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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.
Synonyms
Examples of exhort in a Sentence
Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2024
Kay Thompson’s character famously exhorted a phalanx of editorial assistants in the 1957 film Funny Face.
—Emily Evans Eerdmans, Architectural Digest, 23 July 2024
To call ourselves to such mutual respect across political lines is to exhort us to moral revolution.
—Danielle Allen, Washington Post, 19 July 2024
Earlier than most, Lee understood the dilemmas that China’s growth would present, especially for Washington, and exhorted leaders on both sides of the Pacific to prevent the inevitable contest from turning into war.
—Jessica T. Mathews, Foreign Affairs, 20 Dec. 2022
See all Example Sentences for exhort 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'exhort.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near exhort
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“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exhort. Accessed 12 Sep. 2024.
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