abort

1 of 2

verb

ə-ˈbȯrt

aborted; aborting; aborts

Synonyms of abort next

intransitive verb

: to bring forth stillborn, nonviable, or premature offspring

: to become checked in development so as to degenerate or remain rudimentary

: to terminate a procedure prematurely

the pilot decided to abort due to mechanical difficulties

transitive verb

: to induce the abortion of or give birth to prematurely

: to terminate the pregnancy of before term

: to terminate prematurely : cancel

abort a project

abort a spaceflight

: to stop in the early stages

abort a disease

aborter noun

abort

2 of 2

noun

: the premature termination of a flight (as of an aircraft or spacecraft), a mission, or an action or procedure relating to a flight

a launch abort

Example Sentences

Verb They decided to abort the pregnancy. abort the launch of a rocket I suggest that you abort the project. The mission had to be aborted. When problems occurred during the launch, it was necessary to abort.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

And on approach, what altitude is safe for a decision to abort the landing or to continue? —

Les Abend, CNN, 17 Jan. 2023 The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, which occurred when a FedEx cargo plane had to abort its landing after a Southwest passenger plane was cleared to take off from the same runway. —

Justin Klawans, The Week, 5 Feb. 2023 What happened at JFK Airport in January In a preliminary report, the NTSB says the American Airlines 777 crossed an active runway without clearance from air traffic control, causing a Delta 737 to abort its takeoff on Friday, January 13. —

Gregory Wallace, CNN, 16 Feb. 2023 The FedEx pilots were able to abort their landing and avoid a collision. —

David Koenig, ajc, 11 Feb. 2023 The FedEx flight started to climb and called for the Southwest flight to abort its takeoff, Ms. Homendy said. —

Alison Sider, WSJ, 7 Feb. 2023 Last year the rocket suffered an engine failure without any crew on board, causing the capsule to abort from the booster. —

Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 8 Jan. 2023 The Borowitz Report)—In a possible solution to the stalemate that has gripped the House of Representatives, Herschel Walker has offered Kevin McCarthy a check for seven hundred dollars to abort his bid for Speaker. —

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2023 Laura Hercher describes the challenges that genetic counselors face in helping people who learn their fetus has anomalies make decisions to abort. —

Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 22 Dec. 2022

Noun

While not equipped with a stand-alone abort system, the hybrid motor in Virgin Galactic's spaceplane can be shut down on command if sensors detect any sort of issue. —

William Harwood, CBS News, 9 July 2021 The launch abort system is made of four separate components. —

Korey Haynes, Discover Magazine, 1 July 2019 A few months before that, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket suffered an engine problem that triggered its emergency abort system to fire, shooting the capsule, which had no people on board, only science experiments, away to safety. —

Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2023 Expedition 57's Soyuz rocket rose from the ground, began to experience some strange vibration, and then triggered an abort. —

Elizabeth Howell, Discover Magazine, 3 Dec. 2018 This was followed in short order by the release of the rocket’s service module fairing and the launch abort safety system. —

Christopher Cokinos, Discover Magazine, 17 Nov. 2022 The launch-abort system can pull astronauts away from the rocket in the event of a malfunction. —

Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 15 Nov. 2022 Because no humans are onboard for the Artemis I mission, Orion’s main abort motor is inactive. —

Nadia Drake, Scientific American, 16 Nov. 2022 Sarafin ticked off all of the launch accomplishments including all of the separation events for the rocket including the boosters, fairings, jettison of the launch abort system, shutdown the four RS-25 engines and jettison of the core stage. —

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel, 17 Nov. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abort.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

in part borrowed from Latin abortus, past participle of aborīrī "to pass away, be lost, (of a fetus) miscarry, be aborted, (of a woman) miscarry," from ab- ab- + orīrī "to rise, come into existence, be born"; in part borrowed from Late Latin abortīre and abortīrī "(of a woman) to miscarry," derivatives of Latin aborīrī — more at orient entry 2

Noun

noun derivative of abort entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

1540, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1944, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of abort was in 1540

See more words from the same year