adduce

verb

ad·​duce ə-ˈdüs How to pronounce adduce (audio)
 also  -ˈdyüs
adduced; adducing

transitive verb

: to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis
adduce evidence in support of a theory
adducer noun

Did you know?

We won't lead you astray over the history of adduce; it is one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root dūcere, which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other dūcere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of kidnap, one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for decrease. There are your leads; here are the answers. They are abduct, duke, and reduce, respectively. There are also many others, including induce, which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."

Examples of adduce in a Sentence

in support of a 12-month school year, the committee adduced data from other school districts
Recent Examples on the Web Among reasons for choosing to shoot in Bilbao-Bizkaia, producers adduced tax credits and subsidies (4.73/5), followed by past experience (4.22/5) and locations (4.08/5). John Hopewell, Variety, 5 Mar. 2024 In the days since, this seemingly straightforward reference to a surprise attack on the innocent and the need to punish its perpetrators has been adduced as evidence of Netanyahu’s genocidal intent. Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2024 The moral problem adduced by their work had been debated by the Los Alamos scientists incessantly from the beginning. Longreads, 20 July 2023 The term could justify both exclusion and engagement: the scourge of heathenism was later adduced as a reason to oppose Chinese immigration to California, and to support the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023 Examples are not difficult to adduce. Joseph Epstein, National Review, 17 Sep. 2020 Last month in Nature Reviews Genetics there was a paper, Measuring selection in contemporary human populations, which reviewed data from various surveys in an attempt to adduce the current trajectory of human evolution. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 11 Oct. 2010 Distinct and less numerous groups, such as Sardinians, may show less ancestral cosmopolitanism in part because the reference populations which could be used to adduce such a state no longer exist. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2012 But they are nicely spanned by classical genetic techniques such as linkage mapping which can adduce regions of the genome of possible interesting in controlling variations in the phenotype. Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 7 June 2011

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'adduce.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English adducen, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French aducer, borrowed from Latin addūcere "to lead or bring (a person or an animal to a place), introduce, bring forward," from ad- ad- + dūcere "to lead" — more at tow entry 1

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of adduce was in the 15th century

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Dictionary Entries Near adduce

Cite this Entry

“Adduce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adduce. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

adduce

verb
ad·​duce ə-ˈd(y)üs How to pronounce adduce (audio)
adduced; adducing
: to offer as example, reason, or proof

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