What does abjectly mean?
Abjectly is an adverb meaning in an extremely miserable, degraded, or hopeless manner. It intensifies descriptions of poverty, failure, or suffering — someone who is 'abjectly poor' has fallen to the lowest depths of destitution, while a plan that 'fails abjectly' collapses completely and humiliatingly. The word also carries a second sense relating to servility: to behave abjectly is to submit in a cringing, self-abasing way, as when a wrongdoer apologizes abjectly. Derived from the adjective 'abject', which traces back through Old French to the Latin abicere, 'to throw down' or 'cast off', the word literally evokes something hurled to the ground. Abjectly belongs to formal and literary English rather than everyday conversation, and its connotations are unrelentingly bleak — it never describes anything positive. Its power lies in conveying not merely badness but utter, degrading hopelessness.
adverbIn an extremely bad, miserable, or contemptible manner; utterly and hopelessly, as in failing or suffering. It can also describe behaving in a servilely submissive or degradingly humble way.
- In an utterly wretched, hopeless, or degraded manner (e.g. abjectly poor, fail abjectly)
- In a servilely submissive or cringingly humble manner (e.g. apologize abjectly)
"After losing everything in the crash, he lived abjectly in a single rented room."
"The refugees were abjectly poor, surviving on whatever aid reached them."
"He apologized so abjectly that his groveling embarrassed everyone in the room."
Abjectly comes from the Latin for 'thrown down' — the same root that gives us 'dejected', literally 'thrown away' by one's own spirits.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of abjectly
Abjectly derives from the adjective 'abject', which entered English in the early 15th century from Middle French, ultimately from the Latin abiectus, the past participle of abicere, meaning 'to throw down' or 'cast off' (from ab-, 'away', plus iacere, 'to throw'). The adverb form developed later alongside the adjective. It shares this Latin root with related words such as 'deject' (to dispirit) and 'project' (to throw forward), all built on iacere.
Related word forms
How abjectly is actually used
Formal to literary register; strongly negative connotation. Most often modifies adjectives of poverty or failure ('abjectly poor') or verbs of submission ('abjectly apologize'). Rare in casual speech.
Easily confused with abjectly
"Objectly" is not a standard English word; "abjectly" specifically means miserably or submissively, from the Latin abicere (to throw down).