hortatory
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hortatory
First recorded in 1580–90; from Late Latin hortātōrius “encouraging,” equivalent to hortā(rī) ( see hortative) + -tōrius -tory 1
Explanation
Hortatory is a word used to describe a behavior or action that is encouraging. In the face of great economic crisis, the president's speech takes on a hortatory or encouraging tone, at a time when people most need the reassurance. Hortatory, pronounced hawr-tuh-tawr-ee, is probably not a word you hear a lot, but what it describes is common. Teachers often give hortatory speeches when students are most overwhelmed. Coaches scream hortatory remarks to their team in the locker room to keep the players motivated. When you're lying in bed in the morning ignoring your alarm, look for that little hortatory voice in your head, encouraging you to get up so that you're not late.
Vocabulary lists containing hortatory
100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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Escape from Camp 14
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A Room of One's Own
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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.
Titian’s work is not alone in being simplified in “Depraved” for the sake of such hortatory lessons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The tendency in David’s editing process is almost always to the hortatory.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2022
His preferred medium was Twitter, where his 280-characters-at-a-time rhetoric was a study in hortatory rather than oratory.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2021
The music was hortatory, hypnotic and thoroughly funky.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2011
Structural parallelism works not just in poetic and hortatory passages but also in ordinary expository prose.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
