Athletes usually abstain from smoking.
Source: tatoeba (26542)
Abstain
//əbˈsteɪn//
Synonyms for "abstain" (62 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (13)
Strong matches (18)
Related words (31)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
5 entriesAntonyms
1 entriesSynonyms
7 entriesRelated terms
3 entriesderived
5 entriesetymologically related_to
1 entriesmanner of
1 entriesrelated to
7 entriesTranslations
96 translations across 40 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- اِمْتَنَعَ verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Armenian
1 entries- ձեռնպահ լինել verb (refrain from voting)
Bangi
1 entries- kila verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Bulgarian
1 entries- въздържам се verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Catalan
1 entries- abstenir-se verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Chinese Mandarin
3 entries- 戒除 verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- 棄權 /弃权 verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- 避免 verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Czech
2 entries- zdržet se verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- zdržet se verb (refrain from voting)
Danish
4 entries- afholde sig verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- afholde sig (fra at stemme) verb (refrain from voting)
- afstå verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- forhindre verb (hinder, withhold)
Dutch
4 entries- abstineren verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- verhinderen verb (hinder, withhold)
- zich onthouden verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- zich onthouden (van stemming) verb (refrain from voting)
Esperanto
1 entries- abstini verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Finnish
4 entries- estää verb (hinder, withhold)
- kieltäytyä verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- pidättäytyä verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- äänestää tyhjää verb (refrain from voting)
French
2 entries- s'abstenir verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- s'abstenir verb (refrain from voting)
German
3 entries- abhalten verb (hinder, withhold)
- sich enthalten verb (refrain from voting)
- verzichten verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Gothic
1 entries- 𐌲𐌰𐌸𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌰𐌽 verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Hebrew
3 entries- התנזר verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- נמנע verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- נמנע verb (refrain from voting)
Hungarian
3 entries- (meg)tartóztatja magát verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- tartózkodik verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- tartózkodik verb (refrain from voting)
Ido
1 entries- abstenar verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Italian
2 entries- astenersi verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- astenersi verb (refrain from voting)
Japanese
3 entries- 差し控える verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- 慎む verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- 投票を棄権する verb (refrain from voting)
Lao
1 entries- ງົດອອກສຽງ verb (refrain from voting)
Latin
1 entries- abstineo verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Lingala
1 entries- kila verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Mongo
1 entries- kila verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Māori
4 entries- papare verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- pare verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- tātāwhi verb (hinder, withhold)
- tāwhi verb (hinder, withhold)
Norwegian Bokmål
4 entries- abstinere verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- avholde seg verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- avstå verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- forhindre verb (hinder, withhold)
Old English
1 entries- forbūgan verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Polish
4 entries- powstrzymać się verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- powstrzymywać się verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- wstrzymać się verb (refrain from voting)
- wstrzymywać się verb (refrain from voting)
Portuguese
4 entries- abster-se verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- abster-se verb (refrain from voting)
- impedir verb (hinder, withhold)
- privar-se verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Romanian
1 entries- abține verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Russian
2 entries- возде́рживаться verb (refrain from voting)
- воздержа́ться verb (refrain from voting)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- apstinírati verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- apstinírati verb (refrain from voting)
- sustezati verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- suzdržávati verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Sinhalese
1 entries- වළකිනවා verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Slovene
1 entries- vzdržati se verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Spanish
3 entries- abstenerse verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- abstenerse verb (refrain from voting)
- retener verb (hinder, withhold)
Swedish
4 entries- avhålla sig verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- avstå verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- hindra verb (hinder, withhold)
- lägga ned sin röst verb (refrain from voting)
Thai
1 entries- งดออกเสียง verb (refrain from voting)
Tày
1 entries- căm verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Ukrainian
4 entries- утри́матися verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- утри́матися verb (refrain from voting)
- утри́муватися verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
- утри́муватися verb (refrain from voting)
West-Frisian
3 entries- behinderje verb (hinder, withhold)
- ferhinderje verb (hinder, withhold)
- keare verb (hinder, withhold)
Woiwurrung
1 entries- nin'wilt-teni verb (refrain from — see also refrain)
Sample sentences
17 total sentences available.
The doctor advised him to abstain from drinking.
Source: tatoeba (27934)
The doctor has ordered the patient to abstain from wine.
Source: tatoeba (27998)
My father tries to abstain from drinking.
Source: tatoeba (251670)
Showing 4 of 17 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.