adjournment

American  

[uh-jurn-muhnt] / əˈdʒɜrn mənt /

noun

1. the act of adjourning or the state or period of being adjourned.

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Other Word Forms

• nonadjournment noun
• preadjournment noun
• proadjournment adjective
• readjournment noun

Etymology

Origin of adjournment

1635–45; < Anglo-French adjournement, Middle French. See adjourn, -ment

Explanation

When you end something or postpone it to a later time, that's an adjournment. When an initially friendly meeting becomes an angry shouting match, it might be time for an adjournment. Members at a company board meeting might request an adjournment for lunch, agreeing to reconvene in an hour. Court cases take similar adjournments, pausing for the weekend or holidays. The Supreme Court's regular schedule includes a summer-long adjournment that doesn't end until the first Monday in October, when a new session begins. The Old French source, ajornement, meant both "daybreak" and "summons to appear in court." Adjourn was initially used to mean "set a date to reconvene."

Example Sentences

The most recent request for an adjournment of a scheduled status conference came in September.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026

Boasberg adjourned the hearing so Ensign could gather more information—and the government evidently exploited this adjournment to dispatch the two planes.

From Slate • Apr. 16, 2025

And they detailed that he got the impression the panel was more concerned about the impact the adjournment would have on them than the fairness of his hearing.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2025

He told a Commons adjournment debate: "There was no hard evidence against Letby, nobody saw her do anything untoward."

From BBC • Jan. 8, 2025

We still had weeks of argument ahead, but the judges asked for a week’s adjournment.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

• deferment
• deferral
• interruption
• postponement
• recess