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
-
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)
-
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
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
“Would an autonomous drone abort a mission on its own, for example if a child enters the target area?” she asked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
An oxygen tank had exploded in their spacecraft, forcing them to abort their lunar landing plans.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
Here is a abort example of the problems of chivalry, which he thought about in his early times.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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
Fruit about the size of an acorn, oval, fleshy, containing a milky juice; it is 2-celled and each cell contains a solitary, hard seed; of these one aborts.
From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Jerome Beers Thomas
It was aborted after widespread criticism from several confederations, led by Uefa which has threatened a boycott of all Fifa competitions.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
The plans have since been aborted - with Infantino apologising for his "errors".
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
They aborted the search after finding too little room to move safely, and left a board propped over the hole.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Should I tell him about my father’s aborted dreams?
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
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
“Aborting takeoff, aborting takeoff,” the United pilot responded.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2023
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.
