Abjection

//æbˈd͡ʒɛk.ʃn̩// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A low or downcast condition; meanness of spirit; abasement; degradation. countable, uncountable

    "an abjection from the beatific regions where God, and his angels and saints, dwell forever"

  2. 2
    a low or downcast state wordnet
  3. 3
    Something cast off; garbage. countable, figuratively, obsolete, uncountable
  4. 4
    The act of bringing down or humbling; casting down. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "The abjection of the king and his realm."

  5. 5
    The act of casting off; rejection. countable, obsolete, uncountable
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  1. 6
    The fact of being marginalized as deviant. countable, uncountable

    "The disclosure of tolerance's hidden phobic lining fits in well with queer theory's embrace of the abject as exhorted by Michael Warner, David Halperin, and Lee Edelman. Embracing difference or culturally ascribed abjection with the aim of overcoming or dissipating it would be both naive and ineffective."

  2. 7
    The act of dispersing or casting off spores. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
abandonabandonmentabasementabasementcorruptednesscorruption

Example

More examples

"Why, without her, society would fall into a state of indolence and degradation, even of utter abjection."

Etymology

From Middle English abjeccioun, from either Middle French abjection or Late Latin abiectiōn-, from Latin abiectus (“cast down”). * See abject.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.