Word of the Day
: December 13, 2023exhort
playWhat It Means
To exhort someone is to try to strongly urge them to do something.
// The volunteers exhorted the young adults to register to vote before the upcoming election.
exhort in Context
“Now and again, the band pauses as the musicians praise and exhort each other. ‘More cowbell.’ ‘Let’s do it for timing, and then we’ll break it down.’ ‘I would love a violin solo right there.’ ‘It’s G minor, not B-flat?’” — Reed Johnson, The Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2023
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.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Name That Synonym
Rearrange the letters to complete a less formal synonym of exhort meaning “to prod lightly or urge into action”: DENGU
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