Did you know?
Commit to Learning the History of Espouse
As you might guess, the words espouse and spouse are hitched, both coming from the Latin verb spondēre, meaning “to promise” or “to betroth.” In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning “a newly married person” or “a husband or wife” and also as a verb meaning “to marry.” Their semantic separation began when the noun espouse fell out of use. Nowadays, espouse is most often encountered as a verb used in the figuratively extended sense “to commit to and support as a cause.”
Examples of espouse in a Sentence
Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 3 Oct. 2025
Court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital revealed that Edge espoused anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theories.
—Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 1 Oct. 2025
Meanwhile, parties espousing nationalist rhetoric are on the rise across Europe, with right-wing nationalist movements counting historic electoral turnouts in a number of nations.
—Tom O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Sep. 2025
The research found that 59% of those posts espoused conspiracy theories about Jews, such as that Jewish people control governments, that Jews are satanic in nature, or that the Holocaust never occurred or misrepresentations of what happened during the Holocaust.
—Hadas Gold, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for espouse
Cite this Entry
“Espouse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/espouse. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share