abject

1. 1.

   of the most contemptible kind

   “abject cowardice”

   “a low stunt to pull”

   “a low-down sneak”

   “his miserable treatment of his family”

   “You miserable skunk!”

   “a scummy rabble”

   “a scurvy trick”

   Synonymslowlow-downmiserablescummyscurvy

   Similarcontemptible
2. 2.

   most unfortunate or miserable

   “the most abject slaves joined in the revolt”

   “abject poverty”

   Similarunfortunate
3. 3.

   showing utter resignation or hopelessness

   “abject surrender”

   Synonymsunhopeful

   Similarhopeless
4. 4.

   showing humiliation or submissiveness

   “an abject apology”

   Similarsubmissive

Other forms of abject

comparative

abjecter·

superlative

abjectest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about abject

What does abject mean?

abject means "of the most contemptible kind". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in abject?

abject has 2 syllables: ab-ject. The stress falls on "ab". In IPA it is /ˈæbdʒɛkt/.

What is another word for abject?

Close synonyms include low, low-down, miserable, scummy, scurvy. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is abject a common word?

abject is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.