès and Jaulent. Next, we study the extended genus field of a finite abelian extension of a rational function field along the lines of the study of genus fields of abelian extensions of rational function fields. In the absolute abelian case, we compare this approach with the one given by Anglès and Jaulent.