ABJURE Synonyms: 94 Similar and Opposite Words

Q: How is the word 'abjure' different from other verbs like it?

Some common synonyms of abjure are forswear , recant , renounce , and retract . While all these words mean "to withdraw one's word or professed belief," abjure implies a firm and final rejecting or abandoning often made under oath. // abjured the errors of his former faith

Q: When would 'forswear' be a good substitute for 'abjure'?

In some situations, the words forswear and abjure are roughly equivalent. However, forswear may add an implication of perjury or betrayal. // I cannot forswear my principles

Q: When is 'recant' a more appropriate choice than 'abjure'?

The synonyms recant and abjure are sometimes interchangeable, but recant stresses the withdrawing or denying of something professed or taught. // if they recant they will be spared

Q: When can 'renounce' be used instead of 'abjure'?

Although the words renounce and abjure have much in common, renounce may carry the meaning of disclaim or disown. // renounced abstract art and turned to portrait painting

Q: When could 'retract' be used to replace 'abjure'?

The words retract and abjure can be used in similar contexts, but retract applies to the withdrawing of a promise, an offer, or an accusation. // the newspaper had to retract the story

abjure

verb

ab-ˈju̇r

Definition of abjure next

as in to renounce

to solemnly or formally reject or go back on (as something formerly adhered to) abjured some long-held beliefs when she converted to another religion

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to avoid

to resist the temptation of a strict religious sect that abjures the luxuries, comforts, and conveniences of the modern world

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How is the word abjure different from other verbs like it?

Some common synonyms of abjure are forswear, recant, renounce, and retract. While all these words mean "to withdraw one's word or professed belief," abjure implies a firm and final rejecting or abandoning often made under oath.

abjured the errors of his former faith

When would forswear be a good substitute for abjure?

In some situations, the words forswear and abjure are roughly equivalent. However, forswear may add an implication of perjury or betrayal.

I cannot forswear my principles

When is recant a more appropriate choice than abjure?

The synonyms recant and abjure are sometimes interchangeable, but recant stresses the withdrawing or denying of something professed or taught.

if they recant they will be spared

When can renounce be used instead of abjure?

Although the words renounce and abjure have much in common, renounce may carry the meaning of disclaim or disown.

renounced abstract art and turned to portrait painting

When could retract be used to replace abjure?

The words retract and abjure can be used in similar contexts, but retract applies to the withdrawing of a promise, an offer, or an accusation.

the newspaper had to retract the story

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of abjure But as a philosophical tradition, pragmatism makes no normative claims about what is worth doing and what is not, what is desirable and what is to be abjured. —

Mark Edmundson, Harper's Magazine, 12 Dec. 2022 With great subversiveness, Portis consistently abjured America’s postwar fetishes for progress, social mobility and affluence. —

Elizabeth Nelson, Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2023 This new discipline borrowed features from philology and belles lettres—period specialization and close reading, respectively—but abjured their emphasis on facticity and appreciation in favor of a new goal: interpretation. —

Evan Kindley, The New York Review of Books, 16 Feb. 2023 This description annoys some of the serious players who work and train for months, who develop rare skills, and who abjure alcohol during the competition. —

San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 July 2022 See all Example Sentences for abjure

Recent Examples of Synonyms for abjure

Verb

On June 14, 2024, Putin said Ukraine must also renounce any plans to join NATO.

— Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Jan. 2025
Like the kamikaze pilots in the same story, whose deaths lost their sacred meaning once Emperor Hirohito renounced his divinity after the war, the plotters in 1936 worshipped not a man but a deity.

— Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025