abort
Americanverb (used without object)
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to bring forth a fetus from the uterus before the fetus is viable; miscarry.
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to develop incompletely; remain in a rudimentary or undeveloped state.
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to fail, cease, or stop at an early or premature stage.
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Military. to fail to accomplish a purpose or mission for any reason other than enemy action.
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Rocketry. (of a missile) to stop before the scheduled flight is completed.
verb (used with object)
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to cause to bring forth (a fetus) from the uterus before the fetus is viable.
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to cause (a pregnant female) to be delivered of a nonviable fetus.
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to cause to cease or end at an early or premature stage.
We aborted our vacation when the car broke down.
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to terminate (a missile flight, mission, etc.) before completion.
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to put down or quell in the early stages.
Troops aborted the uprising.
noun
verb
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to undergo or cause (a woman) to undergo the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable
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(tr) to cause (a fetus) to be expelled from the womb before it is viable
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(intr) to fail to come to completion; go wrong
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(tr) to stop the development of; cause to be abandoned
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(intr) to give birth to a dead or nonviable fetus
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(of a space flight, military operation, etc) to fail or terminate prematurely
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(intr) (of an organism or part of an organism) to fail to develop into the mature form
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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abortsimple
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abortssimple
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have abortedperfect
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has abortedperfect
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am abortingprogressive
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are abortingprogressive
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is abortingprogressive
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have been abortingperfect progressive
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has been abortingperfect progressive
Past
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abortedsimple
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had abortedperfect
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was abortingprogressive
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were abortingprogressive
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had been abortingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abort
First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin abortus “miscarried,” past participle of aborīrī “to disappear, miscarry,” equivalent to ab- ab- + orīrī “to rise, come into being”; cf. orient ( def. )
Explanation
To abort something is to end it. When something is aborted, it's finished. In a movie, you may have seen people on some kind of mission yelling "Abort! Abort!" That means "Stop!" When you abort a plan or activity, you're ending it, usually prematurely. If you abort a dinner, you cancel it in the middle. If the police abort a raid, they stop it after it has already begun. A writer could abort a novel after writing a chapter or two. You can't abort something that hasn't been started: that's more like canceling or postponing.
Vocabulary lists containing abort
"The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller, List 4
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Trump's Top 50 Most Relevant Words
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Novel Study: The Bluest Eye, Pages IX–93
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
NASA’s powerful Launch Abort System, designed to outrun an exploding rocket, is the result of years of work from scientists and engineers across the country, including in Southern California’s Mojave Desert.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
“At first I thought, my gosh we’re actually going to have our first ‘Return to Launch Site Abort.’
From Washington Times • Jan. 30, 2021
The Orion spacecraft, NASA’s next generation of manned craft in development, also features an LES mounted on top of the craft, called a Launch Abort System.
From Time • Nov. 18, 2014
As Cypher warns Kitai: “This mission has reach Abort Criteria.”
From Time • May 30, 2013
Abort, ab-ort′, v.i. to miscarry in birth: to remain in a rudimentary state.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
