as in to urge
to try to persuade (someone) through earnest appeals to follow a course of action
the speaker exhorted the graduating students to go forth and try to make a difference in the world
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Recent Examples of exhort
Coaches exhorted George to keep shooting — and so did Poole.
—
Josh Robbins, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2026
The sans-serif typeface closely resembles that of the intertitles seen in Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas’s revolutionary film La hora de los hornos (Hour of the Furnaces, 1968), which exhorted the Argentinian people to revolt against the Onganía regime.
—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
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Josh Robbins, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2026
The sans-serif typeface closely resembles that of the intertitles seen in Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas’s revolutionary film La hora de los hornos (Hour of the Furnaces, 1968), which exhorted the Argentinian people to revolt against the Onganía regime.
—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
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Recent Examples of Synonyms for exhort
Verb
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In a statement, the Stop Aurora Pit Bull Ban Team, a group that advocated for repealing the city's breed-specific ban, urged caution in drawing conclusions about the incident.—
Tori Mason,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
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Millions of citizens across Europe have been urged to work from home and drive less amid the energy crisis caused by the Iran war.—
Matthew Robinson,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Apr. 2026
Verb
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And there were a number of terrorist organizations that sought to encourage the British to leave, thus creating a united Ireland.—
Colm Tóibín,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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Teammates encouraged her and one even lifted her chin, but the damage was done.—
David Brandt,
Chicago Tribune,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/exhort. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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