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

The bottoms were adorned with allover Swarovski rhinestones. —Angela Velasquez, Sourcing Journal, 9 June 2025

Shops across the city are adorned in green and gold — green for pistachios, gold for the dessert's flakey crust. —Fatma Tanis, NPR, 7 June 2025

Though her face, framed by bold brows and often floral headdresses, frequently adorns everything from mural walls to tote bags, less is known about the making of the artist. —Bailey Berg, AFAR Media, 6 June 2025

Notably in the concert, one orchestra seat is adorned with white roses, in honor of Arek Tesarczyk, the Minnesota Orchestra cellist who passed away last month after a long illness. —Sheila Regan, Twin Cities, 5 June 2025

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

Rhymes for adorn

• airborne
• blackthorn
• broomcorn
• buckhorn
• buckthorn
• careworn
• firstborn
• foodborne
• forborne
• forewarn
• forlorn
• forsworn

Kids Definition

adorn

verb

ə-ˈdȯrn 

: to enhance the appearance of with ornaments