abort
Americanverb (used without object)
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aborts,
present (3rd person singular)
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aborted,
past participle, past
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aborting
present participle
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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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aborts,
present (3rd person singular)
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aborted,
past participle, past
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aborting
present participle
-
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.
See Examples For:
Regarding the mid-air incident, he said that a plane "was meant to land in Leipzig but then had to abort the landing".
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
One aircraft that had to abort its scheduled landing at Leipzig-Halle airport then collided mid-air with an unknown object nearby but later landed safely elsewhere, a government spokesman said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
When Gavalas reported seeing a car just like his own, Gemini told him it was part of a government surveillance operation and told him to abort the mission.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
They concerned the launch abort system, which enables Nasa engineers to eject the astronauts and blow up the rocket if there is a malfunction.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
“We could abort this mission right now and still make a fortune in patents.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
At the same time, the plant aborts nearly all fruits that contain larvae, which helps limit the plant's resource investment.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
At the end of "Thalidomide," Plath writes, "The glass cracks across, / The image / Flees and aborts like dropped mercury."
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2022
October: The Houston Space Center aborts a launch after six seconds.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021
Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert try to return to Earth after an explosion aborts the April 1970 moonshot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2019
If an animal aborts unexpectedly she should be removed to separate quarters and given proper attention as promptly as possible.
From Special Report on Diseases of Cattle by United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Authorities also are looking into a second unidentified object that collided with a cargo plane after the plane aborted its landing at Leipzig due to the closure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The plans have since been aborted - with Infantino apologising for his "errors".
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
European governing body Uefa said in a statement its conditions had not been met, despite Infantino's plan being aborted.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The second object collided with a cargo plane that had aborted its landing at Leipzig because of the closure, state officials said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Padre de Jesus had told me about an aborted visit Dedd had made to his rectory.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Such is her agony at the memory of aborting their baby that she relies on her diary entries from the time to carry the weight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Watch as a KLM passenger plane performs a 'go-around' after aborting its landing at Aberdeen Airport during Storm Babet.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023
After aborting the takeoff, the crew returned the plane to the gate, where passengers disembarked, the airline said, adding that the flight was then delayed overnight.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2023
However, while traveling at over 11,000 mph, the system experienced an anomaly, aborting the flight prematurely.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 10, 2023
A familiar example is the role of those two diseases in aborting the French effort, and nearly aborting the ultimately successful American effort, to construct the Panama Canal.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
