exhort

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verb ex·hort \ ig-ˈzȯrt \

Definition of exhort

transitive verb

:to incite by argument or advice :urge strongly

exhorting voters to do the right thing

intransitive verb

:to give warnings or advice :make urgent appeals

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exhorter

noun

See exhort defined for English-language learners

See exhort defined for kids

exhort was our Word of the Day on 03/14/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of exhort in a Sentence

He exhorted his people to take back their land.
She exhorted her listeners to support the proposition.

Recent Examples of exhort from the Web

In a spirit-lifting campaign, city leaders exhorted that if Chicago could come back from its fire and San Francisco from its earthquake, so could Louisville thrive after the Great Flood of ’37.

— andrew wolfson, The Courier-Journal, "There's hope for Houston in the story of Louisville's Great Flood of 1937," 28 Aug. 2017
Members of a Christian group stood outside the venue exhorting Elvis fans to stay away from Dahne's black magic.

— douglas perry, OregonLive.com, "'Don't you feel him?' 1979 Elvis Presley seance drew thousands in Portland, but faked-death theories live on," 14 Aug. 2017
All of them opposed the proposal and exhorted city officials to drop the idea.

— arun sivasankaran, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Springs charter school may move to local park," 2 Aug. 2017
One manager who recently quit a big state bank said that a campaign exhorting workers to study the party constitution had been unusually intense.

— The Economist, "Reform of China’s ailing state-owned firms is emboldening them," 20 July 2017
Even our neighborhood farmers’ market starts flooding social media with photos of radishes and local honey, exhorting us to show up.

— meaghan o'connell, The Cut, "Please Just Text Me: Against Fancy Wedding Invitations," 19 July 2017
The officials said they were also exhorted to follow the instructions of the central leadership and President Xi’s teachings.

— keith zhai, Bloomberg.com, "Downfall of Chinese Rising Star Points to Xi Power Play," 16 July 2017
At the corner pub Union Saloon, The Doobie Brothers exhort you to listen to the music, the bar man entices with $6 cocktails, and this shorts-and-sandals evening comes with the promise that the sun won’t set till 9.

— tan vinh, The Seattle Times, "Old-school appeal in Wallingford’s new Union Saloon," 12 July 2017
Two, Daniels is one of those old-school guys who exhorts the virtues of lining up and just knocking your opponent into the dirt.

— andy benoit, The MMQB, "pic.twitter.com/GWuJvRTLPY," 10 July 2017

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

Did You Know?

Exhort is a 15th-century coinage. It derives from the Latin verb hortari, meaning "to incite," and it often implies the ardent urging or admonishing of an orator or preacher. People in the 16th century apparently liked the root -hort, but they couldn't resist fiddling around with different prefixes to create other words similar in meaning to "exhort." They came up with adhort and dehort. Adhort was short-lived and became obsolete after the 17th century. Dehort was similar to exhort and adhort but with a more specific meaning of "to dissuade." It had a better run than adhort, being used well into the late 19th century, but it is now considered archaic.