• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈbɔːt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈbɔɹt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t

From Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior (“miscarry”), formed from ab + orior (“come into being”). Doublet of abortus.

abort (plural aborts)

1. (military, aeronautics) An early termination of a mission, action, or procedure in relation to missiles or spacecraft; the craft making such a mission.

   We've had aborts on three of our last seven launches.

2. (computing) The function used to abort a process.
3. (computing) An event in which a process is aborted.

   We've had three aborts over the last two days.

4. (now rare) The product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion. [First attested in the early 17^th century.]
5. (obsolete) A miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion. [Attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the mid 17^th century.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vi:

     In Japonia 'tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abort, which Aristotle commends.

• → Polish: abort
• → Portuguese: abort

From Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri (“miscarry”), from ab- (“not”) + oriri (“come into being, arise, appear”).

abort (third-person singular simple present aborts, present participle aborting, simple past and past participle aborted)

1. (intransitive, now rare outside medicine) To miscarry; to bring forth (non-living) offspring prematurely. [First attested in the mid 16^th century.]
   • 1785, Henry Morris, Surgical Diseases of the Kidney, page 458:

     Women have aborted, men have committed suicide, and both men and women have been thrown into convulsions during the fearful agony of renal colic.

   • 1983, M. D. Bennett, Chromosomes Today: Volume 8 Proceedings of the Eighth International Chromosome Conference, page 346:

     In the study group ll patients aborted spontaneously between the 17th and 20th gestational week and 8 patients aborted after the 21st week.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term. [Attested since at least the 19^th century.]
   • 1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 236:

     "Of course, you can't abort yourself...I mean you positively can't be allowed to. To begin with it's a crime."

3. (transitive) To end prematurely; to stop in the preliminary stages; to turn back. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
4. (intransitive) To stop or fail at something in the preliminary stages. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]
5. (intransitive, biology) To become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to cease organic growth before maturation; to become sterile. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]
6. (transitive, biology) To cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]
7. (intransitive, military) To abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion. [First attested in the mid 20^th century.]
   • 2022, Michael & Stefan Strasser, Chicken Wings‎^[1] (comic):

     First he aborts the take-off and now we have a runway incursion!

8. (transitive, aeronautics) To terminate a mission involving a missile or rocket; to destroy a missile or rocket prematurely. [First attested in the mid 20^th century.]
9. (transitive, computing) To terminate a process prior to completion.

• (computing) abend, exception

• “abort”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• JP 1-02 Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
• “abort” in "Systems and software engineering—vocabulary", ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2010(E), 15 December 2010, →ISBN, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2010.5733835

• rabot, Bator, Tobar, Tabor, tobra, Barot, Barto, Torba, boart, ORBAT, tabor

From English abort, from Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri (“miscarry”), from ab- (“not”) + oriri (“come into being, arise, appear”).

• Hyphenation: a‧bort

abort

1. to abort; to cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term

From Latin abortus.

abort

1. abort, abortion

• Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎^[2], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ^cs

• abortus

• IPA^(key): [ˈabort]

abort m inan

1. (medicine) abortion (expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed)

   Synonym: potrat

• “abort”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “abort”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “abort”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025
• “abort”, in Akademický slovník současné češtiny, 2012–2025, slovnikcestiny.cz

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ^da

• IPA^(key): /abʌɐ̯t/
• Rhymes: -ʌɐ̯t

abort c (singular definite aborten, plural indefinite aborter)

1. abortion
2. miscarriage

From German Abort.

• IPA^(key): /ɑˈb̥ort/
• Rhymes: -ort

abort (genitive abordi, partitive aborti)

1. abortion

   Mu tüdruk tahab aborti teha.

   My girl wants an abortion.

2. miscarriage

• abort in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ^nb

From Latin abortus (“premature delivery, abortion; miscarriage”), perfect active participle of aborior (“I disappear; miscarry, am aborted (of a baby)”), a compound from both ab- (“from, away from, off”), from Latin ab (“from, away from, on, in”), from Proto-Italic *ab, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”) + and from orior (“I rise, appear, am born”), from Proto-Italic *orjōr, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir, rise, spring”).

• IPA^(key): /aˈbɔʈ/, /aˈbɔʁt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔʈ, -ɔʁt, -ɔrt
• Hyphenation: ab‧ort

abort m (definite singular aborten, indefinite plural aborter, definite plural abortene)

1. (medicine) an abortion (termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable outside the uterus)

   Synonyms: misfødsel, fosterdrap, svangerskapsavbrytelse, svangerskapsavbrudd

   illegal abort ― illegal abortion

   provosert abort ― provoked abortion

2. (medicine) a miscarriage (abortion that occurs by itself)

   Synonym: spontanabort

   ha en abort ― have an abortion

   ta abort ― induce abortion

   habituell abort ― habitual abortion (the miscarriage of 3 or more consecutive pregnancies)

   • 1840 June 23, Den Norske Rigstidende, page 2:

     mange mene, at hensigten [med attentatet] kun har været at forskrække dronningen og derved foraarsage en abort

     many believe that the intention [of the assassination] was only to frighten the queen and thereby cause an abortion

   • 1977, Conrad N. Schwach, Erindringer af mit Liv indtil Ankomsten til Throndhjem, page 298:

     hun havde hørt, at ægteskaber, hvori det første svangerskab endte med abort, som oftest bleve barnløse

     she had heard that marriages in which the first pregnancy ended in abortion often became childless

   • 1977, Conrad N. Schwach, Erindringer af mit Liv indtil Ankomsten til Throndhjem, page 295:

     min kone, som efter aborten længe havde været svag, blev frisk igjen

     my wife, who had been weak for a long time after the abortion, recovered

   • 1996, Ketil Bjørnstad, Historien om Edvard Munch, page 337:

     maleriet [var ikke] noe maleri i det hele tatt, men en abort

     the painting [was] not a painting at all, but an abortion

3. (medicine) an abortion (termination of pregnancy induced by surgery or medication)

   Synonyms: abortus provocatus, fosterfordrivelse, utskrapning

   foreta en abort ― perform an abortion

   kjønnsbetinget abort ― gendered abortion

   selvbestemt abort ― self-determined abortion (artificial abortion that a pregnant woman may require performed by the end of the 12th week of pregnancy, according to Norwegian law)

   • 1973, Tor Edvin Dahl, Guds tjener, page 136:

     foreldrene sendte ham to tusen kroner og det ble ordnet med illegal abort

     his parents sent him two thousand kroner and an illegal abortion was arranged

   • 1975, Liv Køltzow, Historien om Eli, page 119:

     hun var helt desperat av redsel for at hun ikke skulle få innvilget aborten

     she was desperate for fear that she would not be granted an abortion

   • 1976, Mette Hansen, Kasino, page 33:

     Brita var en av foregangskvinnene for selvbestemt abort

     Brita was one of the pioneers of self-determined abortion

   • 1990, Kåre Willoch, Statsminister, page 53:

     de sterkeste og mest innflytelsesrike motstandere av selvbestemt abort

     the strongest and most influential opponents of self-determined abortion

4. (medicine, now rare) a premature foetus
5. (technology) the act of aborting

   Synonym: abortere

• abortus (“abortion, monstrosity”)
• abortiv (“abortive”)
• abortør (“abortionist”)
• fosterreduksjon (“fetal reduction”)

• “abort” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “abort” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “abort” in Store medisinske leksikon

• abrot, borat

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ⁿⁿ

From Latin abortus.

abort m (definite singular aborten, indefinite plural abortar, definite plural abortane)

1. abortion (induced)
2. miscarriage (spontaneous)

   Synonym: spontanabort

• spontan abort, spontanabort

• “abort” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ^pl

Borrowed from English abort.

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.bɔrt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -abɔrt
• Syllabification: a‧bort

abort m inan

1. (medicine) abortion (act of inducing abortion)

   Synonym: aborcja

   Coordinate term: poronienie

2. (computing) force quit, closing (act of stopping a program)

• abort in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• abort in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English abort.

abort m (plural aborts)

1. (computing) abort (function used to abort a process)

   Synonym: abortamento

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

abort

Wikipedia ^sv

abort c

1. abort, abortion (the process of ending a pregnancy)

   Hon gjorde abort

   She had an abortion

2. (obsolete) an abort, a miscarriage

   Synonyms: missfall, spontanabort

• abortförsök (“attempted abortion”)
• abortpiller (“abortion pill”)
• spontanabort (“miscarriage”)

• abortera
• abortiv

• → Finnish: abortti

• abort in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• abort in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• abort in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• abort in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (8th ed., 1923)

• borta, botar

abort

1. Latin spelling of аборт (abort)