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:
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
Hamilton made a mistake on his first run in Q3, locking a brake at Turn Three, and had to abort the lap.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
An oxygen tank had exploded in their spacecraft, forcing them to abort their lunar landing plans.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
Once, on a solo trip to the North Pole, he snapped a piece of his ski binding and was forced to abort the entire expedition, writing off a trip that cost more than $200,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
“We will have to abort our mission if you are injured.”
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
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
A “go-around” refers to when an aircraft aborts a landing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2023
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
When one of the two seeds aborts, the remaining one acquires a greater size, and fills the interior of the fruit, which in that case, of course, has but one cellule.
From All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers
Before the biggest scandal to hit his tenure - the aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise plan - Infantino was an incredibly powerful figure who appeared bulletproof.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Singaporean billionaire Lim Chap Huat is suing Brookfield Asset Management over an aborted joint venture to buy industrial properties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The allegations come as Infantino fights for his future as Fifa president following his aborted plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 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
Then there’s this noise like an aborted sob, and she pushes past me, straight through the door.
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
Russell, who won the sprint race earlier on Saturday, was on the back foot after aborting his first lap.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
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
However, while traveling at over 11,000 mph, the system experienced an anomaly, aborting the flight prematurely.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 10, 2023
Monroe is lured into aborting that pregnancy, but when she conceives a second time, her sentient fetus reappears.
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2022
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.
