abrupt
/əˈbɹʌpt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.38 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having sudden transitions from one subject or state to another; unconnected; disjointed.
adj
Extremely steep or craggy as if broken up; precipitous.
adj
Suddenly terminating, as if cut off; truncate.
Example Sentences
- "The party came to an abrupt end when the parents of our host arrived."
- "The cause of your abrupt departure."
- "There was something in this abrupt allusion to the treasured and hidden past, that at once shocked and silenced Norbourne. He was annoyed to find that his heart's sweetest secret was in the possession of one so little likely to keep it;..."
- "'Is it a slickstone?' she asks, and Maren snorts, an abrupt sound, bringing her hand up to her mouth."
- "With no great disparity between them in point of years, they were, in every other respect, as unlike and far removed from each other as two men could well be. The one was soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and elegant; the other, a burly square-built man, negligently dressed, rough and abrupt in manner, stern, and, in his present mood, forbidding both in look and speech."
- "The abrupt style, which hath many breaches."
Etymology
First attested in 1583. Borrowed from Latin abruptus (“broken off”), perfect passive participle of abrumpō (“break off”), formed from ab (“from, away from”) + rumpō (“to break”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *Hrewp-, abruptus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈbɹʌpt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more abrupt (comparative)
abrupter (comparative)
most abrupt (superlative)
abruptest (superlative)
abrupts (present, singular)
abrupting (participle, present)
abrupted (participle, past)
abrupted (past)
abrupts (plural)