adjuration

[ aj-uh-rey-shuhn ]

noun

1. an earnest request; entreaty.
2. a solemn or desperate urging or counseling:

   an adjuration for all citizens of the beleaguered city to take shelter.

Word History and Origins

Origin of adjuration¹

1605–15; < Latin adjūrātiōn- (stem of adjūrātiō ), equivalent to adjūrāt ( us ), past participle of adjūrāre to adjure + -ion- -ion

Example Sentences

The routine, set to choral music, is rife with supplicant gestures: His body opens up, chest first, to the sky as though in offering, then folds down to the ground in adjuration.

From New York Times

For instance, as he concludes about his mother’s adjuration to maintain his family’s methods of ricing, hunting, sugaring and berry harvesting, “sovereignty isn’t only a legal attitude or a political reality.”

From New York Times

They knew full well the risk they ran, but despite Abu Bakr's adjurations, Mohammad wished to make a supreme effort, and resort to force before leaving his native town.

From Project Gutenberg

Then followed, in order to compel them to act, an adjuration introducing the mystical names, ‘those written at birth in their heart by their father and mother.’

From Project Gutenberg

To the friendly adjuration of John of Chlum he replied with tears that he would willingly revoke anything in which he could be proved to have erred.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• application
• bid
• call
• claim
• demand
• overture
• petition
• plea
• proposal
• question
• suit