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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.
Examples of exhort in a Sentence
Emily Harnett, Harpers Magazine, 28 Mar. 2025
The Senate cleared the legislation Friday in a mostly party line 54-46 vote, with 10 Senate Democrats helping the bill advance to passage despite opposition from within their party -- most vocally from colleagues in the House, who exhorted them to reject the bill out of hand.
—Compiled By Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 16 Mar. 2025
In 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany famously exhorted her country’s citizens to welcome waves of refugees from the Middle East.
—Robert Petkoff Krish Seenivasan Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2025
Others would exhort that the end result is what counts, not how the inner machinations work.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Cite this Entry
“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exhort. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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