abduction

¹ American  

[ab-duhk-shuhn] / æbˈdʌk ʃən /

noun

1. act of abducting.

2. the state of being abducted.

3. Law. the illegal carrying or enticing away of a person, especially by interfering with a relationship, such as the taking of a child from their parent.

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abduction ² American  

[ab-duhk-shuhn] / æbˈdʌk ʃən /

noun

Logic.

1. a syllogism whose major premise is certain but whose minor premise is probable.

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abduction British  

/ æbˈdʌkʃən /

noun

1. the act of taking someone away by force or cunning; kidnapping

2. the action of certain muscles in pulling a leg, arm, etc away from the median axis of the body

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Etymology

Origin of abduction¹

First recorded in 1620–30; abduct + -ion

Origin of abduction²

First recorded in 1690–1700, abduction is from the New Latin word abductiōn- (stem of abductiō; translation of Greek apagōgḗ ). See abduct, -ion

Explanation

If you're the victim of an abduction, you've been carried away against your will — kidnapped. The word comes from Latin ab "away" + ducere "lead." Abduction is also when you move your arm or leg away from your midline. "The Abduction from the Seraglio" is the English title of a famous Mozart opera, in which a nobleman tries to rescue his betrothed, who has been captured — abducted — by pirates and sold into a pasha's harem, or seraglio. At the end of the opera, the pasha is overwhelmed with mercy and frees everyone and sends them home. So there really isn’t an abduction from the seraglio; the pasha lets everybody go.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

abduction

She joined the San Joaquin County district attorney’s office in 2007, eventually working in the domestic violence and child abduction units.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

For years, many assumed they had stumbled upon a government checkpoint, and that the abduction of the journalist had been opportunistic.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Thor for thunderstorms, shrieking Sirens to explain shipwrecks, the abduction of Persephone the reason behind the bleakness of winter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

She returned to “Today” on April 6, determined to solve her mother’s abduction by leveraging her TV fame and coast-to-coast reach—the same lofty platform she worried might have drawn the attention of Nancy’s kidnappers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

The Mexica reacted to the sacrilegious abduction of their leader with the same baffled horror with which Europeans later reacted to Cromwell’s execution of Charles I in 1649.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• kidnapping
• rape
• seizure
• theft