conscientious objection

American  

noun

1. refusal on moral or religious grounds to serve in the armed forces or to bear arms in a military conflict.

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Other Word Forms

• conscientious objector
  noun

Etymology

Origin of conscientious objection

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Politicians also supported an opt-in system and conscientious objection option for health care professionals.

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2025

Bishop Kryvytskyi said that he and his colleagues at the same time have taken up the cause of those Ukrainians who have been convicted on charges stemming from their conscientious objection to fighting.

From Washington Times • Nov. 5, 2023

Mistaken, “of course,” Akst writes, about U.S. participation in World War II, for which they offered no realistic alternative, pacifists moved from conscientious objection to a substantially more wide-ranging reform agenda.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 16, 2022

The military has, for generations, made inquiries into how conscientious a conscientious objection really is; immigration officials may make similar inquiries into a green-card-conferring marriage.

From New York Times • Nov. 30, 2021

Therefore we say that a coil has one henry of inductance when an electron stream 85which is increasing one ampere’s worth each second stirs up in the coil a conscientious objection of one volt.

From Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son by Mills, John