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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
Daniel R. Quiles, Artforum, 1 Mar. 2026
On her deathbed, Mary exhorts her son to take advantage of this situation in grotesquely self-serving terms at odds with the movie’s overall soak-the-rich ethos.
—Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 27 Feb. 2026
The first allegiance is to God alone, Tobin added, but Scriptures exhort more often to do no harm to the foreigner and welcome the stranger than to love one’s neighbor.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2026
Poor John Fanta, who had the mic after the game, had to exhort fans to stick around an extra minute or two and properly honor Karaban’s achievement.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 15 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Cite this Entry
“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exhort. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
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