abort
noun
Abort — the deliberate stopping of something before its completion
Definition
The act of terminating a project or procedure before it is completed; "I wasted a year of my life working on an abort"; "he sent a short message requesting an abort due to extreme winds in the area"
In depth
To abort, used as a noun for the act itself, names the termination of a project, procedure, or mission before it reaches completion, often under pressure of necessity or failure. The word carries a sense of urgency and incompleteness, the abrupt halting of something that was meant, originally, to go all the way through.
Origin
The word descends from Latin abortus, a miscarriage, from ab- (away, amiss) and oriri (to rise or be born) — etymologically, an abort is something that fails to rise or come to birth as intended. That ancient biological root explains why the word, across all its varied modern uses, always retains a faint trace of something that was meant to be born, completed, or achieved, and was not.
Usage examples
"The mission's abort came with only seconds to spare, every system flashing red across the control room."
"After months of preparation, the abrupt abort of the entire project left the team reeling."
"She had wasted a year of work on a venture that ended, in the end, in a quiet, unremarked abort."
How to use it
Used as a noun for the act of stopping something prematurely, 'abort' is most natural in technical, military, and aerospace contexts, where it has a precise procedural meaning. Writers should be aware of its separate and far more sensitive medical sense, which carries significant emotional and political weight and demands careful, deliberate handling.
Related concepts
Looking for a word but don't know its name?
Try the Word Finder →