What does adjured mean?
"Adjured" is the past tense of the formal verb "adjure," meaning to command or earnestly urge someone to do something with the gravity of an oath. When a person has been adjured, they have been charged under a solemn appeal — often invoking honor, duty, or conscience — to carry out an action. The word appears most often in literary, historical, legal, and religious contexts: a monarch might be adjured by dying words to protect the realm, or a witness adjured by a court to speak truthfully. Its tone is elevated and ceremonial, far stronger than a simple request but distinct from outright coercion. English borrowed it from the Latin adiurare, "to swear to" or "conjure by," which also gives us related words such as "abjure," "conjure," and "perjury." Because of its rarity outside formal writing, "adjured" lends any sentence a sense of gravity and antiquity, making it a useful word for writers seeking a deliberately weighty register.
verbPast tense of "adjure": to command or urge someone solemnly, as if under oath, to do something.
- To have commanded or earnestly urged someone to do something, with the solemnity of an oath.
- (Archaic/legal) To have put someone under oath; to have administered an oath to someone.
"The judge adjured the witness to tell the whole truth."
"The dying king adjured his sons never to quarrel over the throne."
"She adjured the committee to act before the deadline passed."
When you adjure someone, you're not just asking — you're putting them under an invisible oath, a verbal ritual inherited straight from Latin courtroom oaths.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of adjured
"Adjured" derives from the Latin verb adiurare, formed from ad- ("to, toward") plus iurare ("to swear"), literally meaning "to swear to" or "to put under oath." It entered English via Old French in the late Middle Ages, initially in legal and religious contexts where oaths carried binding force. It shares its Latin root ius/iurare (law, oath) with cognates such as "abjure," "conjure," "perjury," and "adjuration."
Related word forms
How adjured is actually used
Formal and literary in register; rare in everyday speech. It carries a weighty, almost ceremonial connotation — the speaker appeals to something sacred, binding, or deeply serious rather than merely requesting.
Easily confused with adjured
"Abjured" means to have renounced or sworn off something (a belief, a practice), while "adjured" means to have solemnly urged or commanded someone else to do something.