Abduction

How to spell abduction

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce abduction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does abduction mean?

1. nounThe act of taking someone away unlawfully by force or deception.
2. nounThe movement of a limb or part away from the midline of the body.

Abduction in a sentence

• The detectives treated the disappearance as a possible abduction.

• The physiotherapist measured the abduction of his injured shoulder.

• The prosecutor outlined the alleged abduction during the opening statement.

• Raising the arm sideways is an example of abduction at the joint.

Where does abduction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin abductio, a noun built on the verb abducere, which meant 'to lead away' or 'to carry off'. That verb joined the prefix ab-, meaning 'away from', to ducere, the everyday Latin verb 'to lead' or 'to draw'. The same ducere root surfaces in a whole family of English words such as conduct, induce, produce and aqueduct, so the buried 'duct' spelling is a reliable anchor when you write abduction. English adopted the word in the early 1600s, first in the literal sense of physically leading or dragging a person away, and it soon settled into its modern meaning of carrying someone off unlawfully. Anatomists later borrowed the same Latin logic for the movement of a limb away from the body's midline, keeping the original 'leading away' idea intact.

How the word is built

• ab- (away)
• duct (from Latin ducere: to lead)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)