adulation

noun ad·u·la·tion \ ˌa-jə-ˈlā-shən , -dyə , -də- \

|Updated on: 24 Jul 2018

Examples: adulation in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of adulation

: excessive or slavish admiration or flattery

enjoys the adulation of his fans

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adulate

play \ˈa-jə-ˌlāt, -dyə-, -də-\ transitive verb

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adulator

play \-ˌlā-tər\ noun

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adulatory

play \-lə-ˌtȯr-ē\ adjective

- adulatory crowds

See adulation defined for English-language learners

Examples of adulation in a Sentence

The rugby player enjoyed the adulation of his fans.
a writer who inspires adulation in her readers

Recent Examples of adulation from the Web

Bring the Noise' is a brilliant song, and Nation of Millions lived up to the adulation that the first album generated.

— ron hart, Billboard, "Public Enemy Talks 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' on Its 30th Anniversary," 30 June 2018
But with that comes more than just respect from his peers and adulation from millions of football fans around the country.

— steve gardner, USA TODAY, "Antonio Brown blames media 'pressure' for his absence from Steelers OTAs," 12 June 2018
Davis, basking in adulation after the Pelicans’ four-game sweep of Portland, took the court in a fury, leaving the Oracle fans gasping in admiration.

— bruce jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle, "As the stars come out, Kevin Durant shines brightest," 28 Apr. 2018
Tutton was visibly moved during his first mini solo spot, but each member received his own distinct timbre of shrill adulation during the group intros.

— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Best and worst of Summerfest Day 4: In Real Life, Kaleo, Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang and more," 30 June 2018
And still have a second left over to soak in the adulation of their adoring maintenance fans.

— sarah bahr, Indianapolis Star, "These maintenance men can fix a toilet in 12 seconds flat, and they're out to compete," 14 June 2018
What matters is adulation received from an emotional display before a packed sea of millionaire lemmings.

— Fox News, "Excitement builds in Singapore over historic meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un," 12 June 2018
His rise to power in 2013 was greeted with popular adulation and hope, but he is believed to have lost much of that support by introducing far-reaching reforms to overhaul the economy that sent prices soaring beyond the reach of many Egyptians.

— hamza hendawi, The Seattle Times, "Egypt editor suggests more presidential terms for el-Sissi," 13 May 2018
Given Donald Trump’s extremely well-known weakness for flattery and, indeed, sycophantic adulation, Netanyahu’s comparison of Trump to the greatest Anglo-American heroes (Balfour and Truman) of Zionist history made sense.

— ed kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "Bibi and the Christian Right Agree: Trump Is the New Cyrus the Great," 5 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adulation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

If "adulation" makes you think of a dog panting after its master, you're on the right etymological track; the word ultimately derives from the Latin verb adulari, meaning "to fawn on" (a sense used specifically of the affectionate behavior of dogs) or "to flatter." "Adulation," which came to us from Latin by way of Old French, can be traced back as far as the 14th century in English. The verb "adulate," the noun "adulator," and the adjective "adulatory" later joined the language.

Origin and Etymology of adulation

Middle English adulacioun "insincere praise, flattery," borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin adūlātiōn-, adūlātiō, from adūlārī "to fawn upon (of dogs), praise insincerely" (of uncertain origin) + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action

Note: On the presumption that it is a denominal verb, Latin adūlārī has been compared with Sanskrit vāla-, vāra- "hair of a horse's tail, horsehair," Lithuanian valaĩ "horse's tail," though this is difficult both semantically and phonetically. More recently, the base of Latin avidus "greedy, eager" has been proposed as a source (see avid), via a prefixed *ad-awido-, syncopated to *ad-audo-, then with the second d dissimilated to l, yielding *adūlo-, "eagerly seeking something, flattering."

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined above

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