Word of the Day: abjure

The word abjure has appeared in three articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 15 in the book review “Courtly Love Can Be Deadly” by Tina Brown:

… One of the saddest things about Mary was that her attempt to forge a marriage with Philip of Spain was conducted with all the artifice of courtly love — but she herself longed only for the real thing.

Better by far for a female monarch to abjure marriage altogether, revive Arthurian myth and be feted by her knights as an eternal belle dame sans merci. That’s the choice that Elizabeth I famously made, though for two decades of her 45-year reign there was constant pressure to make the right political match. As Gristwood writes: “The courtly lady was meant to be capricious, demanding, testing her lover’s utter fidelity. Caprice and demand were Elizabeth’s specialty.”

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word abjure in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how abjure can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.