adore

verb

ə-ˈdȯr 

adored; adoring

transitive verb

1

: to worship or honor as a deity or as divine

2

: to regard with loving admiration and devotion

He adored his wife.

3

: to be very fond of

adores pecan pie

adorer noun

Synonyms of adore

• love

Choose the Right Synonym for adore

revere, reverence, venerate, worship, adore mean to honor and admire profoundly and respectfully.

revere stresses deference and tenderness of feeling.

a professor revered by her students

reverence presupposes an intrinsic merit and inviolability in the one honored and a similar depth of feeling in the one honoring.

reverenced the academy's code of honor

venerate implies a holding as holy or sacrosanct because of character, association, or age.

heroes still venerated

worship implies homage usually expressed in words or ceremony.

worships their memory

adore implies love and stresses the notion of an individual and personal attachment.

we adored our doctor

Examples of adore in a Sentence

He's a good doctor. All his patients adore him.

They adored shopping in all the boutiques.

Recent Examples on the Web

To adore the literary greats but reject any modicum of pretension? — Adrienne Lafrance, The Atlantic, 28 June 2026

That’s how the Utah Jazz marketing department publicized the online sale of Darryn Peterson jerseys to adoring fans eager to purchase the uniform of the team’s first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. — Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 28 June 2026

He has been adored, sanitized, revived, pathologized, sentimentalized, and combed for polite company. — Literary Hub, 26 June 2026

Wonderfully and terribly, everything does happen for Maddie after her adoring bear of a husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), makes a cooking video of her that goes massively viral. — Joshua Rothkopf, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English aouren, adouren, borrowed from Anglo-French aurer, ahourer, adourer (with d restored from Latin), going back to Latin adōrāre "to plead with, appeal to, approach (a god) as a suppliant or worshipper, treat with reverence, admire," from ad- ad- + ōrāre "to pray to, beseech" — more at oration

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for adore

• abhor
• abor
• afore
• ardour
• ashore
• backdoor
• before
• bookstore
• candour
• centaur
• claymore
• decor

Kids Definition

adore

verb

ə-ˈdō(ə)r 

-ˈdȯ(ə)r

adored; adoring

1

: worship entry 2 sense 1

adore God

2

: to be very fond of

adoration

ˌad-ə-ˈrā-shən

noun

adorer

ə-ˈdōr-ər, 

-ˈdȯr-

noun

Etymology

from early French adourer "to adore," from Latin adorare (same meaning), from ad- "to" and orare "to speak, pray" — related to oracle, oration