espouse

9 synonyms and 3 antonyms for espouse, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Verb — To adopt a belief, cause or way of life and openly support it.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

adopt support champion marry follow

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

embrace advocate wed

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

conjoin

Synonyms by Meaning

1. verb

To adopt a belief, cause or way of life and openly support it.

“The party espoused free trade long before it became popular.”

adopt support champion embrace advocate conjoin wed marry follow

Opposites

reject renounce abandon

2. verb archaic

To marry someone.

“She was espoused to a cousin she had never met.”

marry wed

How to use espouse

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

espouse a cause espouse the view that espouse principles publicly espouse

Formal, mostly written. Very common in political and academic prose; you would rarely say it in conversation.

Etymology

From Old French espouser, from Latin sponsare 'to betroth', from spondere 'to promise'. The sense of committing oneself to a cause grew out of the older sense of committing oneself in marriage.

Full origin of espouse →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between espouse and endorse?

To espouse a view is to take it on as your own and argue for it over time. To endorse something is to give it your public approval, often briefly and often for someone else's benefit, as when a celebrity endorses a brand. Espousing implies belief; endorsing only implies backing.

Is espouse related to spouse?

Yes, directly. Both go back to Latin spondere 'to promise' by way of the word for a betrothed person, and espouse originally meant to marry. The modern meaning keeps the idea of a binding public commitment, transferred from a person to a cause.

Can you espouse a person?

Only in the old marriage sense, which now reads as deliberately archaic. In current English the object of espouse is an idea, doctrine, principle or cause.

People also searched

support follow champion marry adopt advocate embrace reject abandon wed renounce conjoin

Nearby words

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