Dehortative

//diːˈhɔːtətɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Anything that serves to dissuade; a disincentive or discouragement.

    "My father taking me to see Dr. Raine, Master of the Charter House, the doctor, who was very kind and pleasant, but who probably drew none of our deductions in favour of the young writer's abilitites, warned me against the perils of authorship; adding, as a final dehortative, that " the shelves were full.""

  2. 2
    A syntactic marker, word, or phrase that indicates a dehortative sense.

    "The dehortative is essentially a negative imperative in most cases, but can be used with all persons in the sense of 'should not', 'must not' or 'let not'."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Dissuasive.

    "But the words of the Apostle (it will be said) are exhortative and dehortative."

  2. 2
    Indicating a negative imperative or cautionary sense.

    "The dehortative verb typically occurs preceding a subordinate verb, as Samoan ? aua ne ?i galo, Maori kaua e wareware 'don't forget!'."

Example

More examples

"But the words of the Apostle (it will be said) are exhortative and dehortative."

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