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''exhortation'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

exhortation - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

exhortation (countable and uncountable, plural exhortations)

• The act or practice of exhorting.
  • ✤ All gladly drew round the table, and Mrs. Palmer’s exhortation of “Poor dears, do enjoy yourselves,” was fulfilled, even to her own satisfaction.¹
  • ✤ His exhortations to his assistants to waste no time in getting on with the job, and to be tactful and courteous with those outside the railway service with whom they had to deal, are as apposite today as they were a century ago.²
  • ✤ Earlier on the Other stage on Friday afternoon, Charli XCX took a more straightforward, rabble-rousing approach, a flurry of confetti cannon, inflatables and exhortations to wild hedonism: “I hope everyone gets really fucked up this weekend!”³
• Language intended to give advice or to urge or encourage.
  • ✤ Synonym: counsel
  • ✤ Antonym: admonition
  • ✤ Come good Lorenzo, faryewell a while,
    Ile end my exhortation after dinner.⁴
  • ✤ And ye haue forgotten the exhortation which speaketh vnto you as vnto children, My sonne, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.⁵

Etymology

From Middle English exhortacioun, from Old French exhortacion, from Latin exhortātiōnem,⁶⁷ accusative singular of exhortātiō (“encouraging; exhortation”), from exhortor (“to encourage, exhort”), from ex (“out of, from”) + hortor (“encourage”). By surface analysis, exhort +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌɛɡzɔːˈteɪʃən/, /ˌɛksɔːˈteɪʃən/
• Audio (General American): 🔊
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 47: ↩

2. 1958 August, “More Light on Brunel”, in Railway Magazine, page 516: ↩

3. 2017 June 2, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian ‎${}^{[1]}$, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 April 2023: ↩

4. c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 164, column 1: ↩

5. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 12:5: ↩

6. “exhortāciǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

7. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “exhortation (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩

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