abruptly

adverb

abrupt·​ly ə-ˈbrəp(t)-lē 

: in an abrupt manner : in a sudden and unexpected way

He left abruptly.

The car swerved abruptly onto the exit ramp.

Her career as a psychologist ended abruptly several years ago when a hacker broke into some of her private client files and made them public …

—Michael Logan

The small, rocky Anacapa Island [California] has steep cliffs which rise abruptly from the ocean on almost every side …

—David J. Rutherford

Synonyms of abruptly

• suddenly

Examples of abruptly in a Sentence

the car in front stopped abruptly, and we almost hit it

Recent Examples on the Web

So, abruptly, we were shunted onto hospice care — the dead-end spur of the American medical system. — Kim Clark, CBS News, 13 Aug. 2026

The patchwork stands include one ending abruptly a little over halfway down the touchline due to the houses just behind making further construction impossible. — Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2026

The film could use a few more such colorful secondary strands adjoining the main conflict, though one subplot involving a maybe-romance between two jaded journalists assigned to the summit is oddly framed and abruptly dropped. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 12 Aug. 2026

Still, Adams plowed ahead with the plans to convert the green space to housing, Then, last summer, after hiring Mastro, Adams abruptly pulled the plug on the project. — Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1565, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for abruptly

• corruptly