abuts

Abuts is the third-person singular present tense of the verb abut, meaning to touch or be adjacent to something along a boundary. It is commonly used to describe how two features such as parcels of land, streets, buildings, or natural features are positioned in relation to each other.

Usage is frequent in real estate, planning, surveying, and geography, where abutting describes a boundary contact rather than merely being nearby. For example, “The property abuts a municipal park” implies a shared boundary. The verb can describe relationships between larger features as well: “The property abuts the river.” It is often used transitively, with the thing that abuts serving as the direct object, or intransitively with a prepositional phrase, as in “The yard abuts on the river” or “The yard abuts the river.”

Etymology traces abut to Old French abouter, from a- (toward) + bout (end, edge), reflecting the sense of touching at a boundary. Related forms include abutting (adjective) and abutment (noun), which appear in engineering and architectural contexts to describe the boundary contact or the supporting structure at a boundary.

See also: adjoin, adjacency, border, boundary, contiguity, abutment.