abstention
UK/əbˈstɛn.ʃn̩//æbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/
abstention noun: the act of restraining oneself.
Noun
abstention (countable and uncountable, plural abstentions)
- The act of restraining oneself.
- The act of abstaining or refraining (from).
- abstention from alcohol
- abstention from sex
- The act of declining to vote on a particular issue.
- There were five abstentions in the vote.
- Non-participation in the political world; as a country avoiding international affairs.
abstention meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
abstention in Hindi
- abstention, abstaining
- परहेज़ parhez
abstention in Tamil
- விலகி நிற்றல், தவிர்த்திருத்தல், வாக்குரிமை செலுத்தாதிருத்தல், நடுநிலைமை தாங்குதல்
abstention in Urdu
- abstention, evasion, go by
- اجتناب ijtināb
abstention in Malayalam
- വോട്ടുചെയ്യാതിരിക്കൽ, ഒഴിഞ്ഞുനിൽക്കൽ, മനോജയം, വോട്ട് ചെയ്യാതിരിക്കൽ, വാങ്ങുന്നതിൽ നിന്ന് വിട്ടു നിൽക്കുക, പുച്ഛിക്കാതിരിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- abstention in Kannada
- ವರ್ಜನೆ, ವಿಮುಖತೆ, ಸೇರದಿರುವುದು, ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರುವುದು
- abstention in Arabic
- اِمْتِنَاع imtināʕ, إِمْسَاك ʔimsāk
Forms of abstention
| plural | abstentions |
|---|
Origin of abstention
First attested in 1521. Borrowed from French abstention, from Late Latin abstēntiō from Latin abstinēō (“withhold, to abstain”)
Words formed from abstention
Phrases with abstention
Questions about abstention
- What does abstention mean?
- Abstention means the act of restraining oneself.
- What is abstention in Hindi?
- Abstention in Hindi is परहेज़ (parhez). See Abstention meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is abstention?
- Abstention is a noun.
- How do you pronounce abstention?
- Abstention is pronounced /əbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/ (UK).
- What is the plural of abstention?
- The plural of abstention is abstentions.
Words near abstention in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abstention (page history and authors); परहेज़ (Hindi) (page history and authors); abstention (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اجتناب (Urdu) (page history and authors); abstention (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abstention (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-abstention.ogg.
Cite this entry: “abstention.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abstention. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.