Word.ws English Dictionary

abuses

/əˈbjuːsɪz/

abuses is the plural of abuse.

abuses is the third-person singular simple present indicative of abuse.

Meaning of abuse

Noun

abuse (countable and uncountable, plural abuses)

  1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.
    • human rights abuses
    Synonyms:
    abusage
  2. Misuse; improper use; perversion.
    • Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.1788, James Madison, Federalist, Number 63
  3. (obsolete) A delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.
    • Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act IV, scene VII
  4. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.
    • children hurling abuse at each other
  5. (archaic) Catachresis.
    Synonyms:
    abusio
  6. Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.

See all 15 meanings of abuse

Phrases with abuses

Questions about abuses

What is abuses the plural of?
Abuses is the plural of abuse.
How do you pronounce abuses?
Abuses is pronounced /əˈbjuːsɪz/.

Words near abuses in the dictionary

  1. abuseless
  2. abusement
  3. abusements
  4. abuser
  5. abusers
  6. abuses
  7. abuses of discretion
  8. abuses of notation
  9. abuses of process
  10. abusest
  11. abuseth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: abuses (page history and authors); abuse (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-abuses.ogg.

Cite this entry: “abuses.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abuses. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.