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abstention.

The act of restraining oneself.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/Received-Pronunciation/æbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/US/əbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/US/æbˈstɛn.t͡ʃn̩/US
  1. The act of restraining oneself.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  2. The act of abstaining or refraining (from).

    countable · uncountable
    abstention from alcohol
    abstention from sex
  3. The act of declining to vote on a particular issue.

    countable · uncountable
    There were five abstentions in the vote.
  4. Non-participation in the political world; as a country avoiding international affairs.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

First attested in 1521. Borrowed from French abstention, from Late Latin abstēntiō from Latin abstinēō (“withhold, to abstain”)

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.