Abdication

Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio, disowning, renouncing, from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one) is the act of renouncing and resigning from a formal office, especially from the supreme office of state. (Although in Roman law the term was applied to the disowning of a family member, as the disinheriting of a son.) A similar term for an elected or appointed official is resignation.

See also

• Lists of incumbents
• List of monarchs who lost their thrones or abdicated in the 20th century
• Papal abdication
• The Great Abdication - term used in Christian theology and the title of a book by Alexander Deane