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renounce

UK/ɹɪˈnaʊns/US/ɹɪˈnaʊns/
verbC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,473 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: renounced, renouncing, renounces

To renounce is to formally give up a claim, title or belief. Renounce the throne, renounce violence, renounce citizenship.

It is public and deliberate: renouncing citizenship is a legal act with paperwork, and renouncing violence is a political statement. It is stronger than abandon because it announces itself — the announce is literally inside the word. Note renunciation, which is the noun and is spelt with a u; and that renounce is used in card games for failing to follow suit, which is an entirely technical sense.

Definitions of renounce

  1. 1verbrenounceTo formally give up a claim, title or belief.C1

    “He renounced his right to the throne so that he could marry the woman he loved.”

renounce is a formal giving up.

Where it comes from

Latin renuntiare is re- plus nuntiare, to announce, from nuntius, a messenger. Announce, denounce and pronounce are the same messenger, so to renounce is to announce back.

  1. Latin

    renūntiō

  2. Old French

    renoncier

  3. English, today

    renounce

From Old French renoncier (French renoncer), from Latin renūntiō. a doublet of renunciate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

Practise this word

renounce in the wild

  • The governor of the city attempted to persuade her to renounce Christianity, but she refused.

    Saint Theoclia

  • Augustus had to renounce his claims to the Polish throne and his alliance with Russia.

    Treaty of Altranstädt (1706)

  • Among the charges made against them were preaching a new faith, converting Hindus, encouraging women to renounce and thereby undermining family life, and writing books in Newari.

    Banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal

  • The intention of the 1944 Act was to encourage Japanese American internees to renounce citizenship so that they could be deported to Japan.

    Renunciation Act of 1944

  • The Jabala Upanishad presents the Vedanta philosophy view that one who truly renounces lives an ethical life, which includes not injuring anyone in thought, word or deed.

    Jabala Upanishad

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.