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
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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
My room was in one of the hotel’s newer wings, where old Dutch masterpieces from the Schörghuber family’s private collection adorned the halls. Siobhan Reid, Travel + Leisure, 4 Oct. 2025 The egg itself sits on a rock-crystal base, which is shaped like a block of melting ice and adorned with even more diamonds and platinum. Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 3 Oct. 2025 Stretching to the pointed edge of the property is a 62-foot-long rectangular infinity pool adorned with mosaic tiles in swirling shapes that mimic the greenish glow of bioluminescence. Katie Schultz, Architectural Digest, 3 Oct. 2025 The attack targeted a Mormon Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, with the gunman driving a pickup truck adorned with American flags into the building before opening fire with an assault rifle, and setting the building on fire. James Bickerton, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for adorn

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of adorn was in the 14th century

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Adorn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adorn. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

Kids Definition

adorn

verb
: to enhance the appearance of with ornaments

More from Merriam-Webster on adorn

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!