abortive

1. 1.

   failing to accomplish an intended result

   “an abortive revolt”

   “a stillborn plot to assassinate the President”

   Synonymsstillbornunsuccessful

   Similarunfruitful

Questions about abortive

What does abortive mean?

abortive means "failing to accomplish an intended result".

How many syllables are in abortive?

abortive has 3 syllables: a-bor-tive. The stress falls on "bor". In IPA it is /əˈbɔɹtɪv/.

What is another word for abortive?

Close synonyms include stillborn, unsuccessful. 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 abortive a common word?

abortive is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.