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abuse

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Improper treatment or usage.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhbyoos

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əbˈjus

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.

  2. Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.

  3. Misuse; improper use; perversion.

  4. Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.

  5. Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.

verb

  1. transitive

    To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert

  2. transitive

    To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.

  3. transitive

    To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.

  4. transitive

    To imbibe a drug for a purpose other than it was intended; to intentionally take more of a drug than was prescribed for recreational reasons; to take illegal drugs habitually.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.

This 'abuse' means misusing something, like a privilege, drug, or position, for a wrong or harmful purpose. It implies a violation of trust or proper conduct. It's a serious word, often used in legal, medical, or ethical contexts.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where you'll really hear it

  • Public Policy Discussion

    “The new regulations aim to prevent the abuse of power.”

  • Medical Context

    “Drug abuse can have devastating long-term health consequences.”

  • Ethics Committee Meeting

    “Measures were implemented to stop the abuse of company resources.”

Nearby words

  • contumely , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use abuse

  • “The child showed signs of physical abuse.”noun
  • “When a student made a stupid mistake he spared them no abuse.”noun
  • “The actress abused the policeman who gave her a parking ticket.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Physical / cruel

substance abusephysical abuse

Violation

sexual abuse

Other combinations

child abusedrug abusealcohol abuseelder abuseverbal abuse

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • abusedadjectiveInflected form

    Subjected to cruel treatment.

  • abusernounInflected form

    Someone who abuses.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • child abusenounCompound term

    The physical or emotional or sexual mistreatment of children.

  • drug abusenounCompound term

    Excessive use of drugs.

  • self-abusenounCompound term

    Manual stimulation of your own genital organ for sexual pleasure.

  • sexual abusenounCompound term

    A statutory offense that provides that it is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat.

  • substance abusenounCompound term

    Excessive use of drugs.

  • substance abusernounCompound term

    A person who takes drugs.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: improper treatment or usage

contumelyRareblackguardArchaic

verb

Sense: to put to a wrong use

pervert

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.