Did you know?
If you want to add a little oomph to your urge in speech or writing—and formal oomph at that—we exhort you to try using exhort as a synonym instead. Arriving in the 15th century from the Anglo-French word exorter, exhort traces back further to the Latin verb hortari, meaning “to incite to action, urge on, or encourage.” Latin users added the prefix ex- to hortari to intensify it; in essence, exhortari is a succinct way of saying “to really, really urge.” The Latin words adhortari (its meaning similar to that of exhortari) and dehortari (“to dissuade”) also found their way into English as adhort and dehort, respectively, but neither of these remains in current use.
Examples of exhort in a Sentence
Doug Melville, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2025
While those stars burn, nuclear fusion exhorts an outward push to counter the gravitational pull of the star’s own mass.
—Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Mar. 2025
Liberation goes all the way, and in doing so, exhorts us all to keep going.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
Two days later, on Feb. 5, police raised the alarm again, exhorting people to keep their pets close.
—Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 24 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Cite this Entry
“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exhort. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share