abdicate
verb
Did you know?
Give it up for abdicate, a word powerful enough to undo a coronation. If you need a term to describe formally throwing in the towel, this one should prove—perhaps ironically—a royal success. Coming from the prefix ab- (meaning “from,” “away,” or “off”) and the Latin verb dīcere (meaning “to speak”), abdicate is used primarily for those who give up sovereign power or who evade a very serious responsibility. English has dīcere to thank for a hodgepodge of other words, among them dictate, contradict, prediction, and the crown jewel of them all: dictionary.
Did you know?
Should you abdicate, abrogate, abjure, or just resign?
Several words may be confused with abdicate through either a similarity of sound or of meaning. Among these are abrogate, abjure, and resign. All of these words have multiple meanings that are quite distinct from one another, yet each also has a degree of semantic overlap that renders them nearly synonymous with at least one of the others.
Abdicate is most often used to describe a head of state or member of a royal family voluntarily renouncing a position. It may also refer to the act of failing to fulfill a duty a responsibility. It shares this second meaning with abrogate (although the “failing to fulfill one’s duty” sense of this word is more common in the United Kingdom than in the United States). The senses of abrogate most commonly found are “to annul” or “to do away with.”
Abjure may be used to mean “to abstain from” or “to give up,” but often is used with the meaning of “to disclaim formally or renounce upon oath” (it comes from the Latin jurare, meaning “to swear”).
And finally, resign is often used with the meaning of “to give up one’s office or position.”
Despite the similarities among these words, they tend to be used in fairly specific settings. You would not typically tell your employer that you are abdicating your position in order to look for a better job; you would say that you are resigning. And when the king of a country renounces his claim on the throne to marry his one true love, he would be said to abdicate, rather than resign, his position.
Synonyms
Examples of abdicate in a Sentence
Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill, 30 Oct. 2024
Wallis, an American, was twice divorced when King Edward VIII chose her over the British throne, abdicating on Dec. 11, 1936 and eventually marrying her the next year, on June 3, 1937.
—Rachel Burchfield, People.com, 28 Oct. 2024
Trump administration officials believed that Maduro was close to abdicating the presidency, maybe even fleeing to Cuba.
—Zach Dorfman, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2024
In turn, the E.U. has repeatedly censured Hungary for abdicating its humanitarian responsibilities.
—Frey Lindsay, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for abdicate 
Dictionary Entries Near abdicate
Cite this Entry
“Abdicate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abdicate. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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abdicate
verb
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