Abduction refers to the act of taking someone away by force or, in biology, the movement of a limb away from the body's midline. It is a formal, technical term used in law, medicine, and science, with precise meanings depending on context. The word combines Latin roots and is commonly encountered in academic and professional discourse.
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US: /æbˈdʌk.ʃən/ with clear /d/ and relaxed /ən/; emphasize mid-second syllable vowel /ʌ/. UK: /ˌæbˈdʌk.ʃən/ and occasional secondary stress on the prefix in formal read-alouds; keep non-rhotic r-sound unaffected. AU: /ˈæb.dʌk.ʃən/ or /ˈæbˌdʌk.ʃən/; tends to crisper consonants and less vowel length variation; maintain the same /æ/ and /ʌ/ sequence, but with a more even tempo. IPA references: US /æbˈdʌk.ʃən/, UK /ˌæbˈdʌk.ʃən/, AU /ˈæb.dʌk.ʃən/.
"The suspect was subjected to abduction by unknown assailants."
"In anatomy, abduction of the arm raises it laterally away from the body."
"The court issued a warning against child abduction."
"Abduction can be a central theme in crime novels and forensic discussions."
Abduction comes from the Latin ab- meaning away from and ducere meaning to lead or draw. The verb ducere yields forms like duct, deduce, and conduct. The noun abduction emerged in English in legal and anatomical registers in the 18th–19th centuries as scholars began to describe movements of limbs and forces away from the midline or a person’s body. In anatomy, the term was refined to denote a specific angular movement of a body part away from the midline, such as arm abduction. The general sense of “carrying away by force” has long appeared in law and crime writing, while scientific and medical texts adopted the term to distinguish from adduction (movement toward the midline). The word’s inflected forms and related terms (abduct, abductee/abductor) reflect its Latin roots, with the core meaning of drawing away retained across contexts. First known English uses appear in dictionaries and medical texts from the 19th century onward, expanding in criminology and physiology through the 20th century to contemporary usage in textbooks and legal writing.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "abduction" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "abduction"
-ion sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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Pronounce as /æbˈdʌk.ʃən/ (US) or /ˌæbˈdʌk.ʃən/ (UK). The primary stress is on the second syllable: a-BDUK-tion. The vowel in the first syllable is the short 'a' as in cat, the middle syllable begins with a clear 'd' followed by a 'ʌ' like 'dook' without adding extra vowels, and ends with 'tion' sounding like -shən. Keep the 'b' light and the 'k' crisp. Practice with: ab-DUCK-shun.
Common errors include stressing the wrong syllable (emphasizing the first syllable: AB-duc-tion) and blending the middle consonant cluster too quickly, producing 'ab-duc-shun' or 'ab-DUHK-shun.' Another frequent mistake is pronouncing the -tion as 'tian' or 'tion' with a separate 't' sound. Correct by practicing the sequence /æb/ + /ˈdʌk/ + /ʃən/, ensuring the 'd' and 'ʌ' are clearly separated and the final 'ʃən' is light and quick.
US: /æbˈdʌk.ʃən/, rhotic with clear 'r' absence not affecting this word. UK: /ˌæbˈdʌk.ʃən/, slight secondary stress tilt possible on the prefix in careful speech; vowel quality tends to shorter, crisper. AU: /ˈæb.dʌk.ʃən/ or /ˈæbˌdʌk.ʃən/, with a more even vowel length and a tendency toward a flatter intonation. The main differences are the placement of secondary stress and subtle vowel length, not a change in core phonemes /æ, d, ʌ, ʃ, ə, n/.
It challenges your ability to coordinate a sequence of sounds: a front lax vowel /æ; the alveolar stop /d/; the central-angled /ʌ/; the affricate-like /k/ followed by /ʃ/ (as in -dʌk.ʃən). The 'bd' cluster in rapid speech can blur, and the unstressed -tion reduces to /ʃən/, which some speakers mispronounce as /tən/. Achieve accuracy by isolating each sound, then linking them with a light, controlled transition from /d/ to /ʃ/.
There is no silent letter in abduction. All letters contribute to the pronunciation: a-b-d-u-c-t-i-o-n correspond to /æ-bˈdʌk.ʃən/. The 'u' and 'o' influence vowel sounds across syllables, and the 't' is pronounced as a clear /t/ before the /ʃ/ cluster. Ensure every letter is voiced in context, particularly the /d/ and /ʃ/ transition.
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