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
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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.
See Examples For:
It also apparently has some weird all-knowing knowledge, because it warns its clueless mom about all the evil characters conspiring to abort the baby.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2026
Ahmed and Gilkar had asked West to abort the pregnancy after a scan at 20 weeks showed the foetus had a severe heart defect.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 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
In February its space agency conducted a successful in-flight abort test from Hainan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
“We could abort this mission right now and still make a fortune in patents.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
A second attempt begins at 11:17 p.m., but the crew aborts and declares an emergency when flight attendants report feeling sick due to an unexplained smell permeating the cabin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
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
This sometimes aborts a fit, as biting a finger in which the aura commences may also do.
From Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Neurasthenia Their Causes, Symptoms, & Treatment by Isaac George Briggs
“Your Mother” came together after Tariq and Ali failed to get a “Blade” reboot green-lighted, with Ali utilizing his martial-arts training from that aborted Marvel project.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
He said there had been an "aborted" police pursuit, which both officers were "not directly involved in".
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
A United Airlines crew twice aborted their takeoff, and then declared an emergency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
After the proposal was aborted, Uefa and Concacaf withdrew their support for Infantino when he stands for a fourth presidential term at the Fifa Congress in March next year.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
He started plodding north from tidewater in February, but his enthusiasm fizzled on the lower reaches of the Ruth Glacier, still thirty miles from the peak, so he aborted the attempt and retreated to Talkeetna.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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
There has been no confirmation of those conversations from the Kremlin or Mr. Prigozhin, who has largely been silent since aborting his revolt, and whose current location is uncertain.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2023
“Aborting takeoff, aborting takeoff,” the United pilot responded.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 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.
