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
Others would exhort that the end result is what counts, not how the inner machinations work.
—
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
Wonder-working is commonplace in both the Old and New Testaments, and Jesus exhorted all his followers to heal the sick and raise the dead.
—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
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
Wonder-working is commonplace in both the Old and New Testaments, and Jesus exhorted all his followers to heal the sick and raise the dead.
—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
See All Example Sentences for exhort
Recent Examples of Synonyms for exhort
Verb
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In December, the libertarian Cato Institute published an article urging Trump to privatize the system.—
Joe Hernandez,
NPR,
27 June 2025
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Then comes a video of Sam Smith as a toddler being urged to kick a ball in the hallway of the family home, followed straight after by the striker’s acrobatic finish to put Wrexham 2-0 up just three minutes on from Rathbone’s opener.—
Richard Sutcliffe,
New York Times,
27 June 2025
Verb
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These plays still aren’t consistent from Ivey, but look for the Pistons to put him in more pick-and-roll situations to encourage more growth in that department.—
Hunter Patterson,
New York Times,
18 June 2025
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State lawmakers created the program in 2017 to encourage more publicly funded, privately run schools to open in areas where traditional public schools had been failing for years, giving students and families in those neighborhoods a way to bail out of a persistently struggling school.—
Kate Payne,
The Orlando Sentinel,
18 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Exhort.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/exhort. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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