adorn

verb

ə-ˈdȯrn 

adorned; adorning; adorns

transitive verb

1

: to enhance the appearance of especially with beautiful objects

adorned the wall with her paintings

2

: to enliven or decorate as if with ornaments

people of fashion who adorned the Court

Synonyms

• array
• beautify
• bedeck
• bedizen
• blazon
• caparison
• deck
• decorate
• do
• do up
• doll up
• drape
• dress
• embellish
• emblaze
• emboss
• enrich
• fancify
• fancy up
• festoon
• garnish
• glitz (up)
• grace
• gussy up
• ornament
• pretty (up)
• trim

Choose the Right Synonym for adorn

adorn, decorate, ornament, embellish, beautify, deck, garnish mean to enhance the appearance of something by adding something unessential.

adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself.

a diamond necklace adorned her neck

decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design.

decorate a birthday cake

ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original

a white house ornamented with green shutters

, embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament.

embellish a page with floral borders

beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness.

will beautify the grounds with flower beds

deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness.

a house all decked out for Christmas

garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food.

an entrée garnished with parsley

Examples of adorn in a Sentence

Her paintings adorn the walls.

the Sultan's tent was richly adorned with thick tapestries and gleaming gold candlesticks

Recent Examples on the Web

Some are adorned with decals that mimic the 8’’-by-11’’ missing persons posters featuring the hostages that were displayed, and torn down, shortly after the war began. —David Oliver, USA TODAY, 18 Apr. 2024

The walls here are adorned with images of sequined fruit. —Brent Lang, Variety, 18 Apr. 2024

The blouse is adorned with easy-to-use snap buttons that don’t require any meticulous attention to do up nor undo. —Clara McMahon, Peoplemag, 12 Apr. 2024

The clubhouse will be adorned with artwork by local students, and there will be items for sale, including a quilt made by club members to be raffled off in an opportunity drawing. —Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Apr. 2024

The black-lacquered dial of the new Boyfriend Couture is decorated with a sewing pattern for a tweed jacket, complete with diamond buttons, while its bezel is adorned with an 18 karat gold chain — just the right balance of playful and chic. —Sarah Royce-Greensill, CNN, 9 Apr. 2024

Not only will the medals be partly made of metal taken from the Eiffel Tower, organizers announced Tuesday; the landmark itself will be adorned by a 95 foot-long, 49 foot-high structure of the Olympic rings, made with French steel. —Alexander Smith, NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024

The lacquered black dial is adorned with another 11 baguette-cut diamonds for hour markers and shows three Everose subdials at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. —Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 6 Apr. 2024

The delicate, lace-like pattern adorning the entirety of the sweater adds a touch of femininity to any outfit, while the fuzzy texture will feel gentle against the skin — even after a full day of wearing it. —Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 6 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English aournen, adournen, borrowed from Anglo-French aurner, adourner (with d restored from Latin), going back to Latin adōrnāre "to get ready, prepare, decorate, embellish," from ad- ad- + ōrnāre "to prepare, equip, embellish" — more at ornate

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

adorn

verb

ə-ˈdȯrn 

: to enhance the appearance of with ornaments